NEW YORK – New York City’s mandate that all school personnel be vaccinated by Sept. 27 has a new hurdle after a federal appeals court issued a temporary injunction three days before the mayor’s deadline. .
The workers’ mandate for the nation’s largest school system was due to take effect on Monday. But on Friday night, a judge with the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit granted a temporary injunction and referred the case to a three-judge panel on an expedited basis.
Education Department spokeswoman Danielle Filson said officials are seeking a speedy resolution from the circuit court next week.
“We are confident that our vaccination mandate will continue to be met once all the facts have been presented, because that is the level of protection that our students and staff deserve,” Filson said in an email.
The city’s chancellor confirmed the ruling in a memo to staff on Saturday morning, adding that she expects a final ruling on the mandate next week.
“While this means that the current weekly testing or vaccination mandate remains in effect during the week of September 27 for all staff, we must continue to prepare for the possibility of the vaccination mandate going into effect later in the week,” Chancellor Meisha Porter said.
Unvaccinated staff still need to test weekly for COVID-19 and submit their results to the district, the chancellor said.
The ruling marks the latest hurdle between the city and unions representing educators and staff in the nation’s largest school district.
A coalition of unions filed a lawsuit against the mandate and requested the court order against its implementation. State Supreme Court Justice Laurence Love implemented the first TRO last week, but removed it in his ruling Wednesday.
Judge Love said he initially ordered the injunction because the city’s original injunction said nothing about medical or religious exemptions, but said the city subsequently released language that said nothing in the injunction would prohibit accommodations that are legally required. .
He said that eliminated the need for the court order and also doubted that the unions could finally succeed in their claim that their due process rights were being violated.
“State and federal courts have consistently held that the requirement for a mandatory vaccination does not violate substantive due process rights and falls properly within the policing power of the state,” Love wrote.
The city mandate that teachers and staff get vaccinated is relatively rare in the United States. Other states and districts have imposed rules that require weekly vaccinations or tests for the virus.
Unlike other school districts, New York City does not offer remote instruction this school year, despite concerns about the ability of the highly contagious delta variant to spread. De Blasio has said that children should return to school for their physical and mental health and social development.
Concerns that the city’s vaccination mandate would leave the nation’s largest school district with thousands of teachers out of work in the first weeks of the school year are unfounded, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday.
The mayor believes that the high demand for substitute teachers during the previous school year triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic prepared the district to bring in replacement educators with just a moment’s notice. He told Brian Lehrer in his weekly radio appearance that families should not worry about the disappearance of the last teachers and staff after the vaccination mandate begins Monday.
“We’ve talked about all of this since last year, we had an extraordinary recruiting effort last year when we did it – obviously last year we had about 25 percent of our teachers at home in medical accommodation. We had to recruit a huge amount. of new teachers. We did that. They are vaccinated. They are available, they are ready, “de Blasio said at WNYC.
“I think the bottom line here is that a lot will happen between now and Monday, but beyond that, we are ready even for the sum of, if we need thousands, we have thousands.”
By the UFT’s own estimates, roughly 6,000 members had not been vaccinated by Monday’s deadline. Of that group, about 3,000 had applied for a medical exemption; De Blasio said a few hundred had been approved.
However, unions representing the district’s teachers and principals are not so convinced.
“The UFT and the principals union want to help schools address staffing issues, but the DOE has not even been able to share basic information with us about where the shortage will be most acute,” UFT tweeted on Friday.
