Gov. Baker Makes Teachers Eligible for COVID-19 Vaccination

A day after public officials ramped up pressure to vaccinate teachers and President Joe Biden called for every educator to get their first shot by the end of March, Gov. Charlie Baker toured an elementary school in Gloucester this morning where he announced all teachers will be eligible for the vaccine starting on March 11.

Last week Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Jeff Rielly announced he wants elementary it's time to begin the process of getting more students back into classrooms and his goal is to make that happen by April.

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On Feb. 23 Rielly informed the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education that he plans to ask for the authority to determine when hybrid and remote school models no longer count for learning hours, as part of a broader plan to return more students to physical school buildings.

Riley continued by saying he would take a "phased approach to returning students into the classrooms, working closely with state health officials and medical experts." He said his plan would focus on elementary school students first, with the initial goal of having them learning in-person five days a week this April.

A group of 21 lawmakers sent a letter to Baker requesting teachers be eligible for vaccinations. “Now that all public schools are to be in-person by April 1st, we are requesting that the approximately 72,000 public school teachers, as well as school administrators and staff be given the recently approved one shot Johnson and Johnson vaccine so that when they are forced back into the classroom by DESE it is safe,” the letter said.