USD 489 Head Start vaccinations up, despite blocked mandate

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

President Joe Biden's vaccine mandate for all Head Start employees was blocked by a federal judge Saturday.

However, it will likely have little effect on Hays USD 489.

In anticipation of the mandate, the district implemented its own vaccine policy in November.

As of Tuesday, Superintendent Ron Wilson said 97 percent of the staff had either been vaccinated against COVID-19 or received a religious or medical exemption.

He wrote in an email no employees had been fired or transferred as a result of the policy.

Wilson said the program will continue to follow the USD 489 Mitigation Strategies. The Office of Head Start has advised USD 489 that programs in the litigation (including Kansas) do not need to comply with the Interim Final Rule pending future developments in the litigation.

A Louisiana federal judge ruled Saturday the Biden administration unlawfully bypassed Congress when ordering  workers in Head Start programs be vaccinated by Jan. 31 and that students 2 years or older be masked when indoors or when in close contact outdoors, according to the Associated Press.

Head Start is federally funded. It serves children who are younger than 6 and come from low-income families.

Kansas was one of 24 states that sued to block the mandate.

The federal government could appeal to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, according to the AP.

Wilson said in his email Tuesday, "Should the vaccine mandate for Head Start employees require us to enforce at some point, we feel we have taken the necessary steps to ensure that all of our employees are prepared for this mandate."

The mandate would have affected 90 people. About 54 percent of the staff had been vaccinated as of Nov. 22. Wilson said in his email the vaccine policy passed by the USD 489 board increased the vaccination rate among staff.

As COVID-19 cases continue to surge across the United States, Ellis County reported 77 new cases and an additional death since Dec. 29.

Wilson was asked if he had any concerns about children returning to school after Christmas break.

"I think we always have had concerns about coming back from any break that we have had since we have started dealing with COVID, so this will be no different," he said. "We will continue to monitor what is happening in our schools daily and make the best decisions on how to control any potential spread of the COVID virus."