New Jersey’s prekindergarten though grade 12 personnel and all employees at the state’s public colleges and universities must be fully vaccinated by Oct. 18 or undergo regular COVID-19 testing, Gov. Phil Murphy said Aug. 23 during his media briefing.
“As we move forward over the coming weeks to implement this order, we expect that district leaders will work collaboratively and directly with local union leadership on smoothing out operational or other logistical aspects, especially if there’s a need for larger-scale testing of workers over the next couple of months,” Murphy said.
“Once again, Gov. Murphy has shown courage by making this difficult decision to require vaccination or regular testing for all prekindergarten-to-12 personnel and public college-university employees,” said AFTNJ President Donna M. Chiera. “He’s putting politics aside and placing their health and safety and that of their communities as his top priority. Students do best academically and socially in classrooms, and requiring school personnel to be vaccinated or tested greatly contributes to the safest learning environment possible. That said, with the rise in breakthrough COVID-19 cases and the spread of the delta variant, we’re hopeful that testing of vaccinated individuals is the next safety protocol put into effect at New Jersey’s PreK-12 schools, colleges and universities so they can stay open throughout the 2021-22 school year.”
Chiera added, “Safety protocols had been inconsistent across our state’s institutions of higher learning, and we’re pleased that the governor’s vaccination/testing decision extends to this level. And while these requirements will go into effect in October, another should be implemented immediately: a higher-education mask mandate for personnel and students. Many of our higher education institutions start their fall semesters this week, and we hope that the governor contacts all university presidents as soon as possible to issue this requirement.”