Dear DPS Community:
Thank you for your support and cooperation in helping us have a strong start to the school year. One of the biggest factors has been the steps we’ve taken, following the advice of our health partners, to ensure the safest and healthiest learning conditions at our schools. The two key steps have been a mask mandate for everyone inside DPS schools and buildings and the city’s public health order requiring COVID vaccines for all staff. Those measures, along with your support in following the DPS 5, have maximized the strength of our health conditions and minimized learning disruptions.
The initial deadline for the city’s health order was yesterday, Sept. 30. After running our most recent report this morning, we now have 87% of all DPS staff who have complied with the health order by verifying that they are fully vaccinated. We’re thankful for that support and cooperation from Team DPS, and we continue to follow up and offer help in bringing the remaining staff members into compliance. Please know that employees who are not yet in compliance are continuing to work in DPS, with stronger masking requirements and required weekly COVID testing. There is also a small number of DPS staff, about 3%, who have received approved medical or religious exemptions that bring them into compliance with the health order. These staff members will also be required to follow the extra health precautions because they are not fully vaccinated. That brings our overall rate of compliance with the health order to 90%.
We remain fully committed to helping all of our employees come into full compliance with the health order. We will continue to follow up with those staff members to offer support, as well as to give them a timeline to come into full compliance before they would be in jeopardy of losing their position due to failure to meet the requirements of the public-health order. More information on that timeline can be found on our website.
In collaboration,
Dr. Alex Marrero
Superintendent