The Nebraska State Education Education Association released the letter below calling on Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts and officials within the Department of Health and Human Services to clarify the 10-percent rule.
February 12, 2021
Governor Pete Ricketts; Danette Smith, HHS Director; District Health Department Directors
Dear Governor Ricketts, Ms. Smith and Directors:
Our educators have performed heroically as COVID-19 has spread across our state: they completely changed their method of lesson delivery last spring; they have endured teaching remotely; they have worked through schools opening to in-person teaching and learning and then closing due to quarantines; and they learned to effectively juggle simultaneously teaching in-person and remote learners.
Many of our school employees have also suffered from COVID-19 themselves. Others have been asked to return to school rather than quarantine, even when they or family members have exhibited symptoms. They have risen to the challenge because of their commitment to children and public education. Now it is time for our state leadership to recognize this heroic work by prioritizing educators, especially those above age 65 and those with co-morbidities, to be vaccinated.
We were pleased when Governor Ricketts and DHHS Incident Commander Angie Ling said in multiple press reports that 10 percent of the vaccine doses would be set aside for infrastructure workers, including school employees. Our hope was that this 10 percent would be set aside across the state and that health districts would begin work to develop a plan to distribute that 10 percent to school employees and other infrastructure workers.
Unfortunately, our research on this distribution has found that this is not being done uniformly and educators are being bypassed. Some health districts have been excellent at setting aside the 10 percent. Others have completely ignored the directive or have not yet devised a specific plan that is being communicated effectively.
We ask for your help on two issues:
- Our experience is that some Health Districts are unaware of or are not implementing the 10 percent set-aside for infrastructure We are asking that you reinforce to health districts and pharmacies that 10 percent of the vaccine doses are to be set aside for infrastructure workers in group 1B, including school employees.
- We ask that you direct Public Health Districts to coordinate with school districts to immunize school employees over the age of 65, and those with co-morbidities, within the next two
We stand ready to work with you to help implement these ideas. We appreciate your attention to this very important effort to vaccinate as many school employees as possible, as quickly as possible. Thank you for your work.
Sincerely,
Jenni Benson Maddie Fennell
President Executive Director