Dear Gov. Baker and Secretary Sudders:

We urge you to adopt and implement plans to ensure that all educators and school staff in Massachusetts can receive COVID-19 vaccines prior to reopening elementary and secondary schools to full, in-person learning.

Everyone agrees that it is in the best interest of students to return to classrooms that allow them to interact with their peers, socialize, and receive direct support and instruction from school professionals. The question is: how do we do that safely and in a manner that increases public confidence and trust that our schools are, in fact, safe?

To achieve those goals, please immediately implement three critical actions:

1. Approve the Last Mile plan proposed by the Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts and Mascon Medical to vaccinate our state’s educators and school staff. The plan, supported by the organizations representing our school staff and educators, is the surest path to quick, efficient, and accessible vaccination. In addition, the state should approve other local efforts to vaccinate educators and essential workers close to their workplaces, providing minimal disruption to school services.

2. Adopt a flexible calendar for reopening school districts that reflects the reality that some districts will be ready to reopen faster than others. The goal should be to reopen as soon can be done safely and not according to an arbitrary deadline.

3. Provide presumptive approval for waivers submitted to DESE to maintain remote learning. School districts that need to maintain remote learning status should not need to jump through hoops to do so.

Recent approval of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine suggests that the state’s supply of vaccines will increase over the coming weeks. Implementing the steps outlined above will ensure that we can take

advantage of increased supply when it arrives while also providing assurance to schools and families that the restart of in-person learning will happen as safely and successfully as possible.

Yours in service,

Senator Becca Rausch, 

Norfolk, Bristol and Middlesex

and 54 other