HoLa And Other NJ Charter Schools Release Letter About Vaccines

Press release from NJ Charters:

Aug. 20, 2021

As a new school year of in-person learning fast approaches, New Jersey public charter schools released an open letter urging their communities to get vaccinated in light of the continued threat of COVID-19 and the new, deadly Delta variant. Now the dominant strain of COVID in the U.S., the Delta variant is highly transmissible, more resistant even to those who are already vaccinated, and poses an especially dangerous threat to the unvaccinated, according to recent reports. With this new dangerous strain on the rise, medical experts have increased the urgency of their message to Americans to get vaccinated and protect themselves.

In this ongoing national crisis, the needs of students and the threat to their education is a priority of utmost importance. Students across the nation have experienced unimaginable hardships since March of 2020 and the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and getting as many people vaccinated as possible is the best way to save lives and keep the return to vital in-person education on track.

To this end, the open letter released by a collection of New Jersey public charter schools promotes vaccination so that students can return to the safe and meaningful education that New Jersey schools strive to provide for all students.

The full text of the Open Letter to the New Jersey Communities about COVID-19 Vaccinations is below.

An Open Letter to Our New Jersey Communities about COVID-19 Vaccinations:

This past school year was unlike any other over the last century. So many of the families we, as educators, serve were hit disproportionately hard from the pandemic. Our school communities had to rally together, overcome obstacles, and ensure the needs of every student were met. From closing the digital divide, to delivering meals, to going door to door to drop off instructional materials, to adapting to new mediums for instruction and at all hours, to providing social-emotional support for our communities, educators and schools everywhere had to weather unprecedented challenges.

In this international crisis, students came first.

But as we all prepare for the next school-year, the pandemic is not yet in the rearview mirror. The new Delta variant is spreading rapidly across America, having reached nearly every state in the country. Far more transmittable, the public health threats to our nation are real, particularly among the unvaccinated. That means so too is the threat of educational disruption to our children. And while we will continue to meet our students wherever they need us, we must do everything we can to ensure a full recovery for every one of our students and their academic growth.

We can do that by collectively embracing the COVID-19 vaccines.

That’s why we’re writing this open letter to our school and local communities: to encourage everyone to protect themselves, our students, and those cities and townships we serve from the virus by getting their shot.

Getting vaccinated is, first and foremost, about saving lives and preventing tragedy. The COVID-19 vaccine has proven extremely effective in New Jersey, and the crisis is morphing into a pandemic of the unvaccinated. Hospitalizations for COVID-19 are now virtually all among unvaccinated New Jerseyans.

But the public health impact reverberates across our state, affecting children across New Jersey and their future. The academic obstacles for all children nationwide are great, and the road back to normalcy for students everywhere is arduous. All children -- regardless of the type of public school they attend – deserve to be in the classroom five days per week, uninterrupted, next school-year. They desperately need in-person learning, which is undoubtedly the best form of instruction.

You can help them by getting vaccinated.

We know that nearly 70% of New Jersey adults are fully vaccinated against COVID, putting New Jersey at one of the highest vaccination rates in the country. But while these are promising numbers, we must do more – both for the safety of members of our communities, but also to ensure our students can and will remain safely in school permanently, despite the variants, in the year ahead.

We understand that questions for many across New Jersey abound. Is the vaccine safe to take? Will there be any long-term side effects? If my eligible child has asthma, will she or he have a negative reaction to the vaccine? What if I have already had COVID, should I still get a shot? There are important questions that parents, teachers, and communities have about the vaccine and its safety. We urge everyone to trust the science and speak with someone who they trust, whether it be a doctor or other medical provider, or a vaccinated family member or close friend, about their decision to get vaccinated. And once any lingering concerns have been addressed, please trust the science and schedule your vaccination appointment.

It’s critical to your protection – and to all children’s academic recovery.

We are just beginning to come back from the pandemic, and it’s incumbent upon all of us to support children in our neighborhoods with the tools they need to overcome the academic roadblocks that have been put in their way since the pandemic first arrived. And with the Delta variant spreading across the country quickly, it will be more important than ever to maximize in-person learning time for our kids.

That’s why we’re encouraging everyone not just in our school communities, but also across New Jersey, to learn the facts, seek answers, and get their shot. Your health and safety, as well as the academic interests of our students’, are depending on it, and there is no more urgent time than the present to get one of the COVID-19 vaccines.

Sincerely,

Camden’s Charter School Network

Foundation Academies

Hoboken Dual Language Charter School

This press release was produced by NJ Charters. The views expressed here are the author's own.