OKCPS Says Teachers Could Receive COVID Vaccine Next Month

As the metro’s largest school district welcomes some of their students and teachers back to the classroom Tuesday, those with Oklahoma City Public Schools are hopeful their teachers can begin getting the vaccine next month. 

Prior to this, only teachers 65 and older were qualified within the district. But for some, they may not have to wait much longer.

“We were given a target of February 12th, getting our employees vaccinated so we’re grateful that they moved up into phase 2,” said Dr. Sean McDaniel, OKCPS Superintendent.

OKCPS Pre-K through 4th grade returned to the classroom Tuesday morning. McDaniel said this made some concerned.

“Pushback, anxiety, ‘can we just wait until next year?’ We’ve had lots of different conversations,” said McDaniel.

But he said getting more of their teachers vaccinated soon could help ease that tension. The district is working with a private provider, called Passport Health to host a closed clinic for staff at a designated district facility. They also said the vaccines are available from a private source and is not part of the state-allocated vaccine supply.

“It’s about vaccine inventory,” said Keith Reed, OSDH Deputy Commissioner. “I just don’t know when we’ll have enough vaccine inventory that we’ll be able to move to those groups.”

The OSDH said they’re still working to figure out when teachers under 65 can get their shot.

“Predicting a date of when we will be open to teachers at large. It’s way too premature for me to estimate that,” said Reed.

OKCPS also said this is a loose target date as of now and they're still finalizing their plans.