On Wednesday, September 15, the Prince William County School Board unanimously adopted the Resolution For Safe Learning and a Safe Workplace. According to the Resolution of the Prince William County School Board Ensuring Safe Learning and a Safe Workplace, this means that all employees of Prince William County Schools must either disclose their vaccination status, or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing (and disclose the results of the tests) to the Department of Human Resources. New teachers have 30 days to disclose this information from when they are hired.

The reason behind the Resolution is the protection of the health of students.  There are thousands of students who are in Elementary and Middle schools in the county who are unable to be vaccinated and who are still vulnerable to the virus. The Virginia Department of Health’s Interim Guidance for COVID-19 Prevention in Virginia PreK-12 Schools, states that having faculty and staff who are fully vaccinated is key to preventing the spread of the COVID-19 virus. In the first week of school, we had 150 cases of COVID in Prince William County Schools according to the  PWCS COVID Dashboard; so far in September, we have had 280 cases. These are the reasons that the Superintendent and the School Board were in favor of the Resolution.