Nearly all school-age children are now eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine. The Lower Kuskokwim School District is working with the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation to offer the vaccines in schools. The student vaccination effort is underway while COVID-19 is still disrupting classrooms in a big way.
Several months into the school year, Lower Kuskokwim School District Superintendent Kimberly Hankins says that students are rotating in and out of school.
“We have averaged between 5% and 8.5% of our total student population, on any given week, being out of school for quarantine,” Hankins said.
Those aren’t all students who are COVID-19-positive themselves. The group in quarantine also includes students who were a close contact or returned from out-of-region travel. Hankins said that she did not have the number of students who have tested positive since the beginning of the school year.
The Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation has said that less than 5% of cases amongst children are being transmitted in schools. Overall cases in the region are still high, around what they were last winter. Hankins says that’s created yet another challenging year for teachers.
“You have your students who are in person learning full time, you have students who have opted for full time remote. And then on top of that, you layer in students who are periodically absent due to quarantine. So it is a lot. Our teachers are carrying a lot on their plates,” Hankins said.
Hankins is hoping that with the availability of vaccines for children ages five to 11, schools can get closer to normalcy. YKHC began offering COVID-19 vaccines to students in LKSD schools at the beginning of November. Hankins said that the health corporation has made its first round of vaccinations to nearly all the schools in the district. Students older than five are all eligible, as well as any non-student.
“We've also partnered with them to just provide this space where, you know, members of the community, if they're interested in the vaccine, can come in and also receive it at that time as well,” Hankins said.
She said students who are quarantining at the time vaccines are being offered in schools may have to wait for the next round of in-school vaccinations or schedule a vaccination with YKHC separately.
YKHC is also traveling to other school districts around the Y-K Delta to offer vaccines.
Hankins herself is vaccinated. She said that her two school-age children are getting vaccinated. And although she says it is a family’s choice, she is encouraging parents to get their children vaccinated.
“I think a vaccine is an additional protective factor that can help keep our kids safe in school and help keep our COVID-19 numbers at bay,” Hankins said.
Even though schools are open in-person, as long as COVID-19 numbers stay high, students won’t be able to return to normal.
