OSPI Announces ‘Get Ready’ Plan as State Preps for School Employees

The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction unveiled the 'Get Ready' plan Friday, a strategy to build vaccination capacity for when school staff under 65 become vaccine eligible under Phase 1B-2 of the state's vaccine schedule.

The plan is being facilitated through a partnership with Kaiser Permanente.

Reykdal said with 1.5 million people in the current phase (1B-1), Phase 1B-2 is likely five to six weeks away.

"The bottom line is a vaccine is a tremendous safety net, but it is never the thing that is going to create the perfect scenario." explained Reykdal, "Our schools are safe today when the follow the protocols in opening, particularly in K-5 because the health profile of young people is so different than the health profile of adults."

Reykdal also implored any school employee currently eligible for a vaccine to get it soon to provide some relief for when the remaining school personnel get vaccinated. There are 143,000 public and 12,000 private school employees in Washington State.

While many areas of the west side of the state and the Spokane area contain Kaiser Permanente assets, the company is not represented in Central Washington. Reykdal said OSPI and Kaiser Permanente will work with other, unidentified entities down the line to build capacity in any region that currently lacks Kaiser Permanente services.

OSPI will soon build a page on their website that will have additional information regarding vaccinations.