Governor Kathy Hochul announced she would mandate masks in schools, but also wanted to enforce a vaccine and testing mandate for staff.
As her staff meets with education advocacy groups, questions have been raised wondering who will pay for tests, what types of tests will be utilized, and where they will take place.
The New York State Health Department announced before Andrew Cuomo’s resignation that they could not legally enforce guidelines because the state of emergency was lifted on June 25.
So that leads to people wondering how Hochul could enforce vaccines and testing.
Hochul told CBS This Morning that she can’t mandate vaccines but she can mandate testing for teachers.
She said that before she became governor she spoke with parents, superintendents, and school boards with most saying they wanted the state to step in, especially with mask mandates.
At the moment, $335 million dollars in federal stimulus funds have been distributed to counties outside New York City for testing.
There is no data for how many teachers are vaccinated, but districts can ask. They need to keep the information confidential though.
The Hudson Valley says most of their districts have teachers that are vaccinated.
NYSUT, the teachers union for the state, supports the testing but is against a vaccine mandate.
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