Aug. 2, 2021
Information on City Health Order and Vaccine Requirement
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Dear Team DPS,

I wanted to give you a brief update on new health requirements announced today. Mayor Michael Hancock and the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment just released a public health order this morning that includes new requirements on COVID-19 vaccinations. The health order applies to all city employees and employees working in certain designated industries such as schools, child care, hospitals, and many more. This includes both public and private education agencies. It calls for all personnel in these fields to be fully vaccinated by Sept. 30. The vaccine requirement applies to all DPS employees, all charter school employees, contractors, and community members who volunteer in schools. There will be exemptions for medical or religious reasons.

We are in close contact and coordination with city leadership and DDPHE on this issue, and we will have more information and guidance to share with you on our comprehensive health procedures and requirements, including masks, in the coming days.

Based on the most recent CDC data, our partners at Denver Health have assured us that getting vaccinated is the single most important thing you can do to protect yourself and those around you. The COVID-19 vaccinations provide more protection than any other public-health strategy. There have been 346 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered across the U.S., with more than 50% of the U.S. population fully vaccinated. In Colorado, approximately 70% of the adult population has been vaccinated, as well as roughly 60% of teens in Denver. (The vaccine is not yet approved for those under the age of 12.) Information on the safety of the vaccine can be found at CDC.gov.

The vaccine is free and available to anyone in Colorado 12 years old and older. To get your vaccine, you can visit Denver Health clinics on a walk-in basis, or visit the State of Colorado’s vaccine website for more locations. 

I understand this new health order raises many questions and concerns, and many team members may be wondering what this means for them. We will navigate this process together, with support and understanding, as we work toward taking the necessary measures to ensure the safest and healthiest conditions in all of our schools and buildings for our children, staff, and families. We are entirely focused on support and collaboration to make that happen. We will work with every single one of our team members to make sure they have the support and time they need to get vaccinated or to apply for an accommodation. We will also work with all of our employee associations to assure that our employees have clear and fair procedures on how we will be implementing this city order.

We will share details and updates with you as we get them, and we are currently building an FAQ for our team members that will be shared soon. If you have general questions about the new health order, please submit them by completing this form, which we will use to update our FAQ regularly. If you wish to submit a question about your own situation directly to Human Resources, please send an email here.

Thank you for your work on behalf of our scholars and our community, and I will be back in touch with you soon.

In collaboration,
Dr. Alex Marrero
Superintendent
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