DOE absurdly claims that their refusal to report on vaccination rates is due to privacy concerns

UPDATE: the DOE finally released school-wide vaccination rates on Feb. 25, about two months after this data reporting was legally due.  You can download the spreadsheet here, or look up the name of your school here.  

Finally, a media outlet covers the fact that NYC DOE is violating the law when it comes to their refusal to report on student vaccination rates overall and by school.  As Christina Veiga of Chalkbeat writes,

How many New York City public school students are vaccinated?

Education department officials won’t say, even though they use those statistics to determine how many students to test for COVID at each school. The city has not provided school-level vaccination rates despite a City Council law that requires the department to do so. The city also missed its Wednesday deadline in responding to Chalkbeat’s public records request for the data.

That information is particularly relevant now, as Gov. Kathy Hochul weighs whether to end school mask mandates. A decision is expected in early March, and vaccination rates are one of the factors Hochul has said she will consider.

We wrote about the fact that the DOE refuses to release this mandated data according to Local Law 152 last Sunday.

 DOE claims to Chalkbeat that the delay is due to student privacy concerns:

New York City education department officials said they are making sure to comply with any student privacy laws before releasing school-level vaccination information. “This is sensitive data and we are currently working to balance transparency with the privacy of our students prior to the release of this data,” said education department spokesperson Nathaniel Styer.

As a privacy advocate who co-founded the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy seven years ago, I can safely say that this is an absurd excuse, as vaccination rates contain NO personally identifiable student info.  It is especially absurd given how the DOE continues to violate the state student privacy law every day.

 

Why is NYC refusing to report vax rates in schools as required by law, & doing little to increase those numbers?

UPDATE: the DOE finally released school-wide vaccination rates on Feb. 25, about two months after it was legally due.  You can download the spreadsheet here, or look up the name of your school here. 

Given all the debate over whether the mask mandate in schools should be lifted or remain in place, it is more important than ever that all NYC public school students age five and up who are eligible are vaccinated. 

We actually don't even know how many are: the only available data pertains to all children: those  5-11 years old are  about 33%  fully vaccinated, and those 12-17 year olds about 76%, according to state data.  The city  has similar figures: 39% for children ages 5-12 and 77% for children ages 13 to 17.  However, doesn't tell us what the vaccination rate for public school students, either citywide or for individual schools.

Yet Local Law 152 was approved by the DOE in November of 2021 and came into force in mid-January,.  The law requires DOE to report on vaccination rates, as well as  consent rates for Covid testing and much other data, both citywide and by individual school as well as disaggregated by race, ethnicity etc.   

Here is an excerpt from the law:

To the extent such information is collected, no later than 15 days after the effective date of
this local law, and every two weeks thereafter, the chancellor shall conspicuously post on the
department’s website a report that includes the following information, aggregated citywide and
disaggregated by school, for the previous two weeks:

1. The number and percentage of students partially vaccinated for COVID-19 in attendance;
2. The number and percentage of students partially and fully vaccinated for COVID-19;
3. The number of COVID-19 student testing consent forms received by the department that are
deemed valid and unexpired as of the end of the reporting period, and the total number of students
who were unvaccinated as of the end of the reporting period;
4. The number of COVID-19 student testing consent forms withdrawn; and
5. The number of unvaccinated students required to quarantine due to exposure in school to an
individual who tested positive for COVID-19, further disaggregated by students, teachers,
administrators, and other school staff.
d. To the extent such information is collected, the aggregated and disaggregated information
required weekly pursuant to subdivision b of this section shall also be further disaggregated by
grade level, gender, race or ethnicity, individualized education program status, English language learner status, status as a student residing in shelter and status as a student in temporary housing
that is not a shelter.
e. No later than 30 days after the effective date of this local law, and monthly thereafter, the
chancellor shall conspicuously post on the department’s website the aggregated and disaggregated
information required pursuant to subdivision c of this section, further disaggregated by grade level,
gender, race or ethnicity, individualized education program status, English language learner status,
status as a student residing in shelter and status as a student in temporary housing that is not a
shelter, to the extent such information is collected.

Yet the DOE has so far refused to release this data, as far as I know.  Why is this important? 

The city is spending millions of dollars on TV ads encouraging parents to have their children vaccinated.  Yesterday, I asked parents and teachers on Twitter the following question:

I see a lot of TV ads urging people to get their kids vaccinated, but NYC teachers & parents- have you seen any real focused efforts in your schools? Examples: calls home, backpack mail, Vax sites established in schools, collaboration with PTAs or SLTs?

— leonie haimson (@leoniehaimson) February 12, 2022

You can see the answers on Twitter. Most responders said their schools had done nothing to encourage parents to have their children vaccinated. One teacher said the principal had taken advantage of a vaccination clinic at a co-located school to get a booster, but hadn't informed the students or staff at their school of any such opportunities.  And one teacher actually said that DOE has discouraged them from even mentioning the vaccination issue to their students:

Nope, and NYCDOE legal advises admin (who then advises us) to avoid sharing our “opinions” about vaccines with students/discussing them in general.

— I 🛏 My 📱 (@CheeElle4) February 12, 2022

What a loss.  This should be the top safety priority of schools going forward over the next few weeks.  

New Orleans now requires vaccination of ALL students; DC has mandated vaccinations in its schools by March 1. 

The very least the DOE should do is provide the legally-required data for public school students, both citywide and  in individual schools, and make focused efforts in the schools where rates are low to persuade parents that vaccination is in the best interest of their children, their families, and their schools.