Childcare Staff Vaccination Plans

This weekend the state, and more importantly Fairfax County, has opened up vaccination for group 1b! This is exciting news because childcare center workers (and teachers) are included in this priority group. The state has outlined the following priority queue within group 1b:

1. Police, Fire, and Hazmat

2. Corrections and homeless shelter workers

3. Childcare/K-12 Teachers/Staff

4. Food and Agriculture (including Veterinarians)

5. Manufacturing

6. Grocery store workers

7. Public transit workers

8. Mail carriers (USPS and private)

9. Officials needed to maintain continuity of government

Currently, vaccination for groups 1 and 2 are beginning this week, with the coordination for 1b group 3 beginning on January 16th.

Common Ground is still in the tentative planning phase, however our priorities are:

• equitable access for all staff members to vaccination

• the ability to get staff vaccinated as quickly as possible

• the time for staff to work through any vaccine hesitancy with their personal physician prior to our vaccination day(s)

With this in mind, we are hoping to get the entire staff vaccinated on the same day (two - both doses 21-28 days apart depending on the vaccine) which will necessitate closing the center for two “vaccination teacher work days” due to the fact that classroom pods cannot operate if they are missing a staff member.

We do not have dates for this yet, but will communicate as quickly as we can so that you can make arrangements for possible closure days. We thank you for your continued support of Common Ground and our efforts to protect our community.