Nearly 1,000 TDSB employees who have not been immunized against COVID-19 still work at schools pending waivers – Toronto

There are nearly 1,000 unvaccinated staff members of the Toronto School Board (TDSB) currently working in schools pending a medical or religious COVID-19 waiver.

The board posted the workers’ ‘vaccination status’ shortly and confirmed to Global News that 920 staff are working in the schools pending the waivers.

In total, there are 1,093 TDSB employees working both on-campus and off-campus awaiting exemptions.

“We continue to review requests for waivers based on faith and health, however they are complex and in many cases have required us to gather additional information from employees,” a TDSB spokesperson said. Ryan Bird said on Wednesday.

“Final decisions on many of these requests will be shared in the coming weeks.”

Teachers awaiting a waiver must undergo rapid antigen testing three times a week according to the Department of Education.

At the end of November, the TDSB said it had granted 290 workers temporary exemptions, most of which are school-based employees, including special needs aides and pre-school educators. point. The rest of about 620 unvaccinated workers have been placed on administrative leave.

The TDSB is one of the few boards that implement their own policy. Workers who say they have not been immunized have until November 19 to receive the vaccine or receive unpaid leave. For those who received a dose before November 19, they were given an extra month to receive a second dose.

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