Month: January 2022

The city Department of Education has axed another 850 teachers and classroom aids — bringing the total to nearly 2,000 school employees fired for failure to comply with a vaccine mandate struck down in court.

About 1,300 DOE employees who took a year’s unpaid leave — with benefits — agreed to show proof of COVID vaccination by Sept. 5 or be “deemed to have voluntarily resigned.”

Of those staffers, 450 got a shot by the deadline and “are returning to their prior schools or work locations,” DOE officials told The Post. They include some 225 teachers and 135 paraprofessionals.

The 850 let go makes roughly 1,950 DOE staffers terminated since the vaccine mandate took effect on Oct. 29, 2021.

Rachelle Garcia, an elementary school teacher in Brooklyn for 15 years and mother of two, worked fully in person during the pandemic and never got sick, she said.

But she refused

Are you ready for your child’s first day of school?

Public school starts Aug. 16 in Broward and Aug. 17 in Miami-Dade.

Here’s what parents and students should know:

Will breakfast and lunch be free?

Breakfast is free for all students in Miami-Dade and Broward public schools. Miami-Dade’s public school district is also giving free lunch to all students again this year.

The district said it will rely on funding this year from a federal program called Community Eligibility Provision, which reimburses schools and school districts for meals in low-income areas. Last year, South Florida school districts relied on a now-expired USDA waiver to provide free lunch to students.

In Broward, some students, but not all, will get free lunch.

Broward’s public school district said it can provide free lunch to students at 167 schools through the funding it will get from the Community Eligibility Provision program. Broward Schools said