February 24, 2021: Since this release was issued, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services has established an alternate process for allocating vaccine over the next six weeks for all staff in Wisconsin’s public and private K-12 schools and child care programs. This is an effort to advance vaccination of K-12 education and child care staff as a priority population while simultaneously continuing to ensure vaccination of critical health care workers and individuals over the age of 65. Because of this new allocation model, we will not be receiving the 7,000 doses we requested for educators the week of March 1. We will remain in close contact with school administrators about the school staff vaccination plan.

A new public/private collaborative will help ensure teachers and school staff across Dane County receive the COVID-19 vaccine in the coming weeks, Public Health Madison & Dane County announced today. Under the new partnership, Public Health and local health care providers will join forces to vaccinate school staff at Dane County’s Alliant Energy Center in the month of March.

Public Health has requested 7,000 doses of vaccine for the week of March 1 and 7,000 doses for the week of March 8 for K-12 staff. Depending on available supply, the effort is expected to take 6-8 weeks and will include weekends when teachers and staff are not in the classroom.

“We’re happy to lead the effort to vaccinate teachers at the Alliant Energy Center. We all want kids in classrooms and vaccinated teachers are one more way that schools can protect the health and safety of staff and students,” said Janel Heinrich, Director of Public Health Madison & Dane County.

School administrators will be providing information to their staff when it is their turn to be vaccinated. There is no action that school staff need to take at this time.

“This clinic exemplifies how a community gets through challenging times – partners coming together around a shared desire to make schools safer for teachers and kids,” County Executive Joe Parisi said. “Vaccine clinics like this are part of the path out of this pandemic.” 

If your school district already has an on-site vaccine clinic scheduled in partnership with SSM Health in your community, that will continue as planned.

Public Health and healthcare providers across the county have been working together to vaccinate frontline healthcare workers and people 65 and older. To date, over 15% of Dane County residents have been vaccinated in the last two months.

“Dane County vaccinators have given 120,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine to our family members, neighbors, and friends. Creating a streamlined approach to make sure our community educators are vaccinated next benefits everyone in the community,” said City of Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway.    

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services has indicated that school staff are eligible March 1, but this is dependent on vaccine supply. Additional groups are tentatively eligible for vaccine beginning March 1, but school staff are among those prioritized within this group. Limited vaccine supply in January and February has made it difficult for vaccinators to meet current demand.

In addition to this effort to vaccinate school staff, area vaccinators will continue vaccinating frontline healthcare workers and people 65 and older as quickly as possible.

Healthcare partners assisting in this effort include: Access Community Health Centers, Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin, SSM Health, Stoughton Health, UnityPoint Health ‒ Meriter, UW Health, and University Health Services, University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Public Health Madison & Dane County is also actively working on plans to vaccinate childcare providers on the same timeline as K-12 school staff.