Student Well-Being

NYC School Vaccination Study Shows Differences Based on Race and Community

By Alyson Klein — September 15, 2022 2 min read
Vaccine record.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Average vaccination rates for students in New York City public schools—the nation’s largest school district—varied greatly by race and ethnicity, the borough where students live, and the part of the city where a school is located, according to a new study.

But the racial and geographic data held some surprises, and may raise more questions than they answer, one researcher said.

Schools serving a majority of Asian and Hispanic students had the highest average COVID-19 vaccination rates, the researchers found. About two-thirds of students received the vaccine in majority Asian schools, while a little more than half of students in schools serving mostly Hispanic students—54 percent— got the shots.

The picture was different for schools where the majority of students are either Black or white. Those schools had average vaccination rates of 44 percent.

Schools in Staten Island had the lowest vaccination rate, at 39 percent. Roughly three-quarters of the total population of Staten Island is white.

Notably, schools serving a majority of white students in two boroughs—Brooklyn and Manhattan—had much higher vaccination rates than schools serving mostly white kids in the other three boroughs. In Manhattan, those schools had a vaccination rate of nearly 62 percent, while majority white schools had an average rate of 49 percent in Brooklyn. The percentages were a lot lower in the Bronx (34 percent), Queens (29 percent), and Staten Island (25 percent).

‘Is it about trust in the public health system? Is it about politics?’

The study also found that middle school students, who have been eligible for the vaccine longer than elementary school kids, tended to be vaccinated at a higher rate than the younger children, with 65 percent of middle schoolers vaccinated compared with 39 percent of elementary students.

Although the higher average results for schools serving a majority of Asian students mirrors some national data showing high vaccination rates for Asian adults, some of the differences—particularly the local geographic differences among whites living in different parts of the same city—may point to areas ripe for further study, said Brian Elbel, a professor in the departments of population health and medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and the lead investigator for the study.

“I think that shows us that these patterns are not always going to be simple and straightforward,” he said in an interview. “We are going to need to do a lot more work to really understand what’s behind them. Is it about availability [of the vaccine]? Is it about trust in the public health system? Is it about politics? I mean, I think there’s lots of things that could be kind of driving some of this.”

Though New York City is unique in its size and demographics, pockets of it closely resemble those in large urban areas throughout the country, Elbel said. Further probing the New York data may help researchers find answers about vaccination rates among children in other U.S. cities.

In addition to NYU, the study was conducted by Syracuse University, University of Delaware, and the New York CityDepartment of Health and Mental Hygiene. It was published Sept. 15 in the journal JAMA Network Open online.

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Equity & Diversity Webinar
Classroom Strategies for Building Equity and Student Confidence
Shape equity, confidence, and success for your middle school students. Join the discussion and Q&A for proven strategies.
Content provided by Project Lead The Way
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Professional Development Webinar
Disrupting PD Day in Schools with Continuous Professional Learning Experiences
Hear how this NC School District achieved district-wide change by shifting from traditional PD days to year-long professional learning cycles
Content provided by BetterLesson
Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Student Well-Being Opinion Why Teachers Need to Be Honest With Students
If you want to develop strong relationships, one trait is key, explains a psychologist.
Eranda Jayawickreme
3 min read
Images shows a stylized artistic landscape with soothing colors.
Getty
Student Well-Being What the Research Says One Way to Set Students Up for Success: Let Them Sleep
New federal research suggests students' poor sleep hurts their academic and mental well-being.
2 min read
A young Black girl with her head down on a stack of books at her desk in a classroom
E+/Getty
Student Well-Being What the Research Says National Panel: Kids Who Lost a Caregiver to COVID Need More Support
More than 265,000 children lost a parent or caregiver in the pandemic, the National Academies finds.
2 min read
Illustration of child holding missing adult hand.
F.Sheehan/Education Week and Getty
Student Well-Being Spotlight Spotlight on SEL for Students
This Spotlight will help you understand what's classified as social-emotional learning, how much time should be dedicated to SEL, and more.