Update: D.C. released 3,900 vaccine appointments for D.C. Public School teachers and support staff over the weekend. About 70% of those appointments were claimed as of Monday morning, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said in a press conference. Appointments for charter school teachers will be made available later in the week.

Original story: Teachers and support staff at D.C. public and charter schools will start receiving COVID-19 vaccines next week, marking another step forward in the city’s vaccination program.

Through a partnership with Children’s National Hospital, the city and the D.C. Public School System will be coordinating the vaccination process for all DCPS staff currently working in-person, or those who will return in-person for the start of the third term on Jan. 29. According to a press release from D.C. Health on Tuesday, staff will receive emails explaining how to schedule an appointment. They will be booked through D.C. Public Schools (not the city’s vaccination portal) and administered at Dunbar High School starting Jan. 25. (An original press release stated that appointments would be booked through Children’s National Hospital, and was later corrected.)

D.C. Public Charter School in-person staff will be contacted by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education to book appointments starting Jan. 25, and vaccinations will also expand on Monday to include police officers, according to D.C. Health.

D.C. already has been vaccinating healthcare workers, residents and staff in long-term care facilities, and residents ages 65 and up. Groups left to be vaccinated in the city’s Phase 1B now include include grocery store employees, childcare providers, and adults between ages 19-64 that have a high risk of serious illness if they contract COVID-19.

The move into the city’s next phase of vaccination comes after a bungled rollout for residents ages 65 and up last week, and concerns from local educators that they will be returning to classrooms without both doses of the vaccine. (The FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer require two doses, weeks apart, for the highest efficacy.)

D.C. Health also announced Tuesday that going forward, vaccine appointments for residents over 65 and healthcare workers in “priority zip codes” will become available at 9 a.m. every Thursday on the city’s vaccination portal, with any remaining slots opening to eligible residents across all eight wards every Friday — a response to critiques of an inequitable distribution benefitting the city’s wealthier wards.

“If D.C.’s weekly vaccine allotment from the federal government changes, this schedule is likely to change in accordance,” reads the statement. “The District’s goal is [to] make the vaccine available as promptly as supply comes in from the federal government, and to ensure an equitable distribution of the vaccine across all eight wards.”

When the first round of appointments opened for residents over 65 last Monday, the rollout was beset with technical glitches. All 6,700 doses allotted for the week were gone within hours — with Ward 3 residents (the ward with the lowest number of COVID-19 cases), securing the most appointments at 2,465, compared to only 94 in Ward 8.  After a meeting with D.C. councilmembers who advocated for a more equitable vaccination distribution to low-income and primarily Black wards, the city opened an additional 4,309 appointments on Saturday to residents in 1,4,5,7, and 8.

D.C. teachers and staff have advocated for a higher prioritization in the city’s vaccination plan, and pushed for a delayed start to in-person learning until employees can be fully vaccinated. As of Jan. 15, a total of 73 in-person staff have tested positive, according D.C. Health’s public school data.

With demand for vaccines outpacing allotment (proven by the thousands of appointments often booking up in mere hours), officials are continuing to push for more doses from the federal government.

The end of Tuesday’s press release reads: “Put bluntly: D.C. NEEDS MORE VACCINE.”

This post has been updated with a clarification on DCPS vaccine booking.