Since the onset of the pandemic, COVID-19 has disproportionately devastated Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and Asian communities and now, these same communities are being left in the dust in the nationwide race to vaccinate.

The racial disparities in hospitalization and death rates among these groups are mirrored in early vaccination rate data. Black people are two to three times less likely than white people to be vaccinated.

While statistics like these are disheartening, we can and must do better. States should push back against these disparities by prioritizing outreach and access to the vaccine in geographic areas with the most vulnerable people.

The key to equitable vaccination lies in social vulnerability data, which includes variables such as race, language, socioeconomic status, and household composition. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) aggregates  this information using census tract data, which enables the agency to measure the resiliency of communities and make geographically-based recommendations to local officials using their Social Vulnerability Index (SVI).

While the CDC has collected and used this data to anticipate and respond to environmental and public health crises since 2000, the index has become an especially crucial tool in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The data offer a path forward as localities seek to relieve the disproportionate burden borne by communities of color. Social vulnerability indices help experts identify neighborhoods most at risk for COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. Of all the variables measured, minority status and English language proficiency have the strongest association with COVID-19 deaths at the community level.  Underlying health conditions alone cannot address the severe racial disparities in vaccination rates.

At least 26 states have announced plans to use or are already using SVIs in their vaccine distribution plans. Ohio uses the SVI to allocate the vaccine, while Arizona uses it to target outreach and communication plans. Tennessee and New Hampshire use the SVI to identify the most vulnerable geographic areas and to set aside a percentage of the vaccines for these counties.

This crucial data should be used in every state to ensure equitable vaccine access — a goal that states have fallen woefully short of thus far. Disparities in vaccination rates are plainly illustrated by health care worker data. Because the initial round of vaccines was primarily provided to these workers, the percentage of people vaccinated should align with the racial demographics of this sector. Yet despite making up a large portion of this workforce, Black people are significantly underrepresented in vaccinations.

In Mississippi, Black people comprise 37 percent of health care workers but only 15 percent of people vaccinated. Similarly, just 16 percent of people vaccinated in Maryland are Black, even though Black people comprise 42 percent of health care workers and 30 percent of the state population. Vaccination rates don’t match up with local demographics, either. In Philadelphia, just 12 percent of Black people were vaccinated, even though the population is 44 percent Black. Only 7 percent of people vaccinated in Miami-Dade County were Black, even though Black people “comprise almost 17 percent of the population and are dying from COVID-19 at a rate that is more than 60 percent higher than that of white people,” The New York Times reported.

Some of these disparities can be explained by systemic barriers to vaccine access in low-income communities and communities of color, such as the lack of technology, transportation access to vaccine sites, or ability to take off work. Many people in low-income communities lack the stable, high-speed internet access required to continue refreshing sign-up websites for appointments, and registration phone lines have notoriously long wait times and are difficult to navigate. Wealthy white people with more access to these resources have taken a disproportionate share of vaccinations provided in low-income communities of color. In Washington, D.C., 40 percent of vaccination appointments were made by residents of the city’s whitest, wealthiest ward.

Social vulnerability data is key to intentionally increasing vaccine access to those who need it most, but it should be coupled with other tools to counter barriers to vaccination. To combat skepticism and mistrust, states should increase culturally sensitive education about the vaccine, including community and faith-based outreach and marketing. States should facilitate non-computer registration for the vaccine. Further, states should expand locations for distribution to residents of the most vulnerable neighborhoods. This can include working with mobile health vans and community health workers, and offering vaccinations at federally qualified health centers, as well as community-based health care providers in underserved areas.

The best way to assess whether those who need the vaccine most are receiving it is through transparent and thorough data collection. States should collect and report vaccination data — consistent with all privacy laws and best practices — by various demographic factors, including race and zip codes of those who are vaccinated, to identify and eliminate disparities. Disparities were consistent in the 34 states that have released vaccination data by race to date. Black and Latinx people receive smaller shares of the vaccination than their proportion of the larger population and COVID-19 hospitalizations or deaths. Finally, states should conduct fact-finding hearings with testimony from public health, history, and economic experts to identify and remedy incidents of discrimination in the response to the pandemic.

Communities of color continue to bear the brunt of COVID-19, and this crisis has laid bare the impact of systemic racism in the U.S. Inequitable vaccine access is the latest manifestation of this ongoing problem. It is up to state officials to mitigate these racial disparities by using social vulnerability data to prioritize vaccine access and distribution to the most vulnerable groups.

Over 150,000 Black and Brown children, disproportionately children with disabilities, are handcuffed, restrained, referred to law enforcement, and arrested in schools across the nation each year. Placing police in our schools perpetuates a chilling pattern of racial and disability discrimination that endangers and traumatizes our children and funnels them into the school to prison pipeline.

School policing is a threat to our students’ civil rights and to their right to learn in safe and supportive school environments. This is why we’re calling on President Biden to stop policing our students by ending federal funding of police in schools.

Today, we sent a letter to President Biden with more than 150 organizations and individuals — including the Dignity in Schools Campaign, National Urban League, UnidosUS, YWCA USA, and the National Disability Rights Network, among others — calling on Biden to issue an executive order eliminating federal funding of police in schools and to work with Congress toward this goal. There are currently 14 million students in schools with police and no nurses, social workers, or psychologists. Instead of pouring money into law enforcement, President Biden must redirect the additional $300 million designated for community policing — which often goes into placing police in schools — and invest it in our communities. This money should be spent on community-led and community-centered safety strategies and getting more counselors and other supportive school staff, not cops, into our schools.

School districts across the country receive federal funding from the Department of Justice to hire police for their schools. Police in schools do what they are trained to do — detain, handcuff, and arrest — and students of color and students with disabilities are often the ones who pay the price.

In Osceola County, Florida, a school police officer body-slammed Taylor Bracey, a 16-year-old Black girl, to the concrete ground as she was walking down the school hallway. She was knocked unconscious and experienced a concussion, and now has memory loss and other traumas.

In San Antonio, Texas, a 7-year-old Latino boy with autism had an outburst during class at his elementary school. What was the school police officer’s response? He handcuffed the crying child, put him into a patrol vehicle, and drove him to emergency detention at a behavioral hospital.

Sadly, these are not isolated incidents. Students of color and students with disabilities are up to three times more likely to be referred to police and arrested in schools across the nation. And if historical trends in the data hold true, law enforcement in schools will continue to disproportionately target students of color, students with disabilities, and students of color with disabilities.

In response, we’ve seen communities across the country pushing their schools to divest funding from police and reinvest those funds in student mental health care and other supportive services. Several school boards and cities across the country have already decided that police no longer belong in their schools. For example, a large district in Oakland, California eliminated its school police department following strong community-led advocacy, and committed to a community-driven process to develop an alternative safety plan that would include funds for mental health professionals and other staff to support all students of color. In Portland, Oregon, smaller districts redirected its school police funding to hire more counselors, social workers, and other direct student supports. However, far too many other localities continue to use police in schools, despite the demands of students, parents, and community members.

President Biden has an important part to play to stop the policing of our students. Federal funding plays a key role. It is a core reason so many Black and Brown communities have police regularly stationed in their schools. The DOJ’s COPS Office awarded $50 million to 160 school districts and municipalities for school police in 2020 alone. While municipal governments and state legislatures have a role in keeping our students safe from police violence and trauma, President Biden should lead from Washington, D.C.

This is a unique opportunity for President Biden to uphold his administration’s promise to advance racial equity, redress harm to children with disabilities, and set a strong example for our nation’s schools. The time to invest in policing has passed. It is now time to invest in our students.

Anyone who's ever stepped onto a hockey rink or a basketball court can tell you about the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat.

For most athletes, however, it's not just about winning or losing. It's about playing the game.

But that could change in North Dakota if House Bill 1298 passes.

On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on House Bill 1298, legislation that would codify discrimination against transgender youth in North Dakota and ban transgender athletes under the age of 18 from competing on sports teams that match their gender identity.

Instead of leveling the playing field, this legislation would place hurdles in front of students just because they're transgender.

This kind of discrimination needs to stop. And we need your help.

---

HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN DO: 

Submit public comment to the Senate Judiciary Committee

• Complete the registration info and submit your testimony as either a PDF or text file on the Legislative Branch website. 
• Deadline: 1:30 p.m. March 16

Send an email to the legislators on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

• Don’t know what to say? We’ve made it easy with this form.