Why NY Officials Can Mandate COVID Vaccines For College Students, Public Schools And Staff—If They Want To arrow Governor Cuomo announced Monday that New York’s public universities would require students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 before they return to school this autumn. The move arrived hours before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for 12-to-15-year-olds. Younger kids will likely need to wait until September. With shots for younger children on the horizon, parents and educators have been asking if vaccines against COVID-19 will be required at all schools—including ones for New York’s K-12 students—as they are for other diseases. And what about a staff mandate, given that COVID cases are way more common in them than students at New York City’s public schools?