On Monday the deadline for full COVID-19 vaccination for educators and staff working across early childhood education, primary schools, out-of-school-hours care, and specialist education lapsed. High schools and colleges that don't share a campus with primary school students were not covered by this mandate.

ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said 52 education directorate staff, who were subject to the vaccination mandate, had elected not to disclose their vaccination status. This number did not include educators from private schools.

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"We have clearly seen as school has returned and through early early childhood care centres ... transmission in those settings among people who were not vaccinated. But also we've clearly seen that ... adults in those settings who are fully vaccinated have been able to acquire and transmit the virus as well," she said.

"But given vaccination reduces risk, it has been really important to ensure the adults around those unvaccinated children are fully vaccinated to provide the greatest level of protection, but also the greatest capacity to continue for schools to remain open and early childcare centres to remain open and reduce the number of people who need to quarantine as as a result of exposure in those sites."

Australian Education Union senior industrial officer Patrick Judge said the organisation supported any measures to keep members and students safe and there had been "no push back".

In October a group of 79 Canberra educators signed a letter opposing mandatory vaccination, arguing they should not be stood aside or redeployed.

The union said the rate of fully vaccinated teachers in the ACT was "very, very high", with around 0.5 per cent of the workforce unvaccinated. This number included people with exemptions.

Unvaccinated teachers would be redeployed to undertake "other forms of teaching-related work", including administration and office duties, Mr Judge said.

"From the start we were very keen to ensure members unable or unwilling to be vaccinated would retain employment," he said.

However, educators and staff conducting face-to-face learning will bear the weight of this decision.

Those who refused to get vaccinated "added stress to an already fatigued workforce", Mr Judge said.

"Their absence puts pressure on colleagues who are picking up the extra work," he said.

Lockdown and remote schooling had only exacerbated shortages with schools already struggling to find staff.

Mr Judge said there was currently an increased combination of classes and a "greater difficulty finding relief staff". He said while these issues predated the pandemic, they had become "much worse".

While most educators had ample time to fulfil the mandate, younger teachers have lagged behind due to the staggered rollout.

Mr Judge said vaccination for a "small number" of teachers aged in their 20s had been delayed, while most other educators had been inoculated "well in advance".

"It's been an incredible amount of work to make sure we had the mechanics in place to support the vaccine mandate in a short period of time," he said.

"Our members were keen to be vaccinated to ensure students were safe."

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