State officials are considering a plan to move teachers up in the vaccine line in a bid to get schools reopened more quickly.

Rep. Tim O’Neal, R-Washington, who sits on the state’s coronavirus task force, told The Associated Press on Monday that Wolf and his acting health secretary, at Sunday’s task force meeting, discussed making it possible for teachers to get vaccinated soon.

“I was under the impression that that was the way they were going,” O’Neal said.

The state is still in Phase 1A of its vaccine plan, offering the shots to people age 65 and over and younger people with high-risk medical conditions - a population that numbers around 4 million.

Teachers currently are grouped in Phase 1B, along with grocery store workers, first responders, manufacturing employees and others considered to be essential workers.

Teachers unions, superintendents, school boards and other education groups have asked Wolf to prioritize school staff for the COVID-19 vaccine, calling it an “absolutely essential” step toward reopening schools and keeping them open.

Wolf’s discussions are happening amid pressure from Republican lawmakers for school districts to bring students back to classrooms for in-person instruction and as his administration develops a plan to roll out the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine just authorized by federal regulators.

Although Democrats have typically defended the Wolf administration’s handling of the pandemic, four Democratic members of Congress on Monday released a letter to Wolf, urging him to speed up the process for vaccinating teachers and do a better job with the existing program.

U.S. Reps. Madeleine Dean, Chrissy Houlahan, Mary Gay Scanlon and Susan Wild asked him to begin planning for the Phase 1B vaccination now and give teachers and others in the category more certainty about how and when they can get a shot.

“Getting our children safely back into the classroom would have myriad benefits - not only alleviating many pressures on working families and allowing people to return to work but also beginning to reverse the toll that the pandemic has taken on students’ educational outcomes and mental health,” they wrote.

In addition, they asked him to look into best practices from other states that might speed up the deployment of vaccines.