Students across Massachusetts will return to school Monday without a statewide mask mandate in their classrooms, but that does not necessarily mean they will be maskless.
Though state education officials have dropped the requirement, the decision of whether to continue masking on Monday turned over to local authorities, some of whom have already elected to keep the rule in place for the coming weeks.
The Boston Public Schools will keep their mandate into March and will base the decision to lower it on COVID-19 data, Mayor Michelle Wu said. Springfield intends to reevaluate its mask rule at the end of March, while Worcester will do so on March 7, at its next Board of Health meeting.
Other districts said they would be “mask optional” or “mask flexible,” or dropped their requirements entirely.
Gov. Charlie Baker and Education Commissioner Jeff Riley announced the lowered statewide restriction three weeks ago, saying that schools with 80% vaccination of students and staff could drop the mandate early. Several dozen schools elected to do so.
“Given the extremely low risk for young people, widespread availability and the proven effectiveness of vaccines, and the distribution of accurate test protocols and tests, it’s time to give our kids a sense of normalcy and lift the mask mandate on a statewide basis in schools,” Baker said. “COVID, like many other respiratory diseases that we’re familiar with, will be with us for the foreseeable future. We understand many students will continue to wear a mask going forward for a number of reasons, and we fully support those individual decisions.”
The decision by Baker and Riley to leave masking up to individual school districts was met with pushback by some state legislators, including Sen. Jo Comerford, the Senate chair of the Joint Committee on COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness and Management, who called the move premature and irresponsible.
“It does feel like the administration is not grappling adequately with the disproportionate risk to lifting masks universally,” Comerford said, expressing worry that the COVID caseload will simultaneously worsen as students return from February break, with travel likely to spur an uptick in infections. “The districts with which I’ve connected felt a bit blindsided by the governor’s decision. I know from my own perspective, there was no dialogue with the Legislature on this, and I find that significantly troubling — unilateral action is troubling.”
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Massachusetts school mask mandate ends, turning choice of continued requirement over to local districts - MassLive.com
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