DC Public Schools to revoke the mandate of the mask; many cards to keep the requirement for now –

Emmanuel Morales, left, Lizamar Norris, Center, and Jasmine Marshall distribute hand sanitizers and masks at Harriet Tabman Elementary School in Washington DC on January 15. (Craig Hudson for the Washington Post)

Chancellor Louis D. Ferbay said the district public school system no longer requires students and staff to wear masks in the building. The optional mask policy will take effect on Wednesday.

The announcement comes a few days after the city’s health department changed the guidelines for educational institutions on Friday, choosing between the choice of masks for public and private schools and childcare facilities. And this marks the definitive return of Covid protocols in schools while the number of cases continues to decline across the country.

The new textbook could lead to more quarantine and virtual education for unvaccinated students. The school system decides to monitor the individual in detail. The new rules require unvaccinated students and staff to remain in quarantine for at least five days if they are in close contact in class with someone who has tested positive for the virus, even if masked and more than a meter tall. away from that person. The tests are positive.

DC says schools and day care centers could lift the mask requirements

Only 25% of DC children between the ages of 5 and 11 are vaccinated and there is a large difference in the vaccination rates in the ward. The city hasn’t released data on school-to-school vaccinations, but according to ward vaccination rates, students who go to school with the lowest-income wards are the least vaccinated.

Since schools don’t monitor who gets vaccinated, they rely on a quarantine system where parents determine whether their children should stay home if one of their classes tested positive.

“It is essential that our students are fully informed about their vaccinations, including booster vaccines, to protect themselves from COVID-19. And “Stay in class if identified as someone who has been in close contact with COVID-19,” Colors said in a letter to families Friday.

colors affected The agreement with the Washington Teachers Union on opening schools in the fall states that masks are needed on school buildings. But – in contradiction now – the agreement also provides that the school district must follow the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which in most of the country advise against wearing masks on school buildings.

Jacqueline Pog Lyons, president of the Washington Teachers’ Union, said she will support the abolition of masking until the school system brings it back if the number of cases increases.

City charter schools, which teach more than 40% of public school students, can decide if they want to comply with the mask requirements.

KIPP DC, the largest charter school in the city, said it will meet with staff and families next week to determine if they want to lift the closed mask requirement. The school mask requirement will remain intact for now, said Raymond Weden, executive director of Thurgood Marshall Academy, a public high school in southeastern Washington. The school will collect feedback from staff, parents and students in the later stages.

Friendship, the second largest charter network, said it has a large number of “fragile medicine” students and staff and was considering changing its mask policy.

In recent weeks, when the CDC softened its instructions, school officials said they received feedback on the mandate of the mask, both from those who wanted to keep it and from those who wanted to remove it.

The DC State Board of Education said in a statement before Ferebee that its members believe schools should keep duty in disguise.

“We believe that for the foreseeable future a disguised mission must remain within the schools to protect our young students,” the council said in a statement. She said. “We strongly support the region’s efforts to make high-quality face masks and Covid testing at home to facilitate vaccination for all eligible children, develop robust outdoor education options for all schools, and help achieve a negligible rate of awareness of the community”.

DC’s youngest students – aged 3 and 4 – are not yet eligible for the coronavirus vaccine. The school system sends these kids home with quick tests when someone in the class tests positive. With a negative test confirmation, they can go back to school without quarantine.

Most of the neighboring countries to the region have already abandoned the duty of masking. The Montgomery County Public School Council unanimously supported the removal of the now immediate mask requirement for the school system of nearly 160,000 students. Fairfax County, the largest county in Virginia, has also resigned.

Prince George County said it will increase the mask requirement once the nation’s vaccination rate reaches 80%.

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Source: Washington Post

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