State keeps school mask mandate as CDC relaxes limits
Returning students to inperson learning at schools this fall is a national priority, with 3 feet of distance between desks if possible — but if not, with whatever steps can be taken to ensure children’s safety, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.
The new CDC guidelines emphasize, for the first time, the importance of returning to the classroom even where it’s not possible to separate students by the recommended distance. Distance learning during the coronavirus pandemic has proven to be emotionally and academically challenging for many students, who report rising levels of depression and detachment from their studies.
The CDC guidance is a departure from the approach
taken last year by many California school districts, which required far more distance between students and as a result brought them back to campus either part time or not at all. State health officials plan to release their own school guidelines Monday, but indicated they would be in line with the CDC’s advice.
Indoor masking at school is necessary only for people who are not fully vaccinated, the CDC says. However, California will keep an indoor mask requirement for everyone because not enough schools are able to provide the distance that students need for safety, public health officials said Friday.
“We think the CDC’s guidance gives California, as well as all other states, an opportunity to put together a plan with safety first, kids back in school in a very mindful and contextual way,” said Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state’s secretary of health and human services. “We believe our plan really is supported by the recommendations.”
The CDC said its new guidelines strongly promote vaccination as a way to “help schools safely return to inperson learning as well as extracurricular activities and sports.”
Although that’s not yet possible for the youngest children because COVID19 vaccines are authorized only for those age 12 and older, schools should reopen anyway, the CDC said.
“Because of the importance of inperson learning, schools where not everyone is fully vaccinated should implement physical distancing to the extent possible within their structures,” and layer in other preventative measures as well, the CDC said.
Classrooms should also reopen even if 3 feet of separation can’t be achieved, the CDC added, and said schools “should not exclude students from inperson learning to
keep a minimum distance requirement.”
California’s political leaders have long emphasized that public schools must reopen for fulltime, inperson learning this fall. The issue has been fraught in many larger districts, however, including in San Francisco, where teachers unions and some parents have advocated for a continued distancelearning option until everyone can be vaccinated and coronavirus cases are further reduced.
San Francisco schools saw fewer than five COVID cases on campuses that had inperson learning last academic year, the city’s public health officer, Dr. Susan Philip, said
Friday in a statement.
Philip expressed strong support for the CDC guidance but, like the state, said “masks will continue to be required indoors, but not outdoors” in city schools.
Neither the teachers union, the United Educators of San Francisco, nor school district officials responded to requests for comment about the new guidance. The school board has pledged to return to fulltime, inperson learning this fall, but details remain vague.
Working conditions for teachers are typically worked out in labor negotiations. Instructors for inperson classes meeting this summer must sit at least 6 feet from students,
under an agreement between the school district and teachers union.
Six feet of distance between students was the standard in many districts last school year. Because most publicschool classrooms could not do that and still accommodate the typical number of students, the result was often hybrid schedules in which children attended class in person a couple of days a week and engaged in distance learning the rest of the time.
The California Teachers Association, the state’s largest teachers union, applauded the new CDC recommendations as “sciencebased guidance” with “multilayered safety
measures” meant to keep students and employees safe.
In addition to requiring that masks be worn inside schools, California officials noted Friday that schools have access to free coronavirus testing.
While California’s rules might seem more strict than the CDC guidance, “masking is the superior form of mitigation” where physical distancing is not possible, Ghaly said.