Post by Nadica (She/Her) on Jul 19, 2024 5:04:49 GMT
New CDC Mask Guidance Marks Major Shift for Schools - Published Feb 25, 2022
New CDC guidance issued Friday is recommending that schools use the same criteria to govern mask requirements as the general community – likely leading to the lifting of mandates.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rolled back coronavirus safety guidance for K-12 schools Friday, no longer recommending mask requirements for schools in communities with low to medium risk of COVID-19 spread and severity at the community level – a new metric that takes into consideration hospitalizations and local transmission.
"At the high level, CDC recommends that everyone wear a mask indoors in public, including in schools," CDC Director Rochelle Walenksy said.
As it stands, 37% of counties in the U.S. fall under a high COVID-19 community level, representing 28% of the U.S. population, including large swaths of Arizona, California, Kentucky, Montana, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee and West Virginia.
"We've been reviewing the data on COVID illness in children for over two years of a pandemic and we have seen that although children can get infected and can get sick with COVID, they're more likely to have asymptomatic or mild infections,” said Greta Massetti, a member of the COVID-19 Response Incident Management Team. “We know that when schools implement layered prevention strategies that they can prevent SARS cov transmission or transmission of the virus that causes COVID-19 in school. And we know that also because children are relatively at lower risk from severe illness that schools can be safe places for children.”
“So for that reason,” she said, “we're recommending that schools use the same guidance that we are recommending in general community settings.”
Massetti underscored that levels of COVID-19 transmission in communities will continue to fluctuate, and for that reason “public health prevention strategies can be dialed up when our communities are experiencing more severe disease and dial down when things are more stable."
The shift comes as states and school districts across the country are moving to drop their mask requirements, including in a growing number of Democratic-controlled states that have been operating their public schools with some of the most robust risk mitigation strategies in place.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona called the announcement “a new phase of recovery” but cautioned that districts should continue working with local health experts, parents and educators to decide what works best for their communities to keep children safe.
“Ninety-nine percent of schools are safely open for in-person learning and that is a testament to the hard work and partnership of school communities,” he said in a statement. “With today’s announcement of updated CDC guidance, we can continue to keep schools safely open while allowing for educators and parents to get back to focusing on what is most important: our students’ futures.”
Beck Pringle, president of the 3 million-member National Education Association, asked school districts to “act cautiously” in response to the updated guidance and said that local governments should bring educators to the table to gain a better understanding of their in-school experience before determining next steps, especially regarding the safety of students with disabilities who may be more vulnerable to the exposure and effects of COVID-19.
“We have always known that there would come a time to consider whether mask mandates were still necessary and have insisted that this decision be informed by science and medical experts, not politics,” she said. “If a shift in the pandemic warrants, we must be prepared to apply what we have learned these past two years to prevent more tragic losses.
The sentiments were echoed by American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, who said the clear metrics set forth in the updated guidance from the CDC were “long-needed” and provide “a safe off-ramp from universal masking.”
“The CDC’s guidance is informed by science, not politics, and sets us on a path to a new normal in schools and other public places,” she said. “These metrics will help us decide if masking up will become necessary again should we face an emerging strain. Everyone is frustrated and exhausted, but this guidance ensures trust and transparency – not politics and politicians – can return to center stage.”
Education groups cheered the guidance for the clarity the new recommendations bring to one of the most politically volatile debates to spin out of the coronavirus pandemic – whether to enforce mask mandates in schools.
“AASA applauds the clarity of today’s guidance and the way it will allow school districts and communities to move forward with more consistent implementation of masking policies,” Noelle Ellerson Ng says, associate executive director of advocacy and governance at AASA, the Superintendents Association.
Superintendents, she says, have also been particularly concerned with the lack of clarity about whether school buses fall under the federal masking mandate for public transportation, which the CDC’s updated guidance resolves by saying masks are not required on buses or vans operated by public or private schools.
Confusion over the issue was among the top concerns voiced to Cardona during the school superintendents group’s national policy conference earlier this month, Ellerson Ng says.
New CDC guidance issued Friday is recommending that schools use the same criteria to govern mask requirements as the general community – likely leading to the lifting of mandates.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rolled back coronavirus safety guidance for K-12 schools Friday, no longer recommending mask requirements for schools in communities with low to medium risk of COVID-19 spread and severity at the community level – a new metric that takes into consideration hospitalizations and local transmission.
"At the high level, CDC recommends that everyone wear a mask indoors in public, including in schools," CDC Director Rochelle Walenksy said.
As it stands, 37% of counties in the U.S. fall under a high COVID-19 community level, representing 28% of the U.S. population, including large swaths of Arizona, California, Kentucky, Montana, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee and West Virginia.
"We've been reviewing the data on COVID illness in children for over two years of a pandemic and we have seen that although children can get infected and can get sick with COVID, they're more likely to have asymptomatic or mild infections,” said Greta Massetti, a member of the COVID-19 Response Incident Management Team. “We know that when schools implement layered prevention strategies that they can prevent SARS cov transmission or transmission of the virus that causes COVID-19 in school. And we know that also because children are relatively at lower risk from severe illness that schools can be safe places for children.”
“So for that reason,” she said, “we're recommending that schools use the same guidance that we are recommending in general community settings.”
Massetti underscored that levels of COVID-19 transmission in communities will continue to fluctuate, and for that reason “public health prevention strategies can be dialed up when our communities are experiencing more severe disease and dial down when things are more stable."
The shift comes as states and school districts across the country are moving to drop their mask requirements, including in a growing number of Democratic-controlled states that have been operating their public schools with some of the most robust risk mitigation strategies in place.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona called the announcement “a new phase of recovery” but cautioned that districts should continue working with local health experts, parents and educators to decide what works best for their communities to keep children safe.
“Ninety-nine percent of schools are safely open for in-person learning and that is a testament to the hard work and partnership of school communities,” he said in a statement. “With today’s announcement of updated CDC guidance, we can continue to keep schools safely open while allowing for educators and parents to get back to focusing on what is most important: our students’ futures.”
Beck Pringle, president of the 3 million-member National Education Association, asked school districts to “act cautiously” in response to the updated guidance and said that local governments should bring educators to the table to gain a better understanding of their in-school experience before determining next steps, especially regarding the safety of students with disabilities who may be more vulnerable to the exposure and effects of COVID-19.
“We have always known that there would come a time to consider whether mask mandates were still necessary and have insisted that this decision be informed by science and medical experts, not politics,” she said. “If a shift in the pandemic warrants, we must be prepared to apply what we have learned these past two years to prevent more tragic losses.
The sentiments were echoed by American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, who said the clear metrics set forth in the updated guidance from the CDC were “long-needed” and provide “a safe off-ramp from universal masking.”
“The CDC’s guidance is informed by science, not politics, and sets us on a path to a new normal in schools and other public places,” she said. “These metrics will help us decide if masking up will become necessary again should we face an emerging strain. Everyone is frustrated and exhausted, but this guidance ensures trust and transparency – not politics and politicians – can return to center stage.”
Education groups cheered the guidance for the clarity the new recommendations bring to one of the most politically volatile debates to spin out of the coronavirus pandemic – whether to enforce mask mandates in schools.
“AASA applauds the clarity of today’s guidance and the way it will allow school districts and communities to move forward with more consistent implementation of masking policies,” Noelle Ellerson Ng says, associate executive director of advocacy and governance at AASA, the Superintendents Association.
Superintendents, she says, have also been particularly concerned with the lack of clarity about whether school buses fall under the federal masking mandate for public transportation, which the CDC’s updated guidance resolves by saying masks are not required on buses or vans operated by public or private schools.
Confusion over the issue was among the top concerns voiced to Cardona during the school superintendents group’s national policy conference earlier this month, Ellerson Ng says.