That stance has left many parents confused and concerned as they witness or hear about covid outbreaks among students after field trips and proms.
Up and down California, school administrators are running out the clock, hoping to outrace the outbreaks. The school system and a few others have reversed their mask-optional policies, and the district sent letters to parents warning that masks could be reinstated if cases continue to rise. But most districts 鈥� including those in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland 鈥� haven鈥檛 revisited their guidance as summer draws near.
鈥淚 do not plan on making any new recommendations in the final three weeks of school,鈥� Dublin Unified Superintendent Chris Funk told KHN, noting that the Alameda County Public Health Department lifted mandatory masking rules in classrooms .
Among other factors, administrators are reluctant to expose districts to legal challenges. From the start, the attempt to create statewide covid protocols for schools was met with sometimes-fierce resistance. Some districts, many of them rural, ignored California鈥檚 school mask mandate. In February, the Roseville Joint Union High School District, which enrolls about 12,000 students in Placer and Sacramento counties, even as a statewide mandate remained in effect.
Very few of California鈥檚 more than 1,000 school districts have joined the Berkeley system in making such a decision. On May 16, school officials in Pacific Grove, near Monterey, ordered that masks be worn inside all classrooms by its roughly 2,000 students. Katrina Powley, the district nurse, said the district is one of the few that ties its masking policy to case rates in Monterey County. Therefore, when those rates moved from 鈥渓ow鈥� to 鈥渕oderate鈥� transmission, a .
The board of trustees for the San Mateo Union High School District voted in early May to until June 1 and strengthened protocols after a prom that was held in San Francisco in April resulted in among 90 of the 600 students in attendance.
Those districts remain in the minority despite the statewide covid surge. in Marin County experienced outbreaks in early May. And the Dublin school district, in the East Bay, saw rates shoot up fivefold from March to April and continue to rise in May. Those schools haven鈥檛 revisited their .
Schools in Davis, in Yolo County, have not reinstated mask requirements despite , in large part because the county health director decoupled mandates from test positivity rates.
鈥淲e have sufficient protection against the virus, especially with Paxlovid available at test-to-treat locations,鈥� said John Fout, a spokesperson for the county. Only increased hospitalizations straining the health care system would prompt a change, he added.
At this point, an uptick in serious illnesses may not be recognized until after the school year ends 鈥� and that is what many school administrators appear to be counting on.
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