School mask mandates are starting to disappear. Is it too soon?

While studies show that masks in school work, whether a child has to wear a mask at school at this point in the Covid-19 pandemic depends largely on where they live in the country.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines have not changed.

Due to the highly contagious Delta variant, the CDC guidelines recommend everyone -- students, staff, teachers and visitors to K-12 schools -- wear masks indoors, regardless of vaccination status. The American Academy of Pediatrics makes a similar recommendation. Yet hundreds of districts around the country made masks optional, according to a CNN analysis of school records.

 

Masks are still mandatory in states including Illinois, California, New York and Washington. Washington state even promised to withhold money from districts that don't comply. In those and many other states, parents have staged large protests and sued districts over mask mandates, leaving school leaders with tough choices about how to best keep kids safe.

 

Some, but not all, schools in Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio have made masks in schools optional, often citing declines in Covid-19 cases. In Texas, schools aren't even allowed to require masks, although some districts, including Dallas, have ignored the state and kept the mandates. There's a federal investigation to determine if the Texas prohibition on mask mandates is impinging on the rights of students with disabilities. ...