CA Mask Mandates Stay In Schools: 5 Things To Know

CALIFORNIA — California officials announced Monday that schoolchildren will have to continue masking, despite pushback from a division of parents and elected officials.

The news comes as the state prepares to lift its indoor mask mandate on Tuesday as coronavirus case rates continue to fall sharply. Cases have dropped by more than 75 percent since mid-January, California Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. Mark Ghaly said Monday.

Here's what we know.

1. The state will reassess masking for schools in two weeks.

On Tuesday, vaccinated Californians will be allowed to shed their masks indoors except for in school or childcare settings, jails and prisons, in health care settings and in long-term care settings.

On Feb. 28, Ghaly said the state will examine state case rates, test positivity rate, hospitalizations, pediatric hospitalizations and vaccination rates to decide when the state will lift its mandate for schoolchildren.

“We anticipate making the change at that point,” Ghaly said.

2. Low vaccination rates among children may be to blame.

Ghaly earmarked several metrics that went into the state's decision to hold onto a masking requirement for schools but he placed an emphasis on low vaccination rates for children under 11 years old.

About 27.8 percent of children under 11 years old in California have been fully vaccinated.

The state's top health official, who's also a father of four, said there wasn't any specific benchmark the state was looking to get to before lifting the masking requirement.

"We don't plan to, at this moment, set a threshold," Ghaly said. "We have a long way to go and we have to work with families and communities to get that number up."

Newsom also pointed to low vaccination rates among younger children last week as a reason to keep the mask requirement.

3. Pushback against masking in schools could intensify.

The debate over masks in schools has been polarizing in California, with parents protesting at school board meetings and slates of candidates — pro-and anti-mask — seeking school board seats in an attempt to shape policies.

Just hours before Super Bowl LVI's kickoff on Sunday, protestors amassed in front of SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, accusing state officials of hosting "a Super Bowl while forcing kids" to wear masks in schools.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said last week that universal mask-wearing in schools "still remains our recommendation," but she did not fault states for dropping the requirement.

"We support developing a plan for transitioning away from masking in schools — an off-ramp — that is based on science and not politics," California Teachers Association President Jeff Freitas said in a statement, according to Politico.

Eight Republican-led states, including Florida and Texas, have bans on school mask mandates, though some have been suspended amid legal fights with districts and parents who want to require masks, according to the National Academy for State Health Policy.

"I’m ready to take the mask off now," Jason Avicolli, a social studies teacher at Las Lomas High School in Walnut Creek, told Politico. He argued that universal masking has caused "detrimental mental effects, psychological, social and emotional damage."

4. California's priority is to keep schools open for in person instruction.

The Golden State holds 12 percent of the nation's public school students and has experience 1 percent of school closures, Ghaly said on Monday.

"Schools are not just a place where people, young people get educated. It's where many receive their meals and where many received specialized services," he said. "It's where many depend on important social interactions."

Ghaly noted that the mask mandate was never intended to stay indefinitely.

"It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when," he said. "We don’t make hasty decisions. We will take the collection of information together to make a decision that is good for California."

5. The state says it will eventually pivot to an "endemic" response.

Monday's announcement comes as the state prepares to define a new approach to mitigating the coronavirus as it reaches an endemic phase.

“We’re looking back at the last two years — what worked, what didn’t, what we’ve all learned on the journey we’ve been on together," Newsom said last week, adding that he would be negotiating with school officials and teacher unions to make a decision on schoolchildren Monday.

The governor also previously suggested that he would have ended the mask mandate earlier if teachers unions hadn't asked for "a little bit more time."

"I think that's responsible, and I respect that. But we are also in a date with destiny," he said, CalMatters reported.