Masks Are Now Optional In Stamford Public Schools

STAMFORD, CT — The Stamford Board of Education unanimously voted to suspend the school district's masking policy during a special meeting on Tuesday night.

Beginning March 2, masks will no longer be required but are recommended, based on one’s personal level of risk, for all Stamford public school sites including APPLES Pre-K and all school buses.

Stamford's Acting Health Director Jody Bishop-Pullan recommended to the board Tuesday night that the mandate be lifted because of improving COVID-19 case rates and hospitalizations, and because of recently revised guidance from the Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (CDC).

Updated CDC guidance measures community spread based on COVID-19 hospital admissions, percent of inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients and new COVID-19 cases in the county.

The school district originally aimed for March 15 as the date to withdraw the mandate, but school and health officials said last week it would revisit the issue Tuesday if cases continued to improve.

"That made a significant difference in our outlook in terms of how we proceed," Bishop-Pullan said of the CDC guidelines. "It makes me feel much more comfortable to remove the masks sooner, as early as [Wednesday]"

As of Feb. 24, Fairfield County had an inpatient bed utilization rate of 3.40 percent, 7.3 hospital admissions per 100,000, and a seven-day average of 11.78 cases per 100,000, according to the city of Stamford.

According to the latest update from the city, as of March 1, Stamford is experiencing 8.7 cases per 100,000 residents, down from a high of 334 cases at the height of the omicron spike in January.

The positivity rate stands at 3.42 percent, down from 38.61 percent in January.

Last week, Stamford Public Schools recorded 10 new cases of COVID-19 across the district.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Tamu Lucero said the decision to wear or not to wear a mask must be encouraged and enforced at home with families. Staff will not play a role in enforcing these decisions. She said all members of the school community should respect each other’s choices on masking.

If a big spike in cases is seen in the district and it's recommended that masks need to be used again for an emergency or short period of time, Lucero will alert district families, and the board will convene within seven days to essentially ratify the decision.

The board broadly supported the decision to suspend the masking policy. Most of Tuesday night's meeting was spent tidying up the language of the resolutions on the agenda, particularly to reflect the fact that the masking policy is suspended, not repealed.

Suspension keeps the policy in the district's policy book, board chair Jackie Heftman said.