Sarasota School Board Updates Mask, Contact Tracing Policies

SARASOTA, FL — The Sarasota County School Board relaxed both its mask mandate and contact tracing policy Tuesday night. Effective immediately, face masks are now optional for students and employees outdoors.

“This includes all outdoor facilities during and after school,” the district said in an email sent to families. Face masks are required for students riding a school bus indoors or at any Sarasota County School District facility.

The board also updated its contact tracing protocols to align with new guidance from Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Lapado. Parents or legal guardians of students known to have been in direct contact with an individual who received a positive diagnostic test for COVID-19 may either allow the child to attend school, so long as they are asymptomatic, or quarantine the students for a maximum of seven days from the date of last contact. Students currently quarantined who are asymptomatic can return to school immediately, per the new policy.

On Aug. 20, the school board passed a mandate 3-2 requiring students and staff at county schools to wear masks for 90 days (Nov. 18), or until the community's COVID-19 positivity rate falls below 8% for three consecutive days. The rate was 6.11% on Sep. 22, but 8.68% the day before, according to a Sarasota County Schools dashboard. The policy will be reactivated if the positivity rate rises above 10% for three days.

The mandate has been controversial from the start, especially given Gov. Ron DeSantis’ executive order banning school mask mandates unless they offering parents the chance to opt out. At the start of the school year, a Venice chiropractor signed 500 exemption forms at a mass exemption event, prompting Superintendent Brennan Asplen to issue an updated policy limiting exemptions to medical doctors, osteopathic physicians, or licensed or advanced registered nurse practitioners.

The district may face sanctions for its mandate, especially after a First District Court of Appeal granted a stay to a prior ruling preventing the governor from enforcing the ban on mandates.