Masks Optional At Batavia Schools, On Buses: District 101

BATAVIA, IL — Starting Monday, Batavia Public School District 101 students, teachers and staff are no longer required to wear masks on school buses, officials announced Sunday.

Instead, masking is optional, and "anyone may continue to wear a mask based on personal preference or personal level of risk," district officials said in a message to the community.

District 101 officially ended its indoor mask enforcement Feb. 10 since "enforcement has become impossible and disruptive," administrators said. Until Monday, though, masks were still required on school buses due to federal regulations.

The updated guidance comes as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed their own regulations, effective Feb. 25, to ax mask requirements on buses or vans operated by public and private school systems.

Along with the CDC's update, District 101 officials also cited low transmission in Kane County and Gov. J.B. Pritzker lifting the state's school mask mandate Friday as reasons for their decision.

The governor's announcement followed the Illinois Supreme Court declining to hear Pritzker's appeal to rulings by trial and appellate court judges in a challenge to his implementation of the school mask mandate, Patch reported.

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