MA To Require Masks In Schools Until At Least October

MASSACHUSETTS — All students, teachers and staff are required to wear face masks indoors in Massachusetts public schools for at least the first month of the new school year — regardless of vaccination status — as part of a Department of Elementary and Secondary Education authorization vote Tuesday.

The vote authorized DESE Commissioner Jeffrey Riley to institute the mask mandate on the eve of many school reopenings after guidance told local school districts the decision would be up to them for much of the summer. Many districts across the state planned forums and meetings this week to determine their respective policies, only to have the state take the decision out of their hands at the last minute.

"The purpose of the policy is to encourage higher vaccination rates among students and staff and to implement a uniform policy for all schools to begin the year," the commissioner's office said in a statement requesting the authorization vote on Friday.

Under the new guidance, the mask mandate is in place for all schools through Oct. 1 with a threshold of 80 percent vaccination among students and staff required to lift it on a per-school basis.

"The decision that (Riley's) making, which is basically designed to ensure as clean as opening as you could possibly have and deal with any anxiety that people have as they return to school, and to create some serious incentives for middle and high school kids to get vaccinated, is an appropriate response," Gov. Charlie Baker said at a Friday news conference.

Baker had previously resisted calls for a statewide school mask requirement — citing high vaccination rates and relatively low coronavirus hospitalizations as a reason why local districts should be allowed to make their own decisions on masking for vaccinated students and teachers.

The late call from the state puts districts in the difficult position of now having to decide whether to fully adopt the new state guidance, adopt individual protocols that go beyond Oct. 1 or simply delay any votes in the event DESE provides further instruction in the upcoming weeks.

The Danvers School Committee was one that met Monday night with the intent of determining a district policy for at least the start of the new school year, but delayed the vote pending the state decision so committee members could gain more data and community input.

A coalition of 17 Greater Boston mayors and city managers on Friday released a joint statement urging the mask policy in schools at least through the end of the calendar year.

Baker had been under increasing pressure from the state teachers union and other state politicians to enact a universal policy that more closely aligned with Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention guidance to make masks mandatory for all indoors this fall.

The mandate, which will likely be formally enacted on Wednesday, will be for all students 5 or older, with medical and behavioral exemptions.

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)

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