Masks Required For Start Of School Year At Alexandria Schools

ALEXANDRIA, VA — On Tuesday, the Alexandria School Board voted to require masks at the start of the 2021-2022 school year.

The recommendation to require masks inside Alexandria City Public Schools facilities and vehicles regardless of vaccination status came from Superintendent Gregory Hutchings, Jr. The mask guideline was made in coordination with the Alexandria Health Department and based on guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Virginia Department of Health.

ACPS will implement other health mitigation measures in response to COVID-19 such as daily online health screening, temperature screenings in school entrances, continued enhanced cleaning, and procedures to limit visitors in school facilities. Families will be asked to drop off students outside of school, and essential visitors will be expected to follow mitigation measures. Essential visitors are defined as people supporting in-person student supports (including city and partner programs), people performing ACPS operations and maintenance, and people picking up students who became ill during the school day.

The School Board met Tuesday for a public hearing on ACPS use of funds through the ESSER III Fund of the American Rescue Plan Act. The board decided to add the mask policy to the agenda. Other school districts in Northern Virginia announced mask requirements to start the school year, including neighboring Arlington Public Schools and Fairfax County Public Schools.

The announcement comes as ACPS is set to start the school year on Aug. 24. Samuel W. Tucker Elementary School begins the school year earlier on Aug. 9. ACPS is offering five days of in-person learning per week in the fall as well as a virtual option through Virtual Virginia.

SEE ALSO: Back To School In Alexandria: ACPS 2021-22 Calendar

The mask policy changes come after the CDC updated guidelines last week recommending masking up in indoor public places in areas of substantial or high transmission of COVID-19 in response to spread of the delta variant. Substantial transmission has a range of 50 to 99 new cases per 100,000 people in the last seven days; Alexandria stands at 73.69 new cases per 100,000 people in the last seven days as of Tuesday.

The City of Alexandria has already implemented a mask requirement in city government facilities regardless of vaccination status. On Tuesday, health directors from Northern Virginia wrote a letter to local leaders recommending mask wearing indoors in public settings.