Many California K-12 schools drop masks this week. Here’s what to know as order ends for most
California’s mask mandate for K-12 campuses ended over the weekend, making this the first week of in-person learning without face coverings required at the state level in nearly two years.
The change comes as COVID-19 numbers drop to their lowest levels in months following winter’s steep omicron surge.
The state dropped its indoor mask requirement for the vaccinated general public in mid-February and for the unvaccinated on March 1, largely in response to the drop in transmission.
There are still some exceptions: masks remain mandatory in several settings including hospitals, nursing homes and on public transit. But K-12 schools are no longer on that list.
Masks won’t come off at all schools, though. Some districts in the Sacramento area are waiting, keeping their face covering policies in place for at least a few more weeks.
Which Sacramento-area districts are keeping mask policies?
Sacramento City Unified last week announced it will not remove its indoor mask requirement until Sacramento County has been classified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as having a “low” community level for COVID-19 for four consecutive weeks.
The CDC placed Sacramento into “low” for the first time in a weekly update last Thursday, meaning the earliest Sacramento City Unified could meet the requirement would be four weeks later on April 7.
If that happens, the district said it will downgrade the mask order on April 18, upon return from spring break.
Davis Joint Unified announced earlier this month it will remove its indoor mask mandate April 11.
“This date was chosen to provide students and staff time to make health-related decisions, prepare for the changing policy and protect against a possible COVID-19 surge following spring break,” the district wrote.
Davis Joint Unified adjourns for spring break next week.
What about local higher education campuses?
Since the statewide mask order expired in mid-February, universities and community colleges have been free to set their own campus-level policies.
The four-campus Los Rios Community College District in the Sacramento area ended its indoor mask requirement Monday, joining K-12 schools, and Sierra College in Rocklin lifted its requirement over the weekend.
Sacramento State and UC Davis will each end their mask mandates after this coming Friday, which is the last day of instruction before spring break.
Could mask mandate return to all California K-12 schools?
The California Department of Public Health formally updated its guidance for K-12 schools on Saturday, downgrading mask use from a requirement to a strong recommendation.
The state did not rule out a return to mandatory masking, if conditions change.
“CDPH will continue to assess conditions on an ongoing basis to determine when and how to update masking guidance,” state health officials wrote in the new guidance.
The guidance mentions “transmission patterns, global surveillance, variant characteristics, disease severity” and a few other factors that could influence mask protocol, but did not set any particular threshold that would prompt a return to the K-12 mandate.
Sacramento City Unified, though, said in its announcement this month that it would return to a mask mandate if Sacramento County enters the CDC’s high level.
The district also said it would “consider” a return if the county enters the medium level, “depending on global/national/local trends.”
What are the CDC’s community levels?
The CDC recently introduced a three-tier community-level system that classifies counties in the U.S. as being at low, medium or high levels of COVID-19. The list is updated weekly on Thursdays.
The agency recommends universal indoor mask use for the general public, including at K-12 schools, in counties with a high community level.
It does not advise masking at the low or medium levels, though it says those who share a household or frequently visit someone with high risk for severe disease should consider wearing a mask.
The system considers case and hospital numbers to classify counties.
Most of California’s 58 counties are in the low level as of last week’s update, including the four-county capital region of Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer and Yolo.
With infection and hospital numbers both still trending downward in the capital region, according to local, state and federal health data, the four counties appear likely to remain in the low level for at least the next few weeks.
Only two of California’s 58 counties were in the high level: Del Norte and Kings. A little more than a dozen are in medium, all located in the Central Valley or rural Northern California.
This story was originally published March 14, 2022 at 12:59 PM.
