As indoor mask requirements fell away across the country this week, leaders in the states home to America’s largest school districts made an important distinction: Classrooms are different from other public spaces, they argued, and mandates there will remain in place — for now.
The governors of California, Illinois and New York all announced plans in recent days to phase out mask rules for businesses, but said they needed more time and data before they could make a decision about face coverings in schools, one of the most contentious and hotly debated aspects of the pandemic response.
In making the case for this stance, each leader pointed to two primary factors: Vaccination rates for children, particularly the youngest eligible, remain far lower than those of adults; and social distancing is more difficult in schools, where students spend hours in proximity at desks, in hallways and in cafeterias.
“Schools are unlike most other environments,” Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) said Wednesday. “The equation for schools just looks different right now than it does for the general population. Schools just need a little more time — for community infection rates to drop, for our youngest learners to become vaccine eligible and for more parents to get their kids vaccinated.”
Children are in school “for six to eight hours, five days a week, week after week after week,” he added. “That’s very different than someone going to a bar even for two hours or going to a ballgame.”
In New York, where the indoor mandate expires Thursday, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said her office will reassess the situation in schools after students return from midwinter break, saying the decision “is not reactive, it is thoughtful.” She said schools are different from workplaces, where “people have the ability for movement.”
“Kids are in a very concentrated setting,” Hochul said. “And also adults can make their own decisions. Children still need adults to look out for their health.”
California, meanwhile, will announce “in a matter of days” its plans for updating the statewide school mask mandate, which is set to continue after the business requirements expire next week, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said Wednesday. He said the “fundamental factor” will be the rate of vaccination among children.
Still, the leaders signaled that, if virus and inoculation trends continue moving in the right directions, they will lift the mandate for schools, perhaps as early as sometime next month.
