KN95 masks were handed out and will be required for 10 days after at least three people at Rosemary Hills Elementary School in Montgomery County tested positive for COVID-19, . The decision, announced by the school’s principal on Tuesday, sparked anger online from far beyond the school community. The mini-mandate even drew the attention of Donald Trump Jr., who posted on X (formerly known as Twitter): “DO NOT COMPLY!!!”

DO NOT COMPLY!!!

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr)

While Rosemary Hills appears to be the only school mandating masks this week, other districts are urging students and staff to take precautions as COVID cases rise. in Alabama posted a flyer to its Facebook page last week, urging the use of masks. “Please note this is not a mask mandate, but a general encouragement to be more conscious of our health,” the district noted on its Facebook post.

A middle school in Alabama’s Sumter County School District has been asking people to mask up since earlier this summer. “Due to the slow rise of Covid cases in the area, students, employees, and visitors are asked to wear facial masks starting Tuesday, August 22, 2023,” wrote on Facebook.

New York on Tuesday began making available to school districts and educational co-ops in the wake of rising hospitalizations in the state.

COVID politics and school closures

A handful of districts have gone remote in recent weeks after experiencing COVID outbreaks. Butner Public Schools in Oklahoma for virtual learning for two days last week after “the number of students & staff with confirmed COVID have reached a number where the safety of our students and staff is our most important concern,” the district said on its Facebook page.

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Several districts in Kentucky closed temporarily late last month.

But state officials elsewhere are vowing never to return to mask mandates or school closures. Also on X, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said her state will “.” That means schools will not close nor will masks or vaccinations be required. Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has also boasted in recent days that mask mandates are banned in his state.

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Ann Arbor Public Schools in Michigan has mandated well-fitting masks until Jan. 20 in an effort to prevent the disruptions caused by school closures and student illness, Superintendent Jeanice Kerr Swift said in this week. Ann Arbor administrators are prioritizing in-school learning as they monitor daily absentee and illness levels.

Chelsea Public Schools near Boston on Monday for the first time since April 2022, when the school board warned the mandates would return if community transmission levels spiked. Suffolk County, home to Chelsea Public Schools, is now designated as for COVID-19 transmission, Superintendent��Almi G. Abeyta said.

91心頭istrators at Arlington Public Schools on the other side of Boston have been strongly encouraging mask-wearing since the end of winter break on Jan. 3. Superintendent Elizabeth Homan told YourArlington.com that about have been wearing masks over the last week, resulting in a significant decrease in absenteeism.

in New Jersey has joined Philadelphia, Camden, and Passaic on a short but growing list of districts in the Mid-Atlantic region that are requiring masks during the first few weeks of 2023. Paterson’s mandate was put in place indefinitely on Jan. 3 due to local outbreaks of COVID-19, RSV, and flu cases.

New school mask mandates are evidence-based

Masks were found to have in Massachusetts schools that continued to require them after the state lifted its mandate in February 2022, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Schools that made masks optional saw an additional 45 COVID cases per 1,000 students and staff in the 15 weeks after the statewide requirement ended. The districts where leaders kept mandates in place had higher percentages of low-income students, students with disabilities, and English-language learners, as well as higher percentages of Black and Latinx students and staff, the study found.

Epidemiologists at the University of Michigan have also reaffirmed the effectiveness of masks in blocking the transmission of COVID and other respiratory illnesses. in the fall of 2021, students were more likely to contract COVID in districts that had dropped mandates. Researchers also found the spread of non-COVID respiratory illness was cut in half in a community where mask-wearing was common.

Mental health crisis: Why Seattle schools are suing 4 social media giants��

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Masks were as of Dec. 20 by Passaic Public Schools Superintendent Sandra Diodonet after the New Jersey district’s community moved into the high spread level for COVID spread. The mandate will be lifted when Passaic County drops back into the moderate to low range of spread, Diodonet said.

Also in New Jersey, students, staff and visitors at the Camden City School District will have to wear masks during the first two weeks after winter break (until Jan. 17). The school system continues to experience an increase in COVID, flu and RSV cases, Superintendent Katrina T. McCombs said in to the district. And administrators in the near Newark are encouraging parents to test students before returning after winter break and to strongly consider having children wear masks during the first two weeks of the year.

One of the biggest post-break mandates has been ordered in The School District of Philadelphia, which will also require masks during the first 10 school days of 2023. “Like the rest of the nation, we are still grappling with COVID-19 while dealing with other respiratory illnesses like the flu and RSV,” Superintendent Tony Watlington wrote in . “Increased social gathering during the holidays may increase the risk of exposure to these illnesses. We must all be extra vigilant in doing our part to help keep ourselves and those around us safe.

Masks were found to have in Massachusetts schools that continued to require them after the state lifted its mandate in February 2022, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Schools that made masks optional saw an additional 44.9 COVID cases per 1,000 students and staff in the 15 weeks after the statewide requirement ended. The districts where leaders kept mandates in place had higher percentages of low-income students, students with disabilities, and English-language learners, as well as higher percentages of Black and Latinx students and staff, the study found.

“We believe that universal masking may be especially useful for mitigating effects of structural racism in schools, including potential deepening of educational inequities,” the researchers wrote.

More from 91心頭: Student-teacher ratios are falling���Here are numbers from all 50 states��

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But those three districts are most certainly the outliers as many in and around education are pushing for a more normal school year.

The Berea Independent School District moved the first day of school from Thursday, Aug. 18, to Monday, Aug. 22, due to a staff shortage. “Due to the rise in COVID cases across the district, we would not have all staff present during the first days of school,” Superintendent Diane Hatchett said in . “What you do on the first days of school with students sets the tone for the entire year. We are committed to having a smooth start.”

Berea’s surrounding county is at the “medium” transmission level, according to the CDC.

On Friday, the CDC, which has promoted the tightest precautions throughout the pandemic, said students no longer have to quarantine or social distance, and that schools could discontinue ���test to stay��� programs. Many followed by loosening their own guidelines, if they hadn’t loosened them already.

More from 91心頭: Odds are, monkeypox won���t disrupt your schools���but COVID still might��

On the same day, however, the School District of Philadelphia announced , requiring all staff and students to wear face coverings during the first 10 days of school, from Aug. 29 to Sept 9. “This is an extra precaution for everyone���s health and well-being, since increased end-of-summer social gatherings may heighten the risk of exposure to COVID-19,” district and city health officials said. “Masking may then become optional under specific circumstances.”

Prince George���s County Public Schools in Maryland on Monday reinstated its mask mandate “” due to the contagiousness of the BA.5 variant, the district announced.

Despite the decreasing severity of the BA.5 variant, educators and parents should not completely let their guard down, 壊温霞壊油, director of the pediatric infectious disease division at Mass General for Children. Over the last two years, COVID has killed more children than all other vaccine-preventable diseases combined. ���School systems really should be encouraging vaccinations and thinking about mandates,��� Madhavan says. ���Let���s not let the impact on children get lost in the fact that there are so many adults who have gotten severely ill.���

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Still, educators and school nurses can encourage vulnerable parents to take precautions, such as being fully clothed when hugging their children.”We do not think it’s going to be a major issue within the pediatric population,” Vermund says. “Still, if a parent is at risk for monkeypox, that should modulate their behavior.”

School nurses will be on the lookout for monkeypox as they care for students this school year and assess whether a referral to an outside healthcare provider is necessary. “One of our roles is to do surveillance,” says , president of the National Association of School Nurses. “School nurses will have [monkeypox] on their radar even though this age group is not in the high-risk category.”

COVID remains a bigger threat than monkeypox

In guidelines just released for the coming school year, the state of Connecticut recommends school leaders use a strategic “” approach. This would allow children and staff with mild respiratory disease symptoms to attend school in person as long as they test negative, have no fever, wear a mask, and do not live with someone who has recently had COVID.

91心頭istrators must continue to keep track of community transmission to prepare for���or prevent���potential outbreaks in their buildings. “Everyone wants to get back to how things were,” Mendon巽a says. “Realistically, that probably isn’t the smartest thing to do as we still have variants.”

Schools should continue to offer flu and COVID vaccine clinics, and, as the state of Connecticut suggests, strongly consider requiring masks if there is a local surge in cases. “Masking is tricky, but we know that wearing a mask does work,” Mendon巽a says.

Child vaccination rates remain “suboptimal,” Vermund says. “It used to be that vaccinating adults was very challenging and difficult, and vaccinating children was more straightforward,” he says. “Now it’s the other way around, for reasons that are not completely apparent.”

Public health officials remain concerned that COVID will surge again during respiratory virus season in the late fall or winter. If that occurs, administrators will have to consider mask mandates and ramping up other safety measures. “We could have some of the same disruptions that we’ve had over the past two years, which we want to do everything we can to avoid,” Vermund says. “The evidence is abundant that home-based learning through a child���s computer is not as effective as school-based learning.”

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Vaccinated and unvaccinated students and staff in Kentucky’s largest district, Jefferson County Public Schools, will start the year , the district announced this week. School there resumes five days a week on Aug. 11. The school board approved the requirement after Jefferson County moved into the “red”���the highest stage of COVID transmission.

The district is also seeking permission from the Kentucky Department of Education to offer virtual learning to K-5 students. The district’s request for��6th- to 12th-grade remote instruction has already been approved. Virtual students will receive��live instruction and self-guided assignments and enroll in a one-year program at the district’s��Pathfinder School of Innovation.

The district received mostly criticism on social media.

As a student I hate wearing them cause if you need to take a break from it for a little bit the only time we get is lunch and if we go outside that���s about it so why do we have to be forced to wear something if it���s not are choice

— Abigail (@Wwerheafan)

San Diego USD in California reinstated a mask mandate on July 18, after San Diego County also reached the highest level of COVID transmission. The decision motivated anti-mask parents across the region to run for seats on their local school boards,��. Some candidates belong to a group called .

The Sweetwater Union High School District just south of San Diego is and adult visitors to wear masks when they are around others inside school buildings. 91心頭istrators are also asking all students and staff in classrooms where there are��immunocompromised individuals to wear masks.

In Georgia, staff���but not students or visitors���will be required to wear masks at Gwinnett County Schools in the Atlanta suburbs, the district said .�����We���ll look at the data every week, and if it goes back into moderate or low transmission, we���ll be back to strongly recommending (masks),��� instead of requiring them, Deputy Superintendent Nakia Towns said at a school board meeting, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Staff and visitors now have to wear masks at Clayton County Schools, which is also in the Atlanta suburbs. ���As positive COVID-19 cases continue to rise throughout the state and nation, we must take necessary steps to ensure employees and students are afforded a safe learning and work environment,��� . ���This is a necessary step to protect all that enter our schools and facilities.���

What will it take for you to ever give up masks? What's the plan? Covid zero is not a possibility.

— Be Offended (@Sunflower8649)

Mask mandate-free first day

Many districts, of course, dropped mask mandates last school year. This summer, a few holdouts are following suit. Prince George’s County Public Schools, which had kept one of Maryland’s longest mandates in place, announced earlier this month that masks were on its campuses as of July 1.��Leaders at Flint Community Schools in Michigan recently decided masks when classes begin on Aug. 3.

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A large majority of principals reported working harder, working longer hours, and having a more difficult time doing their job in a December NASSP survey that warned of a potential “mass exodus” of building leaders. “Principals��should be paid more,” Nozoe says. “The pandemic has highlighted a lot of the stuff they’ve dealt with as they’ve taken on more responsibility than ever before. Their salaries have never been commensurate with other leaders or administrators in similar professions.”

Principals have long been accustomed to administrative management and instructional leadership but they added the roles of public health expert, crisis manager and mental health therapist for staff and students during the pandemic, Nozoe says. Principals are also having to cope with becoming the preferred target of parents and others who are angry about mask mandates, curricula and cultural issues, he adds.

Snapshots of current salary levels in a handful of states and large districts may offer a glimpse of trends nationwide. In Texas, wages have been rising steadily in recent years. The average principal salary was��$97,657 in 2021-22, a slight increase from��$95,965 in 2020-21 and油$94,739 in 2019-20, according to . The average was��$85,262 in 2014-2015.

In Illinois, salary increases dropped slightly, from 2.6% to 1.8%, between 2018 and 2020. The decrease appears to have been caused by the retirements of more experienced principals who earned higher salaries,��according to the . About a third of the districts in the state were reporting administrator shortages in 2021.

In New York City schools, salaries range from $179,740 for a first-year elementary school principal to $191,372 for a high school principal with 15 years of longevity, from the Council of School Supervisors and 91心頭istrators union. Building leaders at all levels have seen steady increases���for instance, that first-year elementary school principal earned $150,330 in 2019; the salary for a junior high school principal with five years of longevity grew from $162,705 in 2019 to $174,096 in 2021.

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In the School District of Palm Beach County in Florida, principals’ pay in 2021 ranged from about $98,000 to $140,000, with the potential to rise to around $167,000 based on certain performance measures. Across the state in Sarasota County Public Schools, principals’ salaries ranged from��$94,598 to��$127,527.

Based on recent conversations with principals, Nozoe says it appears some of the burnout and frustration principals were experiencing at the height of the pandemic may be easing. That may reduce the threat of a “mass exodus.”

“It’s bittersweet���bitter because of some of the working conditions principals have gone through, and sweet because we’re seeing the character of these folks,” Nozoe says. “They’re saying ‘If not us, then who?’ It’s ‘Kids, parents, and staff need me, so I’m going to stay on.'”

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In fact, more districts continue to lift mandates than impose them.

K-12 vaccine mandates remain even rarer���in fact, they are virtually non-existent. California, the biggest state with plans to require COVID vaccinations for school enrollment, has delayed any new rules until at least July 2023. Because COVID vaccines are not yet��fully approved for all students in the 7-12 grade span, officials will need more time to implement a mandate, .

Fewer and fewer masks

Both of the major districts in Minnesota’s Twin Cities have now lifted their mask mandates for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic. Minneapolis Public Schools on Monday (April 18) with case rates and hospitalizations having declined significantly from previous peaks. “We know COVID-19 isn’t gone forever, but we are hopeful that our community is entering a lull in the pandemic,” the district said.

Saint Paul Public Schools also lifted its mask mandate on Monday. The district’s school board said face coverings will remain optional when COVID rates are low to moderate in its communities. 91心頭istrators still strongly recommend that unvaccinated students and staff, as well as those with high-risk health conditions, continue to wear masks.

More from 91心頭:油More activist parents aren’t going away. Here’s how to work with them.��

Elsewhere in the Midwest, the mask mandate in Milwaukee Public Schools ends on Tuesday (April 19), when students return from spring break. The district will continue to provide access to COVID testing. 91心頭istrators in all three of these big Midwestern districts warned families that mask mandates would likely return if cases rates rise sharply.

Masks are again required through at least Friday (April 22) at one North Carolina high school, where last week’s prom appears to have sparked a COVID outbreak and exposed the entire staff and student population. last week linked 15 cases to the prom and said 15 other individuals appear to have contracted the virus at school.

91心頭istrators at , in Missouri’s Webster Groves School District, imposed a two-week mask mandate when new COVID-19 cases exceeded 1.5% of the building population.

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Anti-mask protests, restrictions on teaching LGTBQ topics, and other campaigns around conservative issues have drawn a lot of recent media attention. But parents on the other side of the spectrum have also mobilized behind liberal causes such as equity and teacher diversity, says “,” by Georgetown University’s FutureEd think tank.

“A new generation of far more activist parent organizations are springing up across the country, propelled by the internet, the rise of video conferencing, social media, and millions of dollars in backing from foundations seeking to bring the voices of underrepresented families and communities into the work of school improvement,” says the report, which also covers how educators and policymakers can work more productively with these groups.

First of all, PTAs and PTOs���the traditional parent engagement outlets���are in decline, in part because the groups have been viewed by some as catering mostly��to white families who have been hesitant to take stands on controversial issues. This has given rise to organizations such as��Atlanta Thrive, PAVE, The Memphis Lift, the National Parents Union, and��Village of Wisdom, which advocate for parents of color and families living in poverty.

These equity-oriented groups are also receiving millions of dollars in support from powerful foundations and other philanthropic groups such as the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and the Walton Family Foundation.��“Some of these local parent groups are fast expanding into national organizations with scores of local chapters���a sign that today’s heightened parental activism represents not just the latest skirmish in the nation’s culture wars but a more permanent change in the education policy landscape,” the report says.

This activism is also providing plenty of fuel for Republican state lawmakers, who have proposed dozens of bills that regulate how schools teach about race, sexual education, sexual orientation, and gender identity. The conservative politicians, touting parents’ rights and��curriculum transparency, have been joined by new parent-led organizations such as Moms for Liberty, which was a key backer of the controversial��Parents Bill of Rights in Florida.

“The pandemic has intensified this new parent activism by turning kitchen tables into classrooms, stoking parents’ frustrations with school closings and online learning,” the report says. “And it has spawned new conservative parent organizations opposed to mask mandates, vaccines, and district attempts to confront issues of race, gender and sexuality in schools���agendas that at times put them in direct opposition to parents pursuing educational equity, and agendas that have turned more than a few school board meetings into civic punch-ups.”

Working with parents

While the report says these parent activists are here to say, education leaders can forge better working relationships by inviting them into the decision-making process.��91心頭istrators are advised to make a concerted effort to gain the trust of traditionally marginalized families, starting with holding meetings out in the community at places and times that parents find more convenient.

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Some districts have appointed a cabinet-level official who is responsible for community engagement and strongly encouraged teachers to work with families on learning plans for each student. For example,��District of Columbia Public Schools’ Office of Family and Public Engagement has worked with the PAVE organization to spread information about various district programs, including its new school ratings system. “While external parent advocacy organizations will continue to put pressure on districts when they think it is necessary,” the report says, “smart district leaders are proactively reaching out to families to engage their views as they develop district policies and practices, a strategy that can help forge stronger parental backing for district policies at the��front end, while ensuring policies are more responsive to students and their parents.”

The report also describes how��the Burlington School District in Vermont invited students, families, community members, teachers, and administrators to play key roles in a ���radically inclusive��� strategic planning process in the summer of 2021. Among the priorities set by the group are establishing a sense of belonging for students and families, and setting school performance metrics that will be shared with the community.

‘While some of the more politically motivated parent activists���including conservatives who see education as a means to push back against what they view as damaging cultural shifts���might withdraw after the 2022 elections, the broader surge of parent activism is likely to persist,” the report concludes. “Social media has expanded communications dramatically and changed power dynamics, and parents have new, pandemic-sharpened expectations for their children’s learning.”

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The long-standing mask mandate in Saint Paul Public Schools in Minnesota next Monday with COVID falling to low- to medium levels in surrounding Ramsey County. “While this change will be welcomed by many, we know that it may concern others,” said officials, adding that vaccination and testing will remain high priorities. “Staff and students will be supported in their decision to wear or not wear a mask.”

Two-year-old mandates are ending in two large California districts. Students in Sacramento City USD will no longer have to wear masks when spring break ends on April 18. Transmission has been low in Sacramento County for four straight weeks. “It’s still too soon to declare the pandemic is over, so please continue to practice the ‘self, family, community’ safety degrees as appropriate for your individual circumstances,” . “The need for masking may come and go, like the need for a jacket in winter.”

Nearby, Davis Joint USD lifted its mandate on Monday, recognizing the decision may create both anxiety and relief. “Although we may hold different opinions about face coverings, we expect our students, staff and visitors to continue to treat each other with respect, civility and understanding as it is likely there will be students and staff who choose to continue wearing a face covering, and many who choose not to continue wearing a face covering,” Davis Joint USD��.

Down south, Montgomery Public Schools in Alabama lifted its mandate on Monday.

Another pandemic-long mandate may soon come to an end in Detroit, where Superintendent Nikolai Vitti may drop the requirement next week, . The Detroit Public Schools Community District is one of only a few Michigan districts that still mandates masks, according to Chalkbeat. And Durham Public Schools, one of the last districts still requiring masks in North Carolina, dropped its requirement on Monday, .

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But in Kansas’ Shawnee Mission School District, masks are mandatory again in six elementary schools where COVID cases have risen above 5%, .

School districts in several parts of the country have reported an uptick in COVID cases in recent days as the subvariant causes new infections in surrounding communities, particularly in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. The stiffest measure taken so far is in Philadelphia, which will reimpose a citywide indoor mask mandate beginning Monday. The mandate will cover schools, which will reopen after spring break on April 18.

School closures are even more scarce.��Radnor Township School District in suburban Philadelphia will be remote next Monday, the first day after spring break, due to a rise in COVID cases among students and staff. This week, Maranacook High School in Maine returned to in-person learning after being remote for two weeks due to a staffing shortage caused by a COVID spike.

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