While the BA.5 variant of COVID-19鈥攖he most transmissible version of the virus to date鈥攕preads quickly around the country, many school and district leaders plan to start the 2022-23 school year with fewer pandemic precautions in place.
Leaders cite the importance of restoring a sense of normalcy for students after three consecutive school years of interruptions and heightened vigilance.
Even some of the most historically cautious school systems, like Los Angeles Unified, plan to ease policies on things like testing and mask-wearing, saying the pandemic is entering an endemic phase that families will need to learn to live with.
Public health officials say that vaccines, boosters, and anti-virals have helped prevent severe illness for most people who contract the new variant.
But BA.5 is able to evade previous immunity, causing some people to become sick repeatedly, which could lead to further interruptions in staffing and attendance that have stymied schools since the start of the pandemic. And scientists are still researching the prevalence and effects of long COVID鈥攃ases in which some symptoms persist for extended time periods beyond when an individual initially contracts the virus.
鈥淪chool leaders will do a combination of what the science tells them and what is politically possible,鈥� said Gigi Gronvall, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health.
School leaders should be prepared to protect students with health vulnerabilities and to pivot鈥攑utting protocols like periodic testing back in place if climbing rates of transmission make it difficult to keep schools open, Gronvall said.
A highly transmissible variant
Going into the new school year, many districts have dropped one of the most visible and contentious responses to the virus: mandatory universal masking.
As of Aug. 3, just seven of the nation鈥檚 500 largest districts required or planned to require universal mask wearing at the start of the school year, according to the tracking company Burbio.
That鈥檚 down from 369 districts in October 2021, the earliest date in the tracker. In addition to those districts with universal requirements, seven school systems plan partial requirements which may apply to targeted groups like staff or may only be in effect when virus levels cross a certain threshold, Burbio reported.
鈥淭he goal is to be in person, face-to-face, as close to normal as possible,鈥� said Morcease Beasley, the superintendent of the Clayton County, Ga., district, which started school Wednesday.
The district requires all adults and visitors to wear masks, but a new state law prevents such mandates for students. Beasley said precautions will help minimize interruptions, and his community has been cooperative.
鈥淪taff are being very supportive, visitors are being very supportive, and many students, while it鈥檚 not required of them, are wearing them as well,鈥� he said.
The shift away from mask requirements in many districts comes even as existing federal guidance suggests many students should cover their faces at school.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eased its recommendations on masking in February, telling schools they no longer needed to require it if their community falls in a low or medium community level under metrics that rely on rates of illness and hospital capacity, rather than total numbers of COVID-19 cases.
The agency recommends universal masking in public settings, including schools, in areas with high community levels. It urges high-risk individuals to consider masking in areas with medium community levels.
At the time of that change in guidance, 37 percent of counties had high levels. By July 28, 46 percent of counties had high community levels under the metrics.
Still, many school and district administrators have little interest in putting mask rules back in place.
鈥淢y biggest concern for my students is not COVID,鈥� said Jeff Bollinger, superintendent of the Mountain Valley school district in Saguache, Colo. 鈥淚鈥檓 more concerned with the social-emotional concerns that masking students causes. It鈥檚 not quantifiable, but it鈥檚 definitely discernable.鈥�
In Los Angeles, the nation鈥檚 second-largest school district, masks will be recommended but not required under new protocols announced Tuesday. The district also plans to end a universal mandatory testing program and requirements that students test negative before the first day of school, instead asking students to test if they are sick or in cases of potential outbreaks, the Los Angeles Times reported.
New York City schools, the nation鈥檚 largest district, plans to end a school-based testing program in the fall, reported Wednesday, citing an anonymous source.
Shifting guidance and pandemic conditions
The CDC and other public agencies have focused much of their guidance on the BA.5 variant on individuals. While the agency recommends people mask up in certain areas, for example, it stops short of saying that schools should mandate universal masking in those communities.
Several media outlets, including CNN, reported Wednesday that the CDC plans to update its guidance for schools this month. The agency is expected to deemphasize regular school-based COVID-19 testing for screening purposes, , and it is 鈥渆xpected to ease quarantine recommendations for people exposed to the virus and de-emphasize 6 feet of social distancing.鈥�
But many schools have already abandoned such strategies, and many educational leaders said social distancing was difficult or impossible to begin with.
Shifting public health guidance has intensified pressure on district leaders throughout the pandemic, and they鈥檝e sought to balance what鈥檚 practical and realistic with sometimes conflicting perceptions of risk within their own communities.
Sasha Pudelski, the advocacy director for AASA, the School Superintendents Association, wondered Wednesday whether new CDC guidance would have any practical effect for schools.
A CDC spokesperson did not confirm plans for new school guidance, saying only that the agency 鈥渋s always evaluating our guidance as science changes and will update the public as it occurs.鈥�
The spokesperson did not directly answer a question about whether schools in high community level areas should mandate masking.
鈥淚f your community level is listed as high, you should wear a mask in public indoor settings and practice other prevention strategies鈥攍ike staying up to date on vaccines, testing, and ventilation,鈥� she wrote in an email.
The national teachers鈥� unions, which have pushed for COVID-19 precautions in previous school years, have been less vocal about issues like masking as classes resume in many parts of the country. Neither the American Federation of Teachers nor the National Education Association had released a statement about rumored CDC guidance Thursday.
At the NEA鈥檚 July 5 convention, one member proposed that the union鈥檚 members call for 鈥渁 national policy of mandatory masking and COVID-19 vaccines in schools,鈥� but 84 percent of delegates voted against the proposal.
Keeping schools open and protecting the vulnerable
Advocates for students with disabilities, who are often at higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19, have pushed for universal school masking in the past to help preserve those students鈥� ability to safely go to school in person.
The U.S. Department of Education did not respond to questions this week about what direction it would give to schools as they enter a fourth school year affected by the virus. The agency investigated states that prohibited local mask mandates last year for potential violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
In March, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told schools they may have to make special considerations to preserve educational access for at-risk students.
That may mean the school provides higher-risk students with high-quality masks, like N95s, that can provide extra protection to the wearer, even if those around them have uncovered faces. It might also mean schools agree to extra precautions, like sanitizing and masking, in classrooms of higher-risk students, Cardona said at the time.
Hawaii, the only state that maintained a universal mask mandate at the end of the 2021-22 school year, recently dropped that requirement.
Districts in 11 states faced bans on mask requirements at the end of last school year, according to an Education Week analysis, and many of those bans remain in effect.
In July, a federal appeals court said Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, can keep a ban on local mask mandates in place while the court considers a challenge brought by parents of students with disabilities.
Second-guessing the virus is a surefire way to be wrong.
The National Parents Union, a group that advocates for parents鈥� involvement in school decision-making, urged school leaders this week to do more to prepare for the effects of contagious COVID-19 variants, and to engage families in their planning. The organization called on school leaders to improve ventilation, to hold classes outdoors when possible, and to minimize the potential for disruption.
鈥淲e cannot afford to lose any more time while we are still struggling to address the mental health crisis and education challenges our children are already facing,鈥� President Keri Rodrigues said in a statement. 鈥淲e expect our school leaders, superintendents, public health officials, state chiefs, governors, and policy makers to be proactive, prepared, and transparent around how we will handle this situation together moving forward鈥攊nstead of reacting after the fact.鈥�
Even as schools start the school year with fewer precautions, leaders should be prepared to shift strategies if they see outbreaks in their schools, if case rates climb, or if new variants prove more contagious or severe in children, said Gronvall, of Johns Hopkins.
That might mean reintroducing masks, even temporarily, or adding additional testing protocols, she said. And all leaders should focus on improving ventilation in school buildings and encouraging students and their families to get vaccinated and boosted, she said.
Precautions may be necessary not only to keep students safe, but to keep schools functioning, she said. Even if adults and students don鈥檛 require hospitalization from BA.5, repeated bouts of illness could make it even more difficult for principals to staff classrooms during a time of strained staffing.
鈥淟et鈥檚 do everything we can to keep schools open,鈥� Gronvall said. 鈥淭his virus has been a constant reminder of just how much we don鈥檛 know. Second-guessing the virus is a surefire way to be wrong.鈥�
