Johnson County to end school mask mandates, defer to districts to set COVID-19 rules
Johnson County ended its school mask mandate for its youngest students, effective Thursday, in favor of allowing individual school districts to set their own rules as COVID-19 cases continue to drop from last month’s record highs.
Eliminating the countywide order does not necessarily mean that masks are optional for all students and staff immediately, however, as four of the county’s six public school districts still have measures in place that will reinstate temporary mask mandates should cases rise to certain thresholds at different campuses.
“We’re not just kind of throwing our hands up in the air, there are some measures in place to keep us from going off the rails, so to speak,” County Commissioner Janee Hanzlick said. “This situation does not mean the pandemic is over, it doesn’t mean we’ll never have to revisit any measures or orders in the future.”
The Johnson County Board of Commissioners, which also serves as the public health board, has debated the order requiring masks for students, teachers and staff in buildings up to sixth grade almost every week over the past two months amid dueling pressures of the omicron surge and critics’ contention that local school boards should get to set individualized rules district to district.
The board first implemented the order in August in an attempt to prevent the virus’s spread in schools, potentially sending students back to remote learning, amid what was then a large surge in delta variant cases and months before vaccines became available for children 5 to 11 years old.
County leaders came under intense pressure from parents and other elected officials to drop the mandate at end of the fall semester, when the first vaccines for young children were made available, but opted to continue its mandate as it became clear the highly contagious omicron variant would cause cases, hospitalizations and deaths to skyrocket.
Johnson County was among the communities across the country shattering previous COVID records with a rate of 2,400 cases per 100,000 residents at its peak — five times higher than the previous record — and a positivity rate of more than 31% — more than double that previous record, county data show.
Those numbers have dropped sharply over the past three weeks as the omicron wave recedes and the county is now observing 298 cases per 100,000 residents and an 11.9% percent testing positivity rate, the data show.
County leaders agreed the trend is good enough news to rescind its mask mandate entirely and turn over all student masking decisions to the local school boards. Even though the case numbers are still higher than when they first implemented the mandate in August, county leaders noted the vaccines for children 5 to 11 years old have now been widely available for three months and data show that more than 43% of children in that age group have received at least one dose.
“All of that is encouraging and I think adds credibility to the fact that community spread is coming down and hopefully will continue to drop,” commission Chairman Ed Eilert said.
The decision follows recent moves by school and municipal leaders across the metro to drop mask rules as COVID cases and hospitalizations fall.
The Olathe school board already agreed to lift its mask mandate in all schools beginning Friday and the Gardner Edgerton school district will drop its mask mandate in all schools starting Monday.
Schools in the Blue Valley and Shawnee Mission districts also have made masks optional, however, mandates will be temporarily reimplemented should a Blue Valley school hit a 10% absenteeism rate due to illness or a Shawnee Mission exceeds either a 3% COVID infection rate or absences exceed 5%.
Johnson County Health Director Dr. Sanmi Areola told county leaders Thursday that they are working with individual districts to set and follow those guidelines. He cautioned the decision likely will increase cases, but said the health department is more equipped to help contain spread as the omicron surge releases its grip on the region.
“Changing the policy will change the level of risk,” Areola said. “Opening things up will result in a higher level of cases. That will happen. But our goal will be to continue to work with our schools to minimize outbreaks so one or two infections does not turn into 10 or 15 infections ... We will continue to work with our schools, we think we have enough resources to do that now.”
County Commissioner Becky Fast cast the lone vote against ending the mandate, noting it could put young students who are immunocompromised or immunosuppressed at risk each day in their own schools. Areola noted both local and national public health guidelines continue to recommend face masks for those who are themselves more at risk from the virus or are working closely with those who are.
“We’ll continue to work no matter what the policies are to create conditions where every one of our residents can be as healthy as they can with the understanding that public health interventions typically involve trade offs and there’s always consideration of competing values,” Areola said. “Every policy option has pros and cons, but our role as the health department does not change.”
Regardless of the status of mask mandates countywide or within each school district, Hanzlick urged residents to be respectful of the vulnerable people and children in their lives and to wear a face mask around them no matter the official rules.
“There’s no mandate that can make people do the kind and compassionate and right thing, but I hope people will look into their own hearts and make those decisions so all of our kids can feel safe at school with or without a mask mandate,” Hanzlick said. “It shouldn’t have to be a mandate to do the right thing.”
