These Johnson County school districts will not mandate any masks for start of school
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COVID-19 safety in schools
For the new school year, as COVID-19 cases are surging and hospitals are turning away patients, Kansas City area districts are making decisions about safety.
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As COVID-19 cases spike throughout the Kansas City area, almost all of Johnson County’s school districts have decided not to mandate masks when classes begin next month.
This week, the Blue Valley district decided masks will be optional for everyone, but strongly encouraged for students and staff who are not fully vaccinated. Officials in the Olathe, De Soto, Spring Hill and Gardner-Edgerton districts have previously said the same.
The last major Johnson County district to decide, Shawnee Mission, is expected to announce its COVID-19 protocols at a school board meeting Monday, spokesman David Smith said.
Meanwhile in Wyandotte County, the Kansas City, Kansas, school district announced Tuesday night a much more cautious approach, saying that masks would be required for all students and staff.
Update: Wednesday night, the COVID-19 coordinator for Kansas City Public Schools recommended masks for all staff and students. The district is expected to adopt the mandate at a school board meeting in August.
As of Wednesday, other Kansas City area districts either will not mandate masks or hadn’t yet made a decision on the matter.
Last week, Johnson County health officials issued guidance recommending that children who have not been fully vaccinated wear masks for the start of school. That advice comes as the highly contagious delta variant has become the dominant strain in Johnson County, officials have said, and as COVID-19 cases continue to rise.
The county’s positivity rate — or number of new cases in the past 14 days — had remained low for a few months, hovering around 3% and even dropping to 1.5% in early June. But for the past month, the numbers have surged. The positivity rate was 7.4% on Wednesday.
That’s the highest since January, according to county health department data.
A group of 100 Kansas City area physicians signed a letter, pleading with school districts to require masks for all students who are not eligible yet for the vaccine, under the age of 12.
On Monday, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended “universal masking” for the coming school year. That differs from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance for schools, which says that people who are not fully vaccinated should wear face masks, especially when “indoors or in crowded settings.”
At the Blue Valley school board meeting, several parents argued against mask mandates for any students, saying it should be a personal choice made by families.
Districts have emphasized that officials will continue to monitor COVID-19 in the community and reevaluate protocols when necessary.
This story was originally published July 21, 2021 at 11:08 AM.
