Johnson County district makes masks optional for older students as COVID cases fall
The De Soto school board on Monday unanimously agreed to make COVID-19 masks optional for high school students, effective Wednesday.
The school district, like most others in Johnson County, has had a universal mask mandate since the school year began. But board members decided it was time to remove the mandate for high schoolers as COVID-19 cases decline.
Masks will remain optional for high schoolers as long as the percentage of students needing to quarantine or isolate after being exposed to the virus remains below 4%. Otherwise, the mandate will be reinstated. Masks would then become optional again if that number drops below 2% for two consecutive weeks.
Johnson County’s health order requires schools that serve students as old as sixth grade to mandate masks. All public districts, except for Spring Hill, went beyond that order and implemented universal mask mandates.
With masks optional for high schoolers, De Soto, in the northwest corner of the county, will continue to follow the county order and require face coverings in elementary and middle schools.
And due to federal regulations, high school students and staff must still wear masks on school buses.
“The Board made the decision to make masks optional at the high school level in light of declining community spread of COVID-19, declining spread among students, and the high rate of vaccinations among high school-aged students and adults,” district officials said in a statement.
The number of new COVID-19 cases has been steadily declining in Johnson County, after sharp peaks this summer. On Monday, the county reported an incidence rate — or the number of new cases per 100,000 people in the past seven days — of 91 per 100,000. That’s down from a rate of 191 per 100,000 on Sept. 16.
The county has recently been downgraded from a “high” transmission area, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance, to a “substantial” transmission area. At that level, the CDC continues to recommend everyone wear masks indoors in public.
According to the district’s dashboard, 13 students were required to isolate after contracting the virus last week, and 17 students had to quarantine after being exposed to it.
De Soto also is moving toward a “test to stay and learn” policy, where the district will provide free, daily voluntary COVID-19 testing for all students and staff who are identified as close contacts of an exposure by the county health department. Students and staff will be allowed to remain in school, rather than quarantining, as long as they continue to test negative.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREWhy do health officials think masks are so important in schools?
COVID-19 spreads mainly from person to person through respiratory droplets, which travel into air when someone coughs, sneezes or talks. Masks are a simple barrier to help prevent those droplets from reaching others, so, studies show, they reduce the spread of COVID-19.
Masks are especially important in schools, public health experts say, where hundreds of people are indoors, in close contact, and children under 12 remain ineligible for the COVID-19 vaccine. Three recent studies showed school districts without universal masking policies were more likely to have COVID-19 outbreaks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Read more by clicking the arrow in the upper right.
Which school districts still don’t have universal mask mandates?
Most Kansas City area school districts have universal mask mandates this fall.
In Kansas, most Wyandotte and Johnson County districts are requiring masks, with the majority requiring them for all grade levels. Spring Hill, though, is only mandating masks for younger students, and has left them optional for high schoolers. The district also has allowed parents to sign mask exemption forms, which require a doctor’s signature in neighboring districts.
On the Missouri side, the majority of districts are mandating masks. But the Raymore-Peculiar district and some other smaller districts in Cass County and more rural areas have made masks optional.
