Mask mandate may relax in Miami-Dade schools

Children with face mask back at school after covid-19 quarantine and lockdown.
Officials say a decline incases and quarantines will determine district action.

The mask mandate for students in some South Florida schools could be eased by the end of October as local rates of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations continue to fall, officials said.

The number of students needing to quarantine in Miami-Dade County public schools has dropped significantly since school started in August, school Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said Wednesday.

He said the decision would be based on the latest COVID-19 data and the advice of a task force of local doctors advising the district.

The easing of the mask policy would give parents an opt-out provision for their children, he said.

A parental opt out was the original back-to-school plan in Miami. But the delta variant spread rapidly across Florida during the summer, causing a spike in cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

The district, which is the state’s largest, joined a handful of other districts — representing about half of Florida’s public school students — in adopting mask requirements with an opt-out only for medical reasons.

That defied an order by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose administration directed schools to allow parents to decide whether children wore masks in school.

In Miami-Dade last week, less than 1,000 of the district’s 330,000 students were required to quarantine, which was an all-time low, Carvalho said. He attributed the success to the district’s COVID-19 protocols, including mask mandates and quarantine policies.

The school mask issue landed in court, and the state began imposing financial penalties on districts defying the state mandate. The penalties have included docking salaries of local school board members who voted to impose student mask mandates.

___

Republished with permission of the Associated Press

Associated Press



#FlaPol

Florida Politics is a statewide, new media platform covering campaigns, elections, government, policy, and lobbying in Florida. This platform and all of its content are owned by Extensive Enterprises Media.

Publisher: Peter Schorsch @PeterSchorschFL

Contributors & reporters: Phil Ammann, Drew Dixon, Roseanne Dunkelberger, A.G. Gancarski, Anne Geggis, Ryan Nicol, Jacob Ogles, Cole Pepper, Gray Rohrer, Jesse Scheckner, Christine Sexton, Drew Wilson, and Mike Wright.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @PeterSchorschFL
Phone: (727) 642-3162
Address: 204 37th Avenue North #182
St. Petersburg, Florida 33704




Sign up for Sunburn


Categories