Students enrolled in Oregon public schools will have to wear masks when they return to classrooms this fall.
Gov. Kate Brown on Thursday directed the Oregon Health Authority and the Department of Education to write rules instituting the requirement, weeks after the agencies issued guidelines strongly suggesting districts do so on their own. The order will apply to anyone older than 2 who enters a school building, including teachers, volunteers and contractors.
State schools chief Colt Gill says the coming rule will also apply to in-person summer programs.
Oregon school districts have mounted a concentrated push to get as many students in front of a teacher as possible in July and August to offset the impacts of a year of learning virtually. Families and educators across the state have almost universally said remote learning fell short of meeting students’ academic and social needs.
And, unlike last year’s school mask rules, the coming guidance will provide exceptions for band practices for students playing wind instruments and sports where “wearing a mask could be a strangulation hazard such as gymnastics or wrestling.”
The state’s about-face on masks in schools comes as various public health organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Association of Pediatrics, have strongly urged the nation’s K-12 schools to require students, staff and faculty wear masks indoors to prevent the spread of the delta variant and avoid outbreaks that keep kids out of classrooms.
A potential vaccine for children younger than 12 is also still a ways out.
“With many children still ineligible to be vaccinated, masks are an effective way to help keep our kids safe in the classroom, the learning environment we know serves them best,” Brown said in a release.
The latest COVID-19 mutation is more contagious than its predecessors and in Oregon has led to a surge in infections and hospitalizations. On Tuesday, state health officials reported 1,000 new infections for the first time in months.
And on Wednesday, Oregon health officials reported the state had reached 274 active hospitalizations due to COVID-19.
A coming Oregon Department of Education and Health Authority rule would override any district policies on masks in classrooms. As of Thursday, few districts had settled on their fall plans.
In the Portland area, only Lake Oswego said it will require elementary schoolers to mask up while indoors when classes begin. Portland Public Schools officials announced Tuesday that all students participating in in-person summer programs held indoors must wear masks but said a decision on fall wouldn’t come until mid-August.
COVID-19 mitigation measures were a major point of contention in local school board races this May. In the rural Coquille district, Superintendent Tim Sweeney said parents may push back hard if the state or districts require masks.
“They’ve hit the wall with all of this,” he told the Oregon School Boards Association’s Jake Arnold. “I think you will see superintendents lose their jobs at an alarming rate if they require masks.”
--Eder Campuzano | 503-221-4344 | @edercampuzano | Eder on Facebook
Eder is The Oregonian’s education reporter. Do you have a tip about Portland Public Schools? Email ecampuzano@oregonian.com.
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