Fourth-grade camping trips led to one outbreak and a high school prom to the next. But even with this, covid cases risingAs schools enter the last stretch of the academic school year, most California districts are not moving towards reinstating mask mandates.
This has caused many parents to be concerned and confused as they witness or hear about covid epidemics among students after field trips or proms.
California school administrators are trying to beat the outbreaks by working as fast as possible. The BerkeleyThe school system and some other institutions have reversed their mask-optional policies and the San DiegoParents were notified by the district that masks could be reinstituted if there are more cases. But most districts — including those in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland — haven’t revisited their guidance as summer draws near.
“I do not plan on making any new recommendations in the final three weeks of school,” Dublin Unified Superintendent Chris Funk told KHNWe note that the Alameda County Public Health Department has lifted mandatory masking rules in schools more than two months ago.
Administrators are reluctant to open up their districts to legal challenges, among other reasons. The attempt to create statewide school covid protocols was met with sometimes-fierce resistance from the beginning. Some districts, many of them rural, ignored California’s school mask mandate. Roseville Joint Union High school District, which has approximately 12,000 students in Placer, Sacramento, and other counties, was established in February. dropped the mask ruleEven though the statewide mandate was still in effect,
Another reason that schools aren’t rushing back to masking, several administrators told KHNIt is important to note that, even though there are more cases than ever before, most counties follow county guidelines. These tie public health precautions with either the number or strain they would cause on local health services. Hospital admission rates are two weeks behind positive case rates. Despite this, hospitalizations are still low, probably due to the availability of antiviral and vaccine treatments.
“We should be past mask mandates, period,” said Dr. Jeanne Noble, who directs covid emergency response at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center. She stated that the virus does not pose a significant risk to young and vaccinated people and that people should adjust to living with covid. That means taking a “test-to-treat” approach, she said, rather than trying to prevent transmission. The Biden administration is moving to a model where patients are tested and then treated with antiviral pills such as Pfizer’s Paxlovid or Merck’s molnupiravir to lower their risk of going to the hospital.
“I know my advice sounds scary to many, but covid is here to stay,” Noble said. “That is the endgame.”
Some parents may find this difficult to sell.
When 40 out of 100 fourth graders at Deterding Elementary in the San Juan Unified School District in Sacramento County contracted covid after sharing cabins during a sleep-away field trip, the school was overwhelmed by inquiries from parents of students in other grades wondering whether the health rules at school were about to change — and whether the fifth-grade camping trip, scheduled for June 1, would go on.
It will, although the district will monitor local conditions and public health guidance, according to Raj Rai, the district’s communications director.
Parents were upset or confused by the announcement that the fifth grade trip would continue on schedule, despite the fact that the district was following county-specific health guidelines. Melanie Allen, Deterding principal, stated that such confusion is a common theme in a school year markedly by changing public health guidelines.
“Even though information was posted clearly by the district on the website, parents reached out constantly to school administrators to clarify next steps for exposure or positive results,” the principal wrote in an email to KHN.
The rising case rates forced the Berkeley district to make a late reconsideration — it reinstated mandatory masking in classrooms from May 23 until the end of its school year, on June 3. Superintendent Brent Stephens noted in an update on the district’s website that in addition to the spiking student infection numbers, the district could find substitutes for only about half of its absent teachers. He said that district administrators are working in classrooms to fill the shifts. The city’s chief public health officer strongly recommended the move back to mandatory masking.
“As we are not a health agency, we must rely on these experts to guide us,” Stephens wrote.
Very few of California’s more than 1,000 school districts have joined the Berkeley system in making such a decision. On May 16, Pacific Grove school officials, near Monterey, directed that all students in its approximately 2,000 classrooms wear masks. Katrina Powley is the district nurse. She stated that the district is one among the few that has tied its masking policy to the case rates in Monterey County. Therefore, when those rates moved from “low” to “moderate” transmission, a mask mandate was triggered.
Early May saw the election of the board of trustees for San Mateo Union High school District. extend its mask mandateThe prom was held in San Francisco, April. It was extended until June 1, and the protocols were strengthened. an outbreakAmong the 90 students who were present.
Despite the statewide covid surge, these districts are still in the minority. Roughly 20 schoolsIn Marin County, there were outbreaks of disease in May. In the East Bay, the Dublin school district saw rates rise fivefold from March toApril and continue to rise in May. Those schools haven’t revisited their optional mask policies.
Despite the fact that schools in Davis, Yolo County, have removed mask requirements, they still do not allow them to be reinstated. rising casesThis is due in large part to the fact that the county health director separated mandates from test positivity rates.
“We have sufficient protection against the virus, especially with Paxlovid available at test-to-treat locations,” said John Fout, a spokesperson for the county. He said that only increased hospitalizations would cause a change in the health care system.
At this point, an uptick in serious illnesses may not be recognized until after the school year ends — and that is what many school administrators appear to be counting on.
This story was produced and edited by KHNThe publisher is. California Healthline, an editorially independent service provided by the California Health Care Foundation.
KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. KHN, along with Policy Analysis and Polling are the three main operating programs. KFF(Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed non-profit organization that provides information to the nation on health issues.
