COURT HOUSE – The state-imposed mask mandate for students and staff will end March 7.
Local districts will still have the authority to impose district mask mandates but so far, no school district in Cape May County has announced it will do so. Some districts are still formulating policy, but all are expected to end the requirement and make mask-wearing optional subject to parental choice.
Testing requirements for unvaccinated staff remain in effect. Students will continue to be required to mask up for school bus transportation, but that may change soon based on new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance issued Feb. 25, which ends a federal mandate that required masks on buses or vans operated by public or private school systems.
The difficulty many school districts have had in developing local policy is that guidance from federal and state agencies has only recently been issued. The state Department of Health issued its guidance to school districts Feb. 23, two days before the CDC. The state guidance shifts responsibility for maintaining or ending mandates to local school boards.
New State Guidelines
The state guidance recommends masking under a set of defined circumstances, but it does not require it.
According to the state release, masks are recommended when the Covid Activity Level Index (CALI) is elevated to orange or red status. The most recent CALI index for the week ending Feb. 19 shows the southeast region, which includes Cape May County, at a yellow or moderate level. Weekly reports are available to the public on the health department’s website.
The guidelines also recommend masks during an active outbreak, after students or staff return from isolation or quarantine, and when a student or staff member becomes ill with Covid symptoms while at school.
The masks would also be required when students are participating in a “test to stay” program, a protocol that allows students exposed to Covid to remain in school while having no symptoms by being tested regularly and required to mask through a 10-day period.
Some have opposed removing the mandate for child care facilities and lower elementary school grades, arguing that vaccination rates are low among young children, with children under 5 still not eligible for vaccines.
The state issued specific guidance relative to child care facilities Feb. 22. That guidance acknowledges that after March 7, “individual child care centers will be able to make the determination as to whether universal masking is appropriate for their center.”
In New Jersey, vaccination rates are low for the youngest school-age children. The state Department of Health says that approximately 29% of those ages 5 to 11 have been fully vaccinated.
Cape May County
In Cape May County, the Ocean City School District has announced that face coverings and masks will become optional for all students, faculty, staff, and visitors effective March 7. A similar position was approved for the Lower Township Elementary School District at a Feb. 22 Board of Education meeting.
The Avalon and Stone Harbor schools received an overwhelming preference for ending the mandate expressed by staff and parents in a recent poll conducted by the district.
With one week to go before Gov. Phil Murphy ends the state-required masking regulations, the other school districts in the county are expected to follow suit this coming week.
A question on masking in schools was posted on the Herald Facebook page. It elicited strong support for ending the mandate. Common themes were “unmask the kids” and “end it now.”
Some responses faulted the governor for ending the mandate, calling it “a big mistake” that will lead “to opening it all up again to sickness.” Those who favor continuing the mandate accuse Murphy of “politics over the cost of student health.”
Ocean City, along with other school districts, continues to advise parents “to keep children at home if they are ill.” The district promises to review changes, according to health department policy updates.
The New Jersey Covid Dashboard shows minimal new case counts for county schools for the week ending Feb. 13. With 60% of the county schools reporting, the dashboard shows 16 new Covid infections among students and eight among school staff.
This reporting of cases makes no assumptions that the new cases were contracted during school activities. Less than 1% of all county students that week were excluded from in-person instruction due to Covid isolation or quarantine.
Murphy made his announcements on ending the mandate even before the new CDC guidelines were issued. With case counts declining rapidly, Murphy said it is time to move from a pandemic footing to a posture of living with the virus as endemic for the foreseeable future. The CDC’s shift in focus is away from case counts and toward monitoring hospitalizations.
Murphy called on school districts to ensure that those who elect to wear masks after March 7 can do so “without fear of being bullied or otherwise singled out for making that choice.”
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.
