When students in California and Illinois head back to school in a few weeks, they will have to wear masks. Florida and Arizona, meanwhile, banned mask requirements in schools. Some, but not all, districts there are insisting on them anyway.
Local school leaders in Georgia can make their own choices about masking, and policies differ from one district to the next. School officials in Gwinnett County, outside Atlanta, imposed a mask mandate eight days before the new school year started last month—a sudden reversal that caught some parents off-guard.
“It has created quite a bit of chaos within a lot of families,” said Gwinnett County parent Michael Rudnick, who formed a group fighting the mandate.
Schools are reopening just as the rise of the more contagious Delta variant shifts the fight against Covid-19. Masks are back on top of the policy agenda. And confusion reigns.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidance in July recommending that students and faculty wear masks in school buildings. But the federal government doesn’t require it, leaving the ultimate decisions to states, cities and individual school districts.
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