One of the hot topics this year is masking in schools.
Minnesota does not have a mask mandate, but rather has local flexibility related to each district’s masking policy. At the time of this article, the majority of the rural school districts are strongly recommending masks in school, not requiring. Some rural districts are requiring masking only in the elementary, since students under 12 years of age cannot yet be vaccinated. Many districts are using local numbers to drive decisions on masking policies. MREA is seeing many of the bigger districts, especially districts in the metro area requiring masking.
Here are some statistics across the nation:
- 33.1% of states are requiring masks for all schools
- 42.8% of states have no mask mandate-decisions are made at the local level
- 24.1% of states have banned a mask mandate
- 0% of states have made requirements on masking contingent on vaccination status
These numbers are changing nationally and locally as we see the numbers of COVID infections rise.
View an interactive state-by-state: State Map of School Mask Policies (burbio.com)