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Starting on September 1, the school system implemented a temporary mask requirement to keep students in school where they learn best.
In the past two weeks, we have seen a drop in positive COVID-19 cases for students and - vitally important for student success and participation - a significant reduction in at-home quarantines. We had over 4,000 students miss school in August due to a quarantine. With the mask requirement, less than 50 students have been required to quarantine at home from a close contact at school.
When students wear masks, they can keep learning in school. Without masks, significantly more students are required to stay at home due to a quarantine. This means students must proactively manage their learning at home and that parents must provide childcare, which is often challenging to arrange due to work requirements.
Fall break is October 4-8. We anticipate reassessing the need for a district-wide mask requirement during the week of October 10. Hopefully, our situation will continue to improve between now and then.
- We will re-evaluate masks one week after students return from fall break and report out the week of October 18. Schools will have time to track and gather data on positive student cases and look at the number of students quarantined.
- Student quarantines and positive cases will be the two primary criteria used to determine temporary mask requirements on a school-by-school basis.
Thank you for the support of our parents, students, families, and staff. It is challenging to constantly be pivoting and requiring changes, often with short notice. Our never-ending commitment to providing the best education and learning opportunities available to our students comes only second to ensuring a safe environment for our students and staff.
Thank you,
Barrow County School System