​​COLUMBUS, Ohio — Health officials in Ohio are urging mask-wearing for the upcoming school year due to the resurgence of COVID-19.

School districts in the state are split over whether to require masking, though an increasing number are announcing mask requirements in response to spread of the delta variant. 

Dr. Mike Bigham, chief quality officer and pediatric intensive care specialist at Akron Children’s Hospital, said he expects more schools to announce mask mandates in the coming weeks with infection rates still rising rapidly. 

Bigham said that Ohio districts are grappling with how to update their mask policies after many had announced just a few weeks ago that masks were going to be optional. 

“We've seen such a change in COVID in our communities that I think even some of those decisions made a month or more ago might not have been the same decisions if they were made today,” he said. “The schools are generally being very thoughtful, and they're reassessing those earlier recommendations.” 

Dr. Michael Bigham of Akron Children's Hospital

With the Dayton and Toledo ​public school districts announcing universal mask requirements this week, the districts in all of Ohio’s major cities now have mask mandates in place. 

However, elsewhere in Ohio, districts are making masks optional, including some of the state’s largest districts —  South-Western City Schools, the Olentangy Local Schools and Lakota Local Schools, among many others. 

In districts like Dublin City Schools and Hilliard City Schools, officials are only requiring masks for younger grade levels because students under 12 are ineligible for COVID-19 vaccination.

Vaccine manufacturers are studying the safety of the authorized vaccines in trials with large numbers of children, and expanded approval for children under 12 could occur as soon as the next four to six weeks, Bigham said. 

So far in August, there have been nearly as many cases of COVID-19 in Ohio children as there were in all of July, demonstrating the severity of the current surge, Bigham said. Akron Children's Hospital has seen COVID positive tests rise for three consecutive weeks, and officials fear that hospitalization numbers could surge in the weeks ahead, he said.

“We feel confident that having kids wear masks and schools will better afford them the chance to return to school and then stay in school. If there are cases of COVID, masking should prevent extensive spread of those in the school and would allow those kids to remain in school to optimize and maximize their learning,” Bigham said. 

Ohio Department of Health officials are recommending that unvaccinated students wear masks in school. 

“If your student is eligible, parents should have that child vaccinated,” Ohio Chief Medical Officer Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff said Thursday. “If they choose not to, or if they are not eligible for receiving the vaccine, it is our best recommendation that those students wear a mask to reduce transmission.”

The Delaware Public Health District department issued an advisory Thursday recommending universal masking in all indoor settings, including schools, Director of Preventative Health Adam Howard said in an interview. 

Howard explained that under the latest state policy, students can avoid quarantines if they wear a mask in school.

While the health department had planned to only recommend masks for vaccinated people, that changed due to the recent surge in infections. 

“A child who is maintaining distance and wearing a mask doesn't have to quarantine while in a school setting, so we are hopeful that the ability for a student, not to be quarantined will help encourage students to wear masks,” Howard said. 

Despite the new mask advisory in Delaware County, Olentangy Schools Superintendent Mark Raiff shared during a school board meeting Thursday evening that masks would remain optional for the district’s 22,000 students. 

For schools that aren't making masks universal, Howard said the health department’s message to families is to still have students wear a mask, especially with case levels rising. When infections arise in school communities in Delaware County this fall, the department is prepared to assist with contact tracing, he added.

“If outbreaks occur, we will address those in the specific classroom or in the specific building,” Howard said. “Your school districts and your health district have been working very closely together over the last year and a half to make sure that all children are safe, and we will continue to do that to make sure everyone can go to school in person.”

Bigham said a situation in which an unvaccinated student sits in class without masks next to an infected student is a high-risk exposure. If students don't wear masks, it will create difficult quarantine tasks for schools and health departments, he said.

“Masking is the best option for kids to get to school and stay in school and avoid the vicious cycle of exposures and quarantines,” Bigham said.