COLUMBUS, Ohio — Columbus City Schools has joined a growing list of school districts adopting the "Mask to Stay" and "Test to Play" policies.
The district announced Thursday the policies go into effect immediately.
The Ohio Department of Health released updated guidance for schools Monday, urging them to adopt the changes to help prevent a surge of quarantines. The guidance means that testing negative for COVID-19 will be a requirement to play sports and extracurricular activities following school exposures, but not a requirement to continue attending in-person classes. The guidance also applies to staff.
The guidance is only for students and staff who were exposed on school grounds or extracurricular settings, not outside of the school. ODH Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff urged Monday that those who were exposed outside of school activities should still quarantine.
“Quarantine, in the face of high rates of transmission and hospitalization, like we’re seeing now, remains an important part of our public health response to COVID-19, but out of school quarantine has the unintended consequence of reducing in-school learning, and can place added strains on our students, our parents, schools and our local health departments,” Vanderhoff said Monday.
The policies also allow students and staff who were exposed to stay in the classroom as long as they wear a mask.
"CCS will continue to require universal masking indoors regardless of vaccination or quarantine status. Students and staff who are currently in quarantine will be permitted to return on Friday, Oct. 29, as long as they have not exhibited any symptoms," the district wrote in a press release. While CCS is keeping the mask policy, some other schools in Ohio are dropping it while adopting the new guidance.
Many Stark County schools decided to lift their mask mandates Wednesday while adopting the updated guidance, according to the Canton Repository.
Before the state's updated guidance, schools in a number of other parts of Ohio, including Medina, Knox, Madison and Tuscarawas counties, had already stopped requiring quarantines for unvaccinated, unmasked students who were exposed in the classroom and agreed to follow the districts’ protocols, which varied by school. Ohio’s new guidance states that exposed students who wish to participate in extracurricular activities should get tested after the initial exposure and then again five to seven days after the exposure.
Other school districts across the state have adopted the policies. The Canfield Board of Education voted to implement the changes Wednesday night, according to the Vindicator. The policies are being implemented in other states like Kentucky as well.
Digital reporter Pete Grieve contributed to this story.