COLUMBUS, Ohio — Dozens of Ohio school districts lifted COVID-19 mask mandates in recent weeks, including some of the largest in the state.
What You Need To Know
- Cases have subsided significantly in Ohio schools in recent weeks
- Many of Ohio's major urban districts are still requiring face masks
- Some districts had imposed temporary mask mandates earlier this winter
Districts are changing their mask policies as Ohio recovers from the latest virus surge. School officials are also citing the Ohio Department of Health’s announcement at the end of January that schools no longer need to conduct contact tracing except if there’s a cluster of cases. This means exposed students can remain in school if they are symptom free.
In central Ohio, Olentangy Local Schools ended its K-8 mask mandate on Monday and Hilliard City Schools announced it was ending its requirement for all students on Wednesday.
“The community spread is low. We have people vaccinated. Honestly, a number of people probably have already had COVID and may not know it. I mean, I believe our community has reached that herd immunity level where this particular mitigation strategy isn’t required,” Olentangy Superintendent Mark Raiff said at a board meeting as he announced the change.
Raiff said the district’s cases have fallen off like a cliff and he cited the remarks of Ohio Health Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, who was asked about school mask policies during a press conference last week and said that Ohioans should make “personal choices” about COVID-19 for themselves and their families.
“We're moving towards treating this more like it could be a flu outbreak or any other type of communicable disease outbreak,” Raiff said of the state’s move away from school contact tracing.
Three of the 10 largest districts in Ohio are now completely mask optional after Olentangy and Hilliard joined Lakota Local Schools. Two of the largest districts, Dublin City Schools and South-Western City Schools, are mask optional only for the upper grade levels.
About a quarter of Ohio school districts still have mask requirements for all students, including Columbus City Schools, Cleveland Metropolitan School District, Cincinnati Public Schools, Toledo Public Schools and Akron Public Schools.
Last week, Ohio’s schools reported 4,489 cases among students, down from more than 25,000 weekly cases at the peak. Since the start of the school year, there have been 195,009 cases among students.
The recent trend of districts dropping mask requirements bears similarities to a period in the fall when dozens of districts lifted mandates because the delta variant surge was subsiding and the officials had eased some state guidance for schools regarding quarantines.
In Wood County, Perrysburg Schools lifted its mask mandate after the delta peak, reinstated it amid the omicron surge and has now lifted it again.
Superintendent Thomas Hosler said during a board meeting the state’s move to end most contact tracing in schools factored heavily in the decision to return to mask optional policies. The other factor was a decline in the district’s case numbers. Hosler acknowledged that these decisions are difficult because they’re so controversial among families.
“While there's people that we've heard from that have said ‘take the masks off,’ there's also an equal number of folks that we're hearing from, especially now, that are saying, ‘why in the world are we choosing to do this during a pandemic?’ So it continues to be something that we're doing, again, the best for the greatest number of students that we can,” he said.
Parma City Schools suspended its mask mandate last week, ending the temporary surge measure that school officials implemented upon the return from winter break.
“We are extremely hopeful that we do not have to revisit this measure in the future, but we have learned too often that we can never guarantee anything relative to COVID,” Superintendent Charles Smialek said in a letter to families. “Unfortunately, unless we hear differently from our partners in the federal government, we must continue to require masks on buses.”
Health officials in Lake and Geauga counties together advised school district superintendents on Jan. 28 that they now “recommend masks be optional.”
Most students in these counties can now forgo masks because the joint letter prompted Willoughby Eastlake City Schools, Mentor Public schools, West Geauga Local Schools, Kenston Local Schools and other districts in the two counties to end their mandates in the following days.
The counties’ health commissioners wrote that they understood the desire from parents for individual choice about masks, but cautioned that policies will be reevaluated if cases surge again.
“The health and safety of the citizens of Lake and Geauga County are of the utmost importance and if the incidence of COVID-19 in schools rises to a level that threatens the safety of students or the ability of your students to attend in-person classes, policies will be re-evaluated,” the commissioners wrote.
Several districts in Lorain County switched to mask optional policies as the omicron wave subsided, including Avon Lake City Schools and Elyria City Schools. Lorain City Schools officials moved Monday night to end their mask mandate on March 1.
Lorain County Public Health spokesperson Erin Murphy told Spectrum News “each school district makes their own decision on whether or not to require or recommend masking,” but the health department believes the region is “on the other side of the surge.” Murphy said it’s also notable that testing is once again widely available, which means families have options if their child is exposed.
Lorain City Schools Board President Bill Sturgill said Monday he is looking forward to transitioning to normalcy, which he said will be a big change, especially for the youngest students who have spent much of their time in school wearing masks.
“The question is how do you transition back to normal? How do you make people feel comfortable with going back to normal?” he said.