Orange County Schools Becomes Latest District to Pass Universal Masking for Fall

The Orange County Schools district will require universal masking for all students, staff and visitors this fall.

As unanimously approved by the district’s Board of Education on Monday, the requirement for face coverings will be for both indoors and outdoors at Orange County Schools amid the ongoing spread of COVID-19’s delta variant.

The mask policy is part of the superintendent’s Health and Safety Guidelines plan presented and approved on Monday. Created from guidelines shared by the state government’s Strong Schools Toolkit, Orange County Health Department and the ABC Science Collaborative, the plan outlines various public health measures to be in place as Orange County prepares for another school year held during the COVID-19 pandemic.

While Orange County returned to a hybrid learning model in January and implemented four-days-a-week in-person instruction for grades K-5, the district is moving back to five days of in-person learning for all of its students. Presentations from district leadership on Monday shared data detailing how the universal masking policy could limit spread despite more students in classrooms more frequently.

In North Carolina, masked school environments saw a less than 1 percent rate of secondary attack, or the rate of COVID-19 being spread in a household after school, during the winter months. In studies of masked environments of Plan A schooling, the secondary attack rate was the same in North Carolina: less than 1 percent of masked subjects in school settings brought the virus into home settings.

In addition to universal masking, Orange County Schools approved a framework to request vaccination status for staff, as well as all the vaccine-eligible students, in order to help with contact tracing and quarantine protocols when positive tests are returned. According to the district, information will be kept confidential with the school nurse, with staff vaccination status also being kept confidential with the Human Resources department.

Students who compete in middle and high school athletics will experience some stricter health protocols than other students. The mask requirement will be kept during competition unless the sport prohibits masking due to safety equipment. Additionally, student-athletes and coaches who are unvaccinated will have to undergo weekly COVID-19 testing. Data from the ABC Science Collaborative detailed on Monday how 50 to 75 percent of in-school transmissions occurs during athletics events.

The Orange County school board also approved the same protocol for students to eat meals as was in place this spring. Students will have 15 minutes to eat meals with no talking and will eat outdoors when there’s acceptable weather. Otherwise, classrooms or large indoor spaces will be used to eat meals in as an attempt to mitigate potential spread of the coronavirus.

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools and Chatham County Public Schools each also passed universal mask mandates ahead of the new school year.

Orange County Schools begin classes for the 2021-22 academic year on Monday, August 23. Monday night’s full board meeting can be watched on the school district’s YouTube page.

Photo via WTOC.

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Orange County Schools Becomes Latest District to Pass Universal Masking for Fall

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