The Centers for Disease Control released its latest guidance on schools and the pandemic late last week. But state officials say it’ll be next month before K-12 systems in Vermont can expect state-level regulations about how schools should handle virus mitigation come the fall.
Reopening schools this year is not expected to be nearly as heavy a lift as in 2020, when schools found themselves standing up entire online-only alternatives at the same time as they enacted a slew of new safety protocols. For one: State officials have already said that schools should expect to offer all in-person classes, five days a week.
But several unanswered questions remain about how and whether schools should require distancing, masking and screening. For those details, state education officials say schools will have to wait until August, when more up-to-date information about the viral activity is available.
“We’re still thinking that, if any mitigation steps are necessary in schools, they will be fairly nominal and easy to follow,” Education Secretary Dan French said Tuesday during the governor’s weekly press conference.
Vermont has posted the highest vaccination rate in the country, and case counts have plummeted in the wake of the state’s immunization drive. But the Delta variant looms large, and since those under age 12 are not yet eligible for shots, schoolchildren represent the largest unvaccinated population in the state.
Notably, the CDC’s latest guidance says unvaccinated students and staff should remain masked while indoors. That stands in contrast to Vermont, where state officials announced at the close of the school year that, while masking is still recommended for the unvaccinated, schools can no longer require it of students or staff. French said officials still haven’t decided whether that will change once the new school year begins.
“We’ll make that assessment based on the conditions in Vermont,” he said.
Jeanné Collins, a past president of the Vermont Superintendents Association, said she’s happy to wait until August for further guidance, so long as it arrives in the first half of the month. The Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union, which she oversees, will welcome students back on Sept. 1.
But she also hopes the state reevaluates its decision on masks. Already, some parents have kept their kids out of summer programming, Collins said, because schools aren’t allowed to enforce mask mandates on the unvaccinated.
“Those families who don’t feel safe sending their kids will probably end up homeschooling,” she said.
