Some local school districts keep indoor mask mandate for summer

Not all school districts in the Capital Region are ready to drop the indoor mask requirements. 

Under updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state Department of Health, schools can permit vaccinated students and staff to go mask-free inside school buildings this summer. Unvaccinated children must wear the coverings when moving inside the school and unvaccinated staff must wear masks at all times.

The CDC has not advised schools to require shots for teachers and vaccine-eligible kids. The guidelines shift the decision-making to localities, raising a new challenge for school districts: how to determine who is or is not vaccinated.

Some districts, like the Guilderland Central Schools and the Green Island Union Free School District, have announced there will be no change to the mask mandate during summer school. Masks will be still be required by all when indoors and will continue to be optional outdoors. 

The Ballston Spa Central School District has made the face coverings optional for all students throughout the summer regardless of vaccination status. Unvaccinated staff must continue to wear face coverings. 

Ballston Spa officials said they have taken into consideration the community infection rates and the fact that very few students attend school during the summer.

"Students and vaccinated staff may continue to wear a mask while attending our programs in our buildings. Please help your child understand that some of their classmates and their parents will make this choice for their own comfort and/or out of medical necessity and should not be teased for doing so," Ballston Spa superintendent Ken Slentz wrote in a memo to families.

East Greenbush Central School District has also softened its mask requirements for children, but "strongly encourages" all students to continue wearing masks indoors. The district also requires unvaccinated children, which currently includes all students under 12, to continue wearing the coverings. All students and staff must continue to wear masks while moving inside the school. 

“We reviewed the new guidance, consulted with the Questar Health and Safety Department and other school districts and determined we are able to modify mask requirements,” Superintendent Jeff Simons said in a statement.

Masks must be worn on buses by both vaccinated and unvaccinated students and staff according to the federal mandate.

Leaders in most districts say they are awaiting clarification from the state Department of Health before adjusting mask mandates. No decisions have been made for the fall school year as the districts awaits further guidance.

School districts plan to meet with regional BOCES and several local health departments Monday and "expect to discuss this," said a spokeswoman for Albany County.