Mask requirements on school buses will end March 7. The CDC announced it “does not require wearing of masks on buses or vans operated by public or private school systems, including early care and education/childcare programs.”
Gov. Phil Murphy announced the mask mandate for schools will end on March 7. Now the news comes that the requirement for masking on school buses is also coming to an end.
Murphy has left it up to individual school districts to make the decision as to whether masking in school will continue. Some school districts have already begun to notify parents that masks will be optional at school, while other school districts have chosen to keep mask mandates in place, at least for the time being.
When Gov. Murphy announced his decision to remove the mask mandate from schools he called it a step toward normalcy for children. He also recently extended NJ’s Public Health Emergency for another 30 days. This gives Murphy power to extend a number of his executive orders and allows the state to continue vaccine distribution, testing requirements in certain settings, the allocation of resources and more.
Kids have had to wear masks in school since September 2020. School districts can make their own decisions regarding whether to keep masks rules in place. Newark, the largest school district in NJ, has already announced that students will continue to wear masks in school. Masks cannot be banned from schools, meaning that students can still choose to wear them.
Parents have been divided about the decision.
“This is putting children and staff at risk,” posted one commentor on New Jersey Family’s Facebook page. “My girls will continue to wear a mask. I guarantee that we will see a huge surge again and then the mask mandate will be in place again. Some people obviously don’t care about the safety of their children but I do. I am not willing to take that risk.”
Another person had the opposite view, stating that masks are ineffective in stopping the spread.
“If everyone would educate themselves about masks and stop letting the press and the politicians keep them in constant fear of COVID things would be much better. This is just one group of studies and there are so many more regarding the ineffectiveness of masks.”
Parents will be on the lookout for advice from their school districts on what will happen on March 7.