CDC: Masks not required for vaccinated students, teachers in schools this fall

In a relaxation of its COVID-19 guidelines, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday vaccinated students and teachers should not have to wear masks inside schools this fall.

Also according to the new guidance, no one at schools needs to wear masks at recess or in most other outdoor situations. However, unvaccinated people should still wear masks if they are in a crowd for an extended period of time, like in the stands at a football game.

The CDC says ventilation and handwashing continue to be important, and students and staff also should stay home when they are sick.

The new guidance also says while testing remains an important way to prevent outbreaks, people who are fully vaccinated do not need to get tested.

The guidance also recommends separating students into smaller groups to help reduce spread of the virus. However, the CDC discouraged putting vaccinated and unvaccinated kids in separate groups, saying schools shouldn’t stigmatize any group or perpetuate academic, racial or other tracking.

With this updated guidance, the CDC is not advising schools to require shots for teachers and vaccine-eligible kids, nor is it offering guidance on how teachers can know which students are vaccinated or how parents will know which teachers are vaccinated.

According to a John Hopkins University public health professor, this could lead to challenges. “It would be a very weird dynamic, socially, to have some kids wearing masks and some not,” Elizabeth Stuart said. “And tracking that? Teachers shouldn’t need to be keeping track of which kids should have masks on.”

The new guidance is the latest revision to the CDC’s proposed plan for this fall.

In March, the CDC reduced the recommended space between children and their desks from six feet to three feet. It also dropped its call for use of plastic shields.

In May, the agency said Americans in general don’t have to be as cautious about masks and distancing outdoors, and fully vaccinated people don’t have to wear masks in most situations.