03/11/2022
📣 Update: Optional School Masking & New Data Reporting📣
Today, Chancellor Ferebee announced that, starting next Wednesday, March 16th, mask wearing will be optional for all students, staff, and visitors at DC Public Schools. This decision follows the new guidance (available: here) released from DC Health that officially lifted the mask mandate, but left the masking policy decision up to the Chancellor/DCPS and individual charter schools. As there is no vaccine yet available for our youngest students, the weekly test-to-stay model for those in our Pre-K programs will continue. Families of older students are encouraged to regularly test in order to detect new cases or breakout cases early to reduce the risk of classroom spread.
Having our students get vaccinated now is especially important to emphasize in the absence of universal masking. With what we now know about the effects of long on children and teens and the risks of further spreading the virus to other, potentially vulnerable, members of their household, inoculation efforts against COVID-19 and staying on one's booster schedule will be critical to creating safer school environments. As a reminder, anyone in the District who is over the age of 5 and in need of the COVID-19 vaccine or a booster may get vaccinated at any local COVID Center (these sites also provide children's sized KN95 masks, adult KN95 masks, and rapid tests).
DC Health has also shifted from reporting daily case data to reporting weekly case data. Furthermore, the data that DC Health will be reporting is the weekly case rate (not the actual number of new cases. For example, the past week's weekly case rate is 55.5 cases per 100,000 residents, which puts the District in the low-risk category of severity and community spread. On our last Council-Executive pandemic response conference call, DC Health indicated that they are representing the data in this new way in an effort to help residents realistically evaluate their degree of risk and safety as part of the broader community of over 700,000 residents.
For the best visualization of this data, click on the 'Key Metrics' tab under Data on the District's coronavirus website.
Update with Links ➡️ http://www.icontact-archive.com/archive?c=653228&f=109&s=27705&m=930292&t=e9e88f3478ef96a84e6da9a6a941197473e9c0f17a04da6fc6e40bf22670a9a5