In the week since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its school masking guidance, only one of the region’s largest districts has maintained its indoor masking requirement.
A WESA analysis of the 20 largest school districts in six southwestern Pennsylvania counties found that all but Pittsburgh Public Schools have made masking optional both in buildings and on school transportation.
The CDC’s updated guidance says that schools should require masks only when COVID cases and hospitalizations in the area are high. The shift means the agency recommends that most U.S. school districts are safe to go without masks.
The state of Pennsylvania had required universal masking in schools from September through December 2021, under an order from then-Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam. On Dec. 10, the state Supreme Court struck down that order, saying that Beam did not have the legal authority to issue it.
Three days later, Gov. Tom Wolf announced that Beam had resigned her position. She is now the chief government relations officer at UPMC.
In the weeks after the state order was invalidated, Canon-McMillan, Hempfield, Norwin, Penn-Trafford and Greater Latrobe districts made masks optional. In January and February, before the CDC updated its guidance, Armstrong, Pine-Richland and Moon school districts dropped their mandates.
In the last week, Seneca, Butler, Mt. Lebanon, North Hills, Baldwin-Whitehall, Fox Chapel, Peters, Shaler and Bethel Park school districts reversed their mandates.
North Allegheny and Upper St. Clair school districts had sought to make masks optional, but those districts were sued by families who argued their medically vulnerable children’s rights were violated by doing so. Those lawsuits were dismissed on Tuesday as a U.S. district judge said their arguments were moot following the updated CDC guidance.
Many of the districts say masks are “optional” in buildings and on school transportation.
Pittsburgh Public Schools, though, says it will maintain its current masking requirement.
Spokesperson Ebony Pugh said while the district has maintained its masking policy, proposed changes would be brought to the board during its March 16 agenda review meeting. She said that the board is, “expected to vote on the recommendations at its March 23rd legislative meeting.”
This story was updated 3/4/22 to include a comment from Pittsburgh Public Schools.
