State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister supports school districts that frame mask wearing as an expectation after the state took away their local control to decide whether mandates are appropriate.
Hofmeister said Tuesday that she isn’t aware of any Oklahoma schools that intend to buck Senate Bill 658 and unlawfully require masking as some districts in Texas, Florida and Arizona are doing in defying similar bans.
Districts must abide by the law, Hofmeister said, but she noted that policy changes could be made if Gov. Kevin Stitt relents and declares a state of emergency to give school boards the option of legally requiring masks in consultation with their local health departments.
She expressed concern that if pandemic trends don’t reverse, the delta variant might “seriously endanger the safety of our children” and compromise another year of schooling.
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Hofmeister said she has a meeting this week with Stitt in which she will bring up the masking topic.
“We love those districts that are talking about (masks) as an expectation,” Hofmeister said as a guest speaker during the Healthier Oklahoma Coalition’s weekly virtual conference with reporters. “It is still an extremely effective tool to diminishing the spread of COVID-19.”
Hofmeister called it “unfortunate” that districts across Oklahoma are having a mixed response to quarantining students who are exposed to COVID-19.
“We’re hearing some districts saying, ‘We’re not doing any quarantining, and nobody’s making us,’” Hofmeister said. “Others are saying, ‘If you as a parent want your child out, we will excuse your absence if they’ve been exposed.’
“This causes concern for me when we think about potential spread, particularly with asymptomatic students in an unvaccinated population.”
Only 15.1% of Oklahomans ages 12-17 are fully vaccinated, according to state data, and children ages 11 and younger aren’t yet eligible for vaccination. The latest federal data show that only 40.8% of the state’s population as a whole is fully vaccinated, which ranks the state 41st in the U.S.
Oklahoma’s seven-day moving average of new daily cases was at 2,025 on Tuesday, which is similar to levels in November after the school season had started and cooler weather set in but before vaccination was widely available.
Experts expect the number of cases to rise more once students return to classrooms, and the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began to note in July that the COVID-19 pandemic had become a pandemic of the unvaccinated.
Hofmeister said there isn’t a substitute for in-person learning in which students have face-to-face interactions with teachers. Meals, mental health supports and a well-rounded education are crucial for students, she said.
Oklahomans must do everything possible to keep youths in schools with as little disruption as possible this year, she said, and layering multiple mitigation strategies provides the best chance of making that happen.
“So we will begin this year recognizing that COVID presents a serious threat,” Hofmeister said. “However, we can see that sharp drop in spread if we all do our part.
“For me, I like to say that it’s the one school supply that the community can provide for our children — and that is to roll up their sleeve, take the shot to give our kids a shot at a more normal year.”
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