Malibu Students To Return To School With Optional Masking

MALIBU, CA —Malibu students will return to campus next week with optional masking and a baseline COVID-19 test.

Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District students will step back on campus on Aug. 18 with new countywide COVID-19 guidance, Superintendent Ben Drati said in an email to school community.

Masking will be optional but strongly recommended in the 2022-2023 school year, Drati said. The district has not yet decided on masking expectations for people who have been exposed to a positive case.

"Masks have been found to reduce spread of illness and work well as a self-protective measure against COVID-19 and other illnesses," Drati said.

Students will be expected to complete a COVID-19 test and produce a negative test result before coming back to campus, Drati said. The district will provide antigen test kits to all students and staff, instructions for which will be handled at by each local school. Positive tests will require at-home isolation and notification to the school, Drati said.

The district has note decided on a regular testing policy but is "leaning toward" voluntary weekly testing conducted at home, Drati said. Regular testing policies will be discussed at an upcoming board of education meeting, a date for which has not been set.

In the case of voluntary at-home testing, the district would provide free testing to families and staff in this case. Last year, the district required weekly on-campus PCR testing.

"This will be the honor system and we are trusting our families and staff to do the right thing for the benefit of the broader school community. We would like to see high participation with this program," Drati said.

The district has also updated air filtration systems to help mitigate students' risk of COVID-19 in the classroom, Drati said. Regular facility maintenance and cleaning will continue throughout the year.

"I don’t have to remind you that we’ve experienced a relatively challenging two and a half years of education while living through a pandemic," Drati said. "Although the 2020-21 school year was more challenging than the 2021-22 school year, the experience was still tough dealing with the pandemic at the same time. One thing that is clear is we have learned much about Covid-19 and how to mitigate exposure as well as the impacts Covid may have on a person."

Vaccines are required for staff, but a county-wide student vaccine requirement was delayed until at least July 2023, the Los Angeles Times reported. Vaccines are the best way for students and schools to protect against COVID-19, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

"Vaccines continue to provide the best protection against severe illness in children, as children who are unvaccinated are more likely to become seriously ill and require hospitalization. In fact, for the 90-day period ending July 21, unvaccinated children ages 12 to 17, were more than four times more likely to be hospitalized than vaccinated children in the same age group," the department wrote in a news release Tuesday.

Between July and early August, children ages 5-17 represented 9 percent of the county's total confirmed positive COVID-19 cases, according to the public health department. There have been 12 pediatric deaths due to COVID-19 since 2020.

"While most children experience mild illness, there is no way to know in advance how children will be affected by COVID-19. Many children in LA County experienced serious illness and required hospitalization after becoming infected with COVID-19. To date, there have been 1,866 children ages 5 to 17 hospitalized with COVID-19," the department said in the news release.