Students Should Wear Masks During School: MN Dept. Of Education

ACROSS MINNESOTA — All students, teachers, staff and visitors in school buildings should wear masks indoors regardless of vaccination status, the Minnesota Department of Education announced Wednesday.

The policy is a part of the department's "best practice recommendations" for COVID-19 prevention in schools during the 2021-'22 school year.

In addition to wearing masks, all people who are 12 and older should get vaccinated for COVID-19, the department said. The department will not require masks or vaccinations.

"In-person learning is critical, not only when it comes to academics, but also for our students’ social-emotional well-being and mental health," said Minnesota Education Commissioner Heather Mueller.

"As we head back to school this fall, we must implement measures to protect the health and safety of all of our students, staff and families," she added.

Below are key points from the department's new guidance.

• All people 12 and older should get vaccinated for COVID-19 before returning to in-person school, sports or other activities to protect themselves and people around them who cannot get vaccinated.
• All students, teachers, staff and visitors in school buildings should wear masks indoors regardless of vaccination status in order to protect those who cannot yet be vaccinated or who remain at higher risk because of immune-comprised status or other conditions.
• Schools should maintain at least 3 feet of physical distance between students within classrooms whenever possible.
• Students, teachers and staff should stay home if they have signs of any infectious illness and should contact their health care provider for testing and care.
• Students, teachers and staff who have been fully vaccinated do not need to stay home even if they have had recent close contact with a confirmed case so long as they remain asymptomatic and do not test positive. Follow testing guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for anyone exposed to a confirmed case.
• People who are not fully vaccinated and return to in-person school, sports or extracurricular activities (and their families) should get tested regularly for COVID-19, according to CDC guidance.
• Schools should continue to strengthen good ventilation, rapid and thorough contact tracing in combination with isolation and quarantine, hand-washing, respiratory etiquette, cleaning and disinfection as important layers of prevention to keep schools safe.

"Vaccination, masking and physical distancing remain our best public health prevention strategies for slowing the spread of COVID-19," Minnesota's Department of Heath commissioner, Jan Malcolm, said.

"The delta variant is proving to have an alarming ability to spread more easily, so it’s more important than ever that anyone eligible for vaccination get that protection as soon as possible, and follow the CDC’s guidance for continued masking, distancing and other prevention strategies to help avoid the widespread illnesses and community impacts we saw during the last school year," Malcolm added.

Read the full recommendations released Wednesday here.