Abington Mandates Masks For All; School Board To Address Tuesday

ABINGTON, PA — The Abington School District will be requiring all students and staff to wear facemasks in school buildings regardless of vaccination status during the upcoming school year, according to the latest draft of its 2021-22 health and safety plan.

The document was released on Monday, the day before the Abington School Board is scheduled to hold a meeting to address the plan.

The draft document states that all students and staff must wear masks inside and while on school transportation, unless facemask use is prohibited by medical conditions.

Masks-wearing will be optional outdoors, but will be required for those who are not fully vaccinated in crowded settings when the district is in a “substantial or high level of community transmission,” the draft health and safety plan states.

This past Friday, Patch had reported that it was not yet known whether Abington would be mandating mask usage or making it optional, since the draft health and safety plan had not yet been released to the public.

The plan is now available and can be viewed here.

On Tuesday, school directors are scheduled to meet to debate the health and safety plan in advance of possible adoption. The meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the board room of the Abington School District Administration Building.

The full meeting agenda can be found here.

The meeting will also be available via live stream on the school district’s YouTube channel for those who do not feel comfortable attending in person.

School districts across Montgomery County are addressing the issue of mask-wearing in light of recent recommended changes by county health officials who say students and staff in schools should be wearing face coverings indoors regardless of vaccination status to help combat against rising COVID-19 infection rates.

Some Montgomery County school districts are mandating that all students wear masks inside while other districts are still making mask usage optional indoors.

All students still must be masked while riding school busses in accordance with federal transportation guidelines.