California to lift school mask requirement March 12

California will end its statewide face mask mandate for K-12 schools at the stroke of midnight March 12, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced Monday, leaving the contentious question of whether to require face coverings in class to local districts and health officials.

And in an unexpected move, the state also is dropping mask requirements starting Tuesday for unvaccinated people, though they will be “strongly recommended for all individuals in most indoor settings.”

Newsom’s office said the state is revising its mask requirements along with Oregon and Washington, and will “move from mask requirements to mask recommendations in schools” in light of “declining case rates and hospitalizations across the West.” That change becomes effective “after 11:59 pm on March 11.”

“California continues to adjust our policies based on the latest data and science, applying what we’ve learned over the past two years to guide our response to the pandemic,” Newsom said in a statement.

Monday’s announcement comes amid a rapidly shifting pandemic and political landscape, as case rates have fallen rapidly from a January peak driven by the highly contagious omicron variant and polling has suggested the public is tiring of ongoing pandemic restrictions.

California was among 13 states with statewide school mask mandates. Most have since announced plans to drop them, including New York starting Wednesday, while other states including Florida have prohibited mask requirements.

But the change in school mask policy now shifts the heated mask debate to local school and health officials. Many like Palo Alto and San Jose Unified said they would follow the state’s direction. Don Austin, Superintendent at Palo Alto Unified, and Jennifer Maddox, spokeswoman at San Jose Unified, said masks would be optional starting March 14, the Monday after the state rule change. But Maddox predicted parents will be divided.

“Some people will be happy it’s being relaxed,” Maddox said, “and others a bit nervous about what that all means.”

West Contra Costa Unified had no comment Monday, while San Francisco Unified said it will continue requiring masks after March 11, noting they will remain “strongly recommended” by the state and Oakland unified said it hasn’t decided yet.

Cupertino Union, which has had an outdoor as well as indoor mask requirement, said outdoor masks will become optional Tuesday and the district will follow the state’s timing in lifting the indoor mandate.

That made some parents like Srivinas Ponnala nervous. His daughter is a second grader and son a transitional kindergartener in Cupertino, and he said while he understands the state’s rule change and is fine with the district’s outdoor mask change, the district should lift its indoor mask mandate only when justified by cases in schools.

“Just fixing a date is definitely not the right way,” Ponnala said. “They still have to check the data.”

Some 30 districts in the Golden State already have declared masks optional, and school board meetings across the state pitted parents demanding masks be optional against others fearing for the safety of their children from COVID-19.

Parents who have protested the mandates are pleased the state is finally lifting the requirement but frustrated it won’t be for weeks.

“Once again it’s politics and not science that is dictating it ends in two weeks and not today,” said Megan Bacigalupi, a mother of two boys in Oakland Unified schools who heads the CA Parent Power group advocating for parent voices in public education. They say children, who face the lowest risk from the virus, have suffered the most emotionally, socially and educationally from the school mandates.

“The statewide indoor mask mandate was lifted on Feb. 15th,” she said, “so it defies reason that students in California schools have to wait any longer to remove their masks.”

Monday’s announcement drew a cautious blessing from California Teachers Association President E. Toby Boyd, a kindergarten teacher, whose union has urged vigilance in lifting the mask requirement. Boyd said in a statement that “we share the optimism” of Newsom and state health officials “that declining COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations allow us to see light at the end of the pandemic tunnel.” But he also said “reaction to today’s announcement will be mixed.”

“Simply put, while some students are ready to immediately remove their masks, others remain very afraid,” Boyd said. “We urge local school districts to continue to work with educators and families and to act cautiously while prioritizing the safety of students, educators, and their families.”

The state’s announcement Monday that it was no longer requiring masks for the unvaccinated came as a surprise to some. Two weeks ago, California dropped the requirement for vaccinated people to wear face masks in most indoor places like supermarkets and most other stores.

Some counties such as Santa Clara kept their own mask requirements, but that too is changing. Santa Clara County officials plan to lift their universal indoor mask mandate Wednesday — including for the unvaccinated — and follow the state’s lead on schools.

As masks come off, COVID-19 cases remain high in most of the country, with 92% of US counties in what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers substantial or high transmission areas. Federal health officials had recommended masks indoors in those high-risk areas for all regardless of vaccination, but on Friday they changed the guidance to focus more on hospitalizations, dramatically lowering the number of high-risk counties to under 40% across the US as well as much of California.

Newsom’s office noted that the state’s new mask policies do not change federal requirements, which still include masks on public transit, and that the state will continue to require them in emergency shelters, health care settings, correctional facilities, homeless shelters and long-term care facilities.

“Masks are an effective tool to minimize spread of the virus and future variants, especially when transmission rates are high,” Newsom said. “We cannot predict the future of the virus, but we are better prepared for it and will continue to take measures rooted in science to keep California moving forward.”