The American Academy of Pediatrics is encouraging schools to enforce a mask mandate policy for students over the age of 2, regardless of their vaccination status.
The organization said it “strongly recommends in-person learning” and provided guidance for “a layered approach to make school safe for all students, teachers and staff.”
“A significant portion” of students nationwide are not eligible for vaccination, the AAP said in its explanation on Monday.
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“We need to prioritize getting children back into schools alongside their friends and their teachers, and we all play a role in making sure it happens safely,” Sonja O’Leary, chairwoman of the AAP Council on School Health, said. “The pandemic has taken a heartbreaking toll on children, and it’s not just their education that has suffered but their mental, emotional and physical health. Combining layers of protection that include vaccinations, masking and clean hands hygiene will make in-person learning safe and possible for everyone.”
The organization said its proposed mask mandate would “protect those who are not vaccinated,” given schools don’t have “a system” to monitor students’ and teachers’ vaccination statuses.
The AAP also recommended schools “adopt an all-encompassing approach for mental health support” and find “adequate and timely COVID-19 testing resources.”
“It’s important to use every tool in our toolkit to safeguard children from COVID-19,” Sara Bode, chairwoman elect of the AAP Council on School Health Executive Committee, said. “Universal masking is one of those tools, and has been proven effective in protecting people against other respiratory diseases, as well. It’s also the most effective strategy to create consistent messages and expectations among students without the added burden of needing to monitor everyone’s vaccination status.”
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Open schools with masking and safety measures in place do not “significantly” increase community transmission of the virus, the AAP concluded, though the group warned about the variants that have emerged, particularly the highly transmissible delta variant, which now accounts for the majority of new COVID-19 cases in the United States.
More than 4.06 million children have tested positive for COVID-19, representing 5,431 cases per 100,000 children, as of July 15, according to the AAP.
