Masking will not be required for students at the Los Angeles Unified School District, and COVID-19 safety protocols will be limited to testing symptomatic students and close contacts.
“We know that COVID-19 is here to stay,” the district announced Tuesday in a press release. “As we have entered into a new phase of this virus where we have accessible at-home testing, vaccinations for COVID-19 and therapeutics available for treatment, Los Angeles Unified is able to nimbly adjust to changing conditions.”
The nation’s second-largest school district said that while it was not implementing a mask mandate, wearing a mask indoors was “strongly recommended” by the Los Angeles Department of Public Health and that the school would provide surgical-grade masks for those who requested them.
The most significant protocol the district still plans to maintain is testing all symptomatic students and close contacts of positive cases. The district had previously required weekly negative tests of all students in order to attend school in person.
The lone exception to the lack of a mask mandate is close contacts of symptomatic cases, who will be required to wear a “highly protective mask” indoors except when eating or drinking for 10 days after being exposed, along with providing proof of a negative test.
The district, which already requires employees to be vaccinated, has sought to implement a vaccine mandate for students but has repeatedly delayed its implementation due to mass noncompliance. The district said it encourages “all eligible students to be vaccinated.”
The protocols in the Los Angeles Unified School District offer a stark contrast to its San Diego counterpart, which reinstated an indoor mask mandate for all school settings last month, citing an uptick in coronavirus cases in the area. Currently, only seven school districts nationwide still have mask mandates, according to the Burbio mask mandate tracker.
