The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) released its COVID-19 guidance for the 2021-22 school year today, July 12th. The guidance tracks closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance released on Friday, July 9th, and applies to both public and private schools.

The key message from both the CDPH and CDC is that schools can and should be open for full-time in-person instruction beginning in the fall. 

The CDPH guidance emphasizes the implementation of layers of safety, including vaccination, testing, and health and hygiene protocols. Schools will continue to work with San Mateo County Health and other health organizations to increase vaccination numbers in the county. Schools also have a variety of options for testing students and staff and will refine their testing plans over the next several weeks. Hand washing and other protocols from last year can be extended. 

San Mateo County Superintendent of Schools Nancy Magee commented that, “San Mateo County schools have become adept at implementing safety protocols and can extend many of those safety layers into the 2021-22 year.”

Unlike the CDC guidance, CDPH requires all TK-12 students to wear masks indoors and all adults to wear masks when sharing indoor spaces with students. Exemptions apply for students who cannot wear masks. Masks are not required outdoors.

Given that the global pandemic is not over, the Delta variant is still a concern, and many students are not yet vaccinated, CDPH stated that universal masking both provides an important and needed layer of protection and keeps children from feeling singled out because of their vaccination status. Also, universal masking makes it possible for CDPH to lift physical distancing requirements, which had been a key barrier to all students returning to in-person learning on a full-time basis last year. According to CDPH, “Recent evidence indicates that in-person instruction can occur safely without minimum physical distancing requirements when other mitigation strategies (e.g., masking) are fully implemented.”

Masks may not be required all year, and CDPH said it will continue to assess conditions on an ongoing basis and determine no later than November 1, 2021, whether to update its mask requirements.

Superintendent Magee weighed in on the CDPH’s universal mask requirement, “After a challenging year for students’ mental health, getting and keeping students in classrooms for in-person instruction and directly engaging with teachers and staff are the top priorities. Universal masking will help schools do that, while honoring all students regardless of their vaccination status. We need to start school strong this fall, and masks can help us do that.”

The San Mateo County Office will consolidate the CDPH, CDC, and any additional San Mateo County Health guidance in a simple, local document for schools to use in developing their plans for the 2021-22 school year.