The following email was sent on February 25th from Carroll County Public Schools:
The Joint Committee on Administrative, Executive and Legislative Review (AELR) met this afternoon, Friday, February 25, and rescinded the current mask mandate as recommended by the Maryland State Board of Education. At their February 9 meeting, the Board of Education of Carroll County approved that should there be any changes to the regulation allowing for masks to be optional and/or if any of the existing off-ramps were met, masks would be optional in CCPS schools and facilities.
Therefore, effective immediately masks will now be optional in Carroll County Public Schools. As a reminder, it is still a federal requirement that masks are worn on school buses. We will notify you if anything should change regarding transportation.
We recognize that this is a significant change toward normalcy in our schools and facilities. Students and staff who wish to continue to wear face coverings are encouraged to do so. We understand that while some families will be happy to have their child attend school without a mask, some families will still want their child to wear a mask. Our expectation is that all students and staff respect the decisions that individual families and staff make as we transition through this time of masks being optional. As always, we want all our students and staff feeling comfortable with whatever their approach might be to masks in school and ask that those individual decisions are respected.
The local COVID-19 case counts continue declining significantly and over 77% of the eligible population in Carroll County has been vaccinated. Additionally, we will:
- Continue to provide weekly COVID-19 screening messages with our employees and families
- Continue to exclude individuals who are sick
- Continue the use of air purifiers in our instructional spaces
- Continue emphasis on hand washing and sanitizing
- Continue the use of cleaning products and protocols that have been in place for reducing transmission of communicable disease, including COVID-19
- Continue to collaborate with our health department and monitor cases, attendance, and communicate any outbreaks
- Continue to update our COVID dashboard on our website
- Continue to hold a standing agenda item for COVID-19 updates in partnership with the county health department at our monthly board meetings.
For the continued well-being of our students and staff, please continue to follow the guidance provided in our weekly self-screening emails.
Steven Lockard
Superintendent of Schools
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