Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm burning all my masks today. LET'S GO!! My middle schoolers don't want to take them off for cosmetic reasons (they also want to see what their friends will do), but I'm so happy about this.

Cosmetic reasons?

I believe that, many kids this age are super conscious of their looks and don’t mind hiding behind a mask.

Anonymous wrote:I'm burning all my masks today. LET'S GO!! My middle schoolers don't want to take them off for cosmetic reasons (they also want to see what their friends will do), but I'm so happy about this.

Cosmetic reasons?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Email from APS indicated they wanted some kind of record of those opting out to inform "contact tracing".

I am in APS and it seems ridiculous. I am supportive of masking remaining, but it's clear that the new law makes it optional. I don't know a single teacher who wants to task of "checking the mask-apt out list" before asking a student to pull up their mask. So now, if a kid takes it off at lunch, no teacher is going to ask them to put it back on. So this "opt out for contact tracing" thing is complete nonsense.

Agreed, I don't want my child's teacher wasting time checking lists and monitoring mask compliance.

Anonymous wrote:The new version of contact tracing has to be: someone in your child's class has covid. Be on the lookout fir symptoms in your child.

Trying to treat masked and unmasked differently isn't going to work since kids may be masked in one class and not in another. I will sign an opt out for my teens, but they may still wear a mask for awhile. Having an opt out record no longer tells you what that kids was doing re: masking. Schools need to treat everyone as unmasked contacts, and everyone just needs to be looking for symptoms, but nothing more.

This is what PWCS did. VDH officially changed to allow this policy back on 2/5! Only in case of 10% of a grade/class/school having Covid do they have to try to conduct any in-school contact tracing any more. FCPS is going "above and beyond" with their existing contact tracing and quarantine.

Many, many states that were leaders in test-to-stay dropped that. Children's Hospital of Philly said to drop test-to-stay or quarantine. It's a mainstream thing to do at this point.

I'm burning all my masks today. LET'S GO!! My middle schoolers don't want to take them off for cosmetic reasons (they also want to see what their friends will do), but I'm so happy about this.

Anonymous wrote:Email from APS indicated they wanted some kind of record of those opting out to inform "contact tracing".

I am in APS and it seems ridiculous. I am supportive of masking remaining, but it's clear that the new law makes it optional. I don't know a single teacher who wants to task of "checking the mask-apt out list" before asking a student to pull up their mask. So now, if a kid takes it off at lunch, no teacher is going to ask them to put it back on. So this "opt out for contact tracing" thing is complete nonsense.

The new version of contact tracing has to be: someone in your child's class has covid. Be on the lookout fir symptoms in your child.

Trying to treat masked and unmasked differently isn't going to work since kids may be masked in one class and not in another. I will sign an opt out for my teens, but they may still wear a mask for awhile. Having an opt out record no longer tells you what that kids was doing re: masking. Schools need to treat everyone as unmasked contacts, and everyone just needs to be looking for symptoms, but nothing more.

Email from APS indicated they wanted some kind of record of those opting out to inform "contact tracing".

As I've said before, there is no point to requiring a form.

Think it through.

The point of requiring a form is to make a record of which kids are allowed to be maskless. The only reason you would need a record is if you are going to engorce masking for those who do not have an opt-out record on file. Teachers do not have the time or interest to check the list of "approved to be maskless " kids before telling everyone else to put a mask on or pull their masks up. It's not going to happen. In MS and HS, a teacher would have to check 7 different lists! It would be impossible.

So, if teachers are not going to enforce masking for everyone who does not have a record of opting out, then teachers are not enforcing masking at all. If you have a mask or don't have a mask, it's all the same. There are no more "requirements" for masking. There is no need to have a record of who has parental approval to go maskless.

Alexandria Public Schools figured this out last night. Fairfax will announce the same today.

In last night’s school board meeting, Dr. Brabrand said families can expect an email with the details early this afternoon. Nothing has been said yet about whether or not a form will be required. The long and short of what was said in a board statement last night is that they realize they have to comply by March 1, but they don’t like it and would really like people to continue wearing masks.

The CDC has said multiple times any updates on masks won’t be for schools

Anonymous wrote:CDC will be changing its guidance today. They may just use that as an opportunity to unwind mask mandate policy based on that instead of the state law (even though they're governed by the state law, they'll use it as an opportunity to remain petulant).

Thank you for saying that.

Someone has to call out the radicals who have taken over FCPS. These people are ridiculous, as demonstrated by so many of their actions over the past few years.

CDC will be changing its guidance today. They may just use that as an opportunity to unwind mask mandate policy based on that instead of the state law (even though they're governed by the state law, they'll use it as an opportunity to remain petulant).

Did you receive something recently about opting out?

Starting a new thread because other is a bit off topic - FCPS is allowing parents to opt out - does that mean that I will have to sign something to allow my child to go to school without a mask? They aren't dropping the mask mandate but parents must opt out the way they opt out of sex ed?