Michigan school mask tracker: Find rules in your district
Feb. 11, 2022: Oakland, Washtenaw counties latest to signal lift of COVID school mask mandate
Feb. 10, 2022: Michigan counties drop mask mandates as COVID plummets. Schools may follow.
(Editor’s note: This school mask database has been updated, and will continue to be updated as new information on school masking policies is received.)
At least 237 of the state’s 533 traditional school districts, and about 766,000 students — 61 percent of all public school students in Michigan — now have mask mandates.
In some of the 237 districts, only elementary school students, who are not yet eligible for COVID-19 vaccination, will face a mask mandate. While in others, all students must wear face coverings. The 766,000 figure represents the students who will required to wear masks.
The debate over whether to require students and staff to wear masks inside school buildings this school year is intensifying across Michigan, turning school board meetings into battlegrounds and leaving parents pitted against each other.
State officials “strongly recommend” face masks be worn in schools amid a surge of the delta variant of COVID-19, but have stopped short of a mandate similar to the statewide order issued during the 2020-21 school year.
The result is a patchwork of face mask policies in counties and school districts.
Related:
- In Michigan schools, ‘mask-optional’ usually means no masks
- Michigan: Masked or vaxxed students more likely to avoid COVID quarantine
- More Michigan 3rd-graders struggled to read amid COVID, remote learning
- Majority of Michigan students must now mask up, as Ingham, Washtenaw add rules
- Which Michigan school COVID measures work? We asked scientists
- After months of Michigan school mask protests, anti-anti-maskers mobilize
- Q & A: Small-town Michigan superintendent tells why he is mandating masks
- State’s top doc to Whitmer: School mask mandate would reduce COVID in Michigan
Some counties and individual school districts have mandated masks for students and staff, some are making masks optional, and still others haven’t made a final decision in the days before fall classes begin.
Data released by the state and published here as a searchable database provides information on current mask policies for many of Michigan’s 537 public school districts.
Some caveats about this database:
- The information is incomplete as some districts have not made decisions or their policies aren’t yet readily available on their websites.
- Some school districts continue to change their policies, as they follow recommendations or mandates from local health departments and more information is gleaned on the current state of COVID-19 spread in their communities.
- Some districts with mandates require masks for all students, while others require facial coverings only for elementary school students, who are not yet eligible for COVID-19 vaccinations.
- Some county health departments are issuing mask mandates, which override policies previously established in school districts in those counties.
- Most of the districts not requiring masks still strongly recommend masks be worn in schools. Some are particularly urging unvaccinated individuals to wear masks.
- Even in districts where masks aren’t required, students and staff must wear them on school buses. That’s due to a federal order requiring masks on public transportation.
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