Could New York Students Be Forced To Wear Masks in Schools Again?

Many parents in New York are worried their kids may have to put masks back on in classrooms. This is after one school district issued a mask mandate.

Earlier this week the San Diego Unified School District issued a new mask mandate. The move came after the CDC moved San Diego County into the "High" covid spread category.

High COVID Spread In Parts of Hudson Valley, New York

The CDC says you should wear a well-fitting mask indoors in public, regardless of vaccination status, if your county is deemed to have a High COVID spread.

A number of New York counties including Putnam, Rockland, and Westchester counties are now deemed to have a High COVID spread, according to the CDC.

The rest of the Hudson Valley and many other parts of New York are deemed to have "Medium" COVID spread.

Note: The CDC uses orange for "High" Covid spread, yellow for "Medium" COVID spread and green for "Low" covid spread.

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New York State Crafting 'Fall Action' COVID Plan For Upcoming School Year

On Wednesday, New York Gov. Hochul announced New York State is crafting a "fall action plan" for the upcoming school year.

"This pandemic and COVID has taught us, preparations are the key to literally survival. And when I came into office last fall, we rolled out a plan to deal with schools and a smooth plan to have schools reopen I wanted to sit down with my team now and develop two plans. One is in the short term. That is our fall action plan to prepare for fall and winter this year. And for the long term, what we are calling our pandemic after action review," Hochul stated.

Will New York Students Be Forced To Wear Masks In School?

Hochul understands parents want to know will their kids be forced to wear a mask again. For now, the answer is no. But Hochul does say she could change her mind if cases rise.

"Everybody's going to ask about are our kids going to need tests or masks in schools," Hochul said. "This was a big issue last year. Right now, we are saying they don't. That we don't currently base on today's numbers, anticipate the need for masks in classrooms, but I'm going to reserve the right to return to this policy. If the numbers change, the circumstances change, and the severity of the illnesses changes."

COVID Tests Being Sent To New York Schools

Hochul also confirmed millions of COVID tests are being sent to school districts across the state.

"We have a return-to-school strategy. We're going to make sure kids are safe and protected. We are now distributing over 3 million test kits to school districts, to make sure that every student and member of their staff can test before the first day, we encourage everybody to take advantage of this," Hochul added.