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Here’s why some California school districts still require mask wearing during recess

Pass by many California elementary schools during a recess break, and you will see dozens of students playing tetherball and tag with their masks on.

Drive a few miles to another school in another district, and students at recess are playing basketball and swinging on monkey bars without their masks.

That’s because district officials are interpreting outdoor masking rules differently as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impose safety restrictions at K-12 schools.

And some parents across the state are calling out conflicting guidelines and mandates on outdoor mask wearing, calling it unnecessary and excessive.

The California Department of Public Health has placed safety guidelines on schools. That guidance states that masks “are optional outdoors for all in K-12 school settings.”

Guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that, generally, people do not need to wear masks outdoors “during outdoor play, recess and during physical education activities,” but do recommend it in crowded areas for those who are not fully vaccinated.

Dr. Dean Blumberg, UC Davis Children’s Hospital chief of pediatric infectious diseases, said he agrees with the CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics guidance.

“Masking indoors is most important because of limited ventilation and ability for social distancing,” Blumberg said. “Masking outdoors is appropriate if there is crowding, if children are not able to social distance.”

Blumberg says he wears a mask at the farmers market where customers often crowd around busy vendors. But he added that about 90% of transmission of COVID-19 occurs indoors.

“Masking in crowded situations outdoors is another opportunity to limit transmission at schools, avoid school outbreaks, and assure that schools remain open for in-person learning,” he said.

But while top health officials do not make outdoor masking mandatory, several school districts in the region require masks at recess and outdoor physical education classes.

Of the 25 largest school districts among the state’s 1,000 school districts, six require masking outdoors, including Sacramento City Unified and Davis Joint Unified.

Both Sacramento County and Yolo County public health guidance state that outdoor activities can be performed without masks. School districts such as Elk Grove Unified and Twin Rivers Unified followed state and local recommendations and do not require masking during recess or physical education. San Juan Unified announced on Oct. 1 it would allow individual school sites to implement outdoor masking to help mitigate the spread of the virus, particularly at large outdoor events.

Michael Creedon, a Davis Joint Unified parent of two, said the additional requirements said the conflicting rules leave him and other parents questioning school district officials’ decisions.

“We are extreme outliers as far as masking goes,” Creedon said. “We should do what works. If it doesn’t work, we shouldn’t do it. The term ‘crowded outdoor settings’ is more along the lines of concerts, festivals and such. It’s not about recess or PE. Even CDPH seems to recognize that.”

During a school board meeting Oct. 21, Associate Superintendent Laura Juanitas acknowledged the district has “gone beyond by requiring masks outdoors.”

“Part of the reason for doing this is it shortens the amount of time where students are without masks and we would have to modify quarantine,” Juanitas said.

Davis schools have seating charts for students at lunch when they are unmasked, allowing them to slow a potential spread of COVID-19.

“You can’t have a seating chart at recess,” Juanitas said. “We know part of being a child and playing is the mixing and matching and enjoying themselves, and having to mandate that, which we’ve seen, actually in other places, having kids stay within a hula-hoop or something, you know we’re not doing that, which is why the masking has really helped.”

Creedon said he believes avoiding modified quarantines is what incentivizes many California schools to mandate masks outdoors. But there could be changes in the coming months.

Davis Joint Unified delayed a decision to update its guidance to March 2022.

And some school districts, such as Los Angeles Unified, announced that they would allow schools with 85% or higher vaccination rates to shed their outdoor masks. LA Unified is also requiring vaccinations for students ages 12 and older by Jan. 10 or students will not be allowed on campus.

Tying vaccination rates to mask policies can be tricky. Sacramento City Unified students ages 12 and older were required to submit their vaccination statuses to the district by Nov. 30. More than 70% of students did not meet the deadline. Some students may be fully vaccinated but have not reported their status to the district.