Tracking Mask Mandates—County-by-County—in Central and Eastern Kentucky Public Schools
A look at where 60+ local policies currently stand, emerging trends and how The Goldenrod is taking a long-range approach to keeping tabs on the data.
Late last week and over the weekend, I spent countless hours combing through school board websites and social media, phoning district offices and checking in with parents to try and figure out the status of mask mandates for public schools in each of the 60+ counties in The Goldenrod’s coverage area.
And somewhere among the confetti-covered “back to school bash” announcements, peppy Clipart and instructions for picking up new schedules, I was finally able to unearth school districts’ most up-to-date masking plans buried among this less-controversial digital rubble. (Most of the time, that is—if anyone can get Taylor County Schools to answer the phone, please let me know.)
But first, a little refresher on why we’re having this conversation. There isn’t a Covid-19 vaccine currently available for children under the age of 12, and the Delta variant—which is about 50 percent more transmittable than the Alpha version, causes more severe Covid symptoms and is likely to evade antibodies—is now the dominant variant in the United States. With these two realities in mind, the Kentucky Department of Public Health recommended that all individuals, regardless of vaccine status, wear masks while inside public schools.
Whether or not mask-wearing will actually happen on the ground without a firm requirement, though, remains to be seen.
Within the Central and Eastern Kentucky area we serve, eight districts—Franklin, Fayette, Scott, Letcher, Wolfe, Rowan, Berea Independent and Carter—are requiring mask-wearing for students inside schools. And while Greenup, Breathitt, Adair and Danville Independent have yet to make a public announcement regarding masks as of this morning (August 9), the remaining 54 districts are all only recommending masks or “leaving it up to parents” as the Delta variant spreads wildly across the United States, infecting young, unvaccinated bodies at an alarming rate and landing children in PICUs from coast-to-coast. (One particularly jarring statistic is that cases among children in Louisiana jumped from 3,000 to 6,000 in just four days last week.)
In order to keep track of how mask mandates and best practices shift and change for school districts over the course of the year, I’ve created a spreadsheet of each district’s mask policy, start date, mask policy for school buses and additional information/resources. (It’s federally-mandated that students wear a mask on the bus, but I’m still tracking it in case a district gets a wild hair to have a showdown with Washington. You never know!)
I’ll be updating the spreadsheet each week—a “living document” of sorts—so that in May we have eight months-worth of information to review and, ideally, learn from. But let’s hope that state and local leaders won’t wait until we’re locked in the jaws of tragedy to take a definitive stand on behalf of one of our most vulnerable populations: children.
OK! A few observations from my initial data-digging and a little analysis below (and, once again, here’s that spreadsheet):
Lack of Clear Direction: This is an obvious one, so I’ll get it out of the way first. What to do about masks for the rapidly approaching school year has become something of a responsibility hot potato: no one wants to touch it. And when state and local leaders don’t want to touch a skin-singeing spud, they throw it to parents and say, “Here, you make a choice! It’s your kid!” This isn’t good policy, and ignores pretty much every basic tenant of public health 101. Public schools, after all, are a major part of community life, and decisions made there impact everyone.
The words “recommend” and “highly recommend” are doing a lot of work in these school reopening documents with regards to masking, but ultimately feel like lip-service instead of actual guidance. It’s “recommended” that people drink around 64 ounces of water per day and get eight hours of sleep, but who can say they consistently hit those marks? Not me, that’s for sure.
There’s also very little information, if any, provided by schools via their online presences on what the Delta variant is (how it’s spreading more rapidly among children, how it’s similar or different, latest findings in other states, etc.) That seems like the sort of key data parents should have at their fingertips—you know, the actual science—if the onus is being placed on them to decide whether or not to mask their child when sending them to school.
Pushed Back Start Dates: Many schools districts, like Carter County, have delayed the start of school by a few weeks to get a better handle on where things stand with case counts and positivity rates. Breathitt County even pushed their school start date back all the way to September 8! This seems considered, and a more deliberate way to make a well-thought-out decision for the local area than rushing into the school year and letting the infection chips fall where they may.
Movement (and Singing?) = Masking: Bourbon County isn’t requiring students to be masked while in the classroom but will require them to be masked when walking between classes, going to the restroom or during any other transition period. In reopening documents, Johnson County floated the idea that masks might be required in some situations—like when students are “shouting, singing or playing instruments”—while Harrison County requires that students at least be in possession of a mask.
And while Robertson County isn’t requiring masks, their back-to-school paperwork coined a catchy little phrase, “If you move, you mask!” to recommend a course of action that seems similar to Bourbon County’s approach.
Hyper-Responsive Local Systems: There are a handful of counties that have developed detailed, ultra-responsive and easy-to-follow systems so that everyone is clear on whether or not children should mask up on any given day. Leslie County is one of those. In essence, when the county is not in “red zone” masks are only required when transitioning between classes. When the county is in "red zone" masks are required everywhere except when eating lunch or outside. Nicholas County and Mason County have taken a similar approach, tying school masking to local Covid-19 rates and making decisions feel update-to-date and dynamic. Does this require that parents and school leaders pay attention to what’s happening locally with Covid-19 on a daily basis? Yes. Is that a good thing? Absolutely.
Area Technology Centers: Interestingly enough, Area Technology Centers—technical schools that are often tied to high schools and teach all the types of trade skills like welding and auto repair—are requiring masks at all times because they are, technically, state-directed programs. Here’s a full list of ATCs in Kentucky. (Thanks to Casey County Schools for pointing this out!)
Feel free to send along updated mask decisions as you see them roll in locally—thegoldenrodnews@gmail.com—and don’t be shy about letting your local school board know how you feel about this community issue. We’ll be including an updated version of the spreadsheet weekly in the newsletter, so we can all watch as the situation shapeshifts and molts over time.
