Mask, social distance decisions left to local school officials by State Education Dept.

The State Education Department this afternoon issued a “health and safety guide” for New York school districts for the 2021-2022 school year.

Though it was billed by the agency as a “guidance document” before its release, the guide does not provide local school districts with new guidance for managing the current COVID-19 outbreak as local officials prepare to bring students back into classrooms next month. (See document below.)

Instead, the 21-page guide summarizes the latest guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and the American Academy of Pediatrics for K-12 schools on the hot-button topics around which controversy swirls — COVID-19 vaccinations, mask wearing and social distancing — but does not instruct local districts to follow the guidance or even suggest that they should.

The Suffolk County Department of Health Services has issued guidance to school districts recommending that they follow the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations.

“The Suffolk County Department of Health Services concurs with the Centers for Disease Control and the American Academy of Pediatrics, which urge universal mask wearing in schools. SCDHS also recommends that school districts follow the Centers for Disease Control guidance for COVID-19 Prevention in K-12 Schools, updated on August 5, 2021,” the health department said in a guidance document distributed to school districts across the county.

“Mask guidance remains unchanged from the end of the prior school year in June 2021 consistent with CDC recommendations,” the health department said.

But the state and the county health departments and now the State Education Department have said the decision on whether to adopt the CDC guidance rests with local school officials.

NYSED Health and Safety Guide for the 2021-2022 School Year by RiverheadLOCAL on Scribd