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For K-12 school districts across many states, the status quo has been masks being required while indoors for the previous school year. Updated guidance from the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), however, have recently loosened up their guidelines as a reflection of continued vaccination rollout. Per the new guidelines, the agency recommends allowing students to not have to wear a mask as long as they are fully vaccinated.

The eased stance, however, comes with several caveats that facility cleaning managers and other school faculty should be mindful of. Chief among them being as it stands, no vaccine is approved for children under the age of 12, which the CDC says some schools should consider a multi-faceted approach to the restrictions:

Additionally, in instances where three feet of distance cannot be maintained indoors, the CDC still recommends face coverings to reduce transmission risk. As for mediating potential outbreaks, the existing protocols regarding contract tracing, screening testing and quarantine/isolation remain. 

As information is expected to evolve as the school year formally begins for many districts, facility cleaning managers should stay on top of evolving CDC recommendations. For more information on the recent COVID-19 Delta Variant that is seeing a spike in case rates, check out our previous coverage here.