• A child under the age of 2 years;
• A person with a disability who cannot wear a mask, or cannot safely wear a mask, for reasons related to the disability;
• A person for whom wearing a mask would create a risk to workplace health, safety, or job duty as determined by the workplace risk assessment external icon.

Recently, the CDC updated quarantine guidance stating: “In the K–12 indoor classroom setting, the close contact definition excludes students who were within 3 to 6 feet of an infected student (laboratory-confirmed or a clinically compatible illness) if both the infected student and the exposed student(s) correctly and consistently wore well-fitting masks the entire time”.

Last week, 388 M.S.D. of Wayne Township students were quarantined because they were a close contact.  This is our 6th highest number of quarantines since the pandemic began and our highest since April 30.  Last week we quarantined 73 students.  That means over the first 8 days of school, 461 students are not able to receive instruction from their teacher for 10 days.  That also means that the families of those 461 students were disrupted and it may have negatively impacted their ability to earn a wage and provide for their family.  Also last week, 37 students and staff tested positive.  Our 4th highest total since the beginning of the pandemic and the highest since January 8, 2021.   By requiring all individuals to wear a mask we greatly reduce our need to quarantine, disrupt the learning for our students, and negatively impact their families ability to work.