The Lafayette Parish School Board voted during Wednesday's meeting to remove the mask mandate on school campuses, effective immediately.
This decision applies only to school facilities, and masks are still mandated on school buses, a release from LPSS states.
In early May, the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) approved revisions to its COVID-19-related minimum health and safety standards for the reopening of K-12 schools in the 2020-21 school year. Those revisions state that BESE's minimum standards pertaining to face coverings are superseded by any statewide or district-specific mandate issued by the governor. They also clarify that face-covering requirements are to be determined by local school systems when no mask mandate from the governor is in place.
Under Governor Edwards' most recent proclamation on May 26, the mask requirement for all early childhood, elementary, secondary, and postsecondary educational institutions at the end of the 2020-21 academic year. It authorized local education agencies to determine whether to require face coverings starting with 2021 summer programs.
The board also voted to withdraw the emergency declaration made last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which conferred power upon the superintendent in order to allow LPSS to respond to the unique events in an expedited fashion. With the school year complete and the gradual rescission of various public health restrictions from the state, LPSS says "it is appropriate to withdraw the ... resolution."
More information on LPSS' discussion of health and safety standards no longer mandated by Louisiana and the withdrawal of the emergency declaration resolution can be found here.
You can also watch tonight's meeting below:
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