PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — In a reversal, Pennsylvania has issued a mask mandate in schools for K-12 students, effective Tuesday, September 7.
Read the governor's executive order below.
The mandate will apply to all K-12 schools in the state and all child care centers licensed by DHS.
"Doing nothing is not an option," Gov. Tom Wolf said Tuesday about a change of course for his administration, after a dramatic change upward in daily new COVID-19 cases in the state this summer due to the effect of the delta variant.
"We, as everybody knows, we're not where we were just two months ago. The aggressive Delta variant has changed everything for us," Wolf said.
"We've all seen the rising case numbers across the country and across Pennsylvania as more contagious variants of COVID-19 spread all across the place."
Wolf noted how that change has happened at the same time "schools are trying to open their doors an start off another year." Many public school districts including Philadelphia — which has its own mask mandate — have already opened their doors, and others will be doing so either this or next week.
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"[The pandemic is] undermining the hard work of our educators, our teachers, and our school staff, and they're doing all they can despite this to keep students in the classroom. We need our students to be in the classroom," said Wolf.
Wolf spent the better part of the summer saying his administration would not mandate masks in schools, but they would leave that decision up to local districts. Wolf had said that local districts have a better feel for what they need to do in their schools.
However, on Tuesday, Wolf, announced the change as a way of guarding against what many students in other parts of the country have gone through, "stories from across the nation of students in school for a matter of days, and then who are forced to quarantine for weeks because of a COVID exposure."
"We deserve better than that," Wolf said.
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"Wearing a mask in school is necessary to keep our children in the classroom and to keep COVID out of that classroom. So to that end, the Department of Health is directing all early learning and childcare and K through 12 private and public schools across the country across the state."
Department of Health Secretary Alison Beam said while she knows there will be opposition to the order, she hopes people will keep it in perspective.
“Last year, when there was this level of community transmission, our students were learning virtually," Beam said. "Our goal is to keep students in classrooms.”
There will be some exemptions to the mandate, as listed below from the Governor's office:
- If wearing a face covering while working would create an unsafe condition in which to operate equipment or execute a task as determined by local, state, or federal regulators or workplace safety guidelines.
- If wearing a face covering would either cause a medical condition, or exacerbate an existing one, including respiratory issues that impede breathing, a mental health condition or a disability.
- When necessary to confirm the individual’s identity.
- When working alone and isolated from interaction with other people with little or no expectation of in-person interaction.
- If an individual is communicating or seeking to communicate with someone who is hearing-impaired or has another disability, where the ability to see the mouth is essential for communication.
- When the individual is under two years of age.
- When an individual is: (1) Engaged in an activity that cannot be performed while wearing a mask, such as eating and drinking, or playing an instrument that would be obstructed by the face covering; or (2) Participating in high intensity aerobic or anerobic activities, including during a physical education class in a well-ventilated location and able to maintain a physical distance of six feet from all other individuals.
- When a child/student is participating in a sports practice activity or event, whether indoors or outdoors.
Just last week, the governor was calling on Republicans in the state legislature to come back to session and pass this mandate through legislative means. They declined, and now the governor is taking this course.
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An amendment to the state constitution was passed earlier this year that limits the governor's emergency powers.
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New Jersey and Delaware had implemented mask mandates in recent weeks, but Wolf chose to wait in Pennsylvania, attempting to have local school boards make the move and implement mask mandates.
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Leaving it up to local leaders led to weeks of extremely contentious school board meetings, where in some cases police had to be called, board members had to leave the room, or adjourn early because of shouting matches among parents.
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"The effort was done, I don't know how many weeks ago, to say to the school boards, 'Make this happen. These are the CDC guidelines. I'm going to have you do the right thing here.' That didn't happen. I said to the General Assembly, 'You take this, run with this and do the right thing here.' They didn't do it. It's left to me," Wolf said.
"Maybe if we had all run together earlier it would have been nicer, but that didn’t happen. So I’m moving as quickly as I can here.”
Stay with KYW Newsradio for more on this developing story.