Mandatory or optional masks for students? Here’s what NC school districts are doing
Every North Carolina school district will end the school year with face masks being optional.
The majority of the state’s school districts had followed the guidance for much of the school year from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services to require face coverings. But the situation changed in February after Gov. Roy Cooper and DHHS officials said they’re encouraging schools to make face coverings optional.
All 115 total districts have voted to end their face mask mandates. Durham Public Schools will be the last school district still requiring masks when its mandate ends April 11.
The Chapel HIll-Carrboro and Hertford County school systems made masks optional starting April 4.
That’s a change from Jan. 28, when 89 districts required mask during the height of the omicron variant.
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Things changed rapidly with Gov. Roy Cooper urging school districts on Feb. 17 to end mask requirements.
As of March 7, DHHS is no longer recommend requiring masks in any schools. It’s a change from previous recommendations this school year to require masks.
In addition, state lawmakers have passed a bill allowing families to opt out of school mask requirements. Cooper announced Feb. 24 that he’s vetoing a bill. Republican legislative leaders say they will attempt to override Cooper.
Districts switch policies
Many districts have moved between being mask optional to requiring them and back again over the course of the school year.
At the beginning of August, it was evenly split between between districts that were requiring masks and those that were making it optional. But a surge in COVID cases resulted in most districts, by the end of August, requiring masks.
Dozens of districts reversed their original decision to make masks optional at the start of the school year, several after Gov. Roy Cooper sent them a letter asking them to reconsider their vote. The districts cited issues such as the rise in COVID cases from the delta variant.
As COVID numbers began dropping, several school districts began voting in December to make masks optional. But the surge in cases from the omicron variant caused several districts in January to reinstate mask requirements.
But with vaccines becoming more prevalent and the omicron wave starting to subside, some districts began voting in February to make masks optional. By mid-February, the majority of school districts had voted to make masks optional.
Under state law, school boards must vote monthly on their mask policies.
This story will be updated as more school districts make decisions.
Mask policies at Triangle area school districts
▪ Durham Public Schools will make masks optional, but recommended, starting April 11.
▪ Wake County made face masks recommended, but now optional, starting March 7.
▪ Johnston County has been mask optional since Feb. 21.
▪ Orange County made masks optional starting March 8.
▪ Chapel Hill-Carrboro made masks optional but recommended as of April 4.
▪ Chatham County made face masks optional starting March 7.
▪ Harnett County resumed making masks optional on Oct. 5, reversing its Aug. 19 decision to require them.
▪ Franklin County has been optional since Feb. 21.
▪ Granville County will go mask optional starting Feb. 28.
North Carolina school districts with optional masking
- Alamance-Burlington County
- Alexander County
- Alleghany County
- Anson County
- Ashe County
- Avery County
- Beaufort County
- Bertie County
- Bladen County
- Brunswick County
- Buncombe County
- Asheville City Schools
- Burke County
- Cabarrus County
- Kannapolis City Schools
- Caldwell County
- Camden County (school by school)
- Carteret County
- Caswell County
- Catawba County
- Hickory City Public Schools
- Newton-Conover City Schools
- Chatham County
- Cherokee County
- Edenton-Chowan County
- Edgecombe County
- Clay County
- Cleveland County
- Columbus County
- Whiteville City Schools
- Craven County
- Cumberland County
- Currituck County
- Dare County
- Davidson County
- Lexington City Schools
- Thomasville City Schools
- Davie County
- Duplin County
- Durham (optional starting April 11)
- Winston-Salem/Forsyth County
- Franklin County
- Gaston County
- Gates County (school by school)
- Graham County
- Granville County
- Greene County
- Guilford County
- Halifax County
- Roanoke Rapids Graded School District
- Weldon City Schools
- Harnett County
- Haywood County
- Henderson County
- Hertford County
- Hoke County
- Hyde County
- Iredell-Statesville Schools
- Mooresville Graded School District
- Jackson County
- Johnston County
- Jones County
- Lee County
- Lenoir County
- Lincoln County
- Macon County
- Madison County
- Martin County
- McDowell County
- Charlotte-Mecklenburg
- Mitchell County
- Montgomery County
- Moore County
- Nash County
- New Hanover County
- Northampton County
- Onslow County
- Orange County
- Chapel Hill-Carrboro
- Pamlico County
Elizabeth City/Pasquotank County
- Pender County
- Perquimans County
- Person County
- Pitt County
- Polk County
- Randolph County
- Asheboro City Schools
- Richmond County
- Robeson County
Rockingham County
- Rowan-Salisbury Schools
- Rutherford County
- Sampson County
- Clinton City Schools
- Scotland County
- Stanly County
- Stokes County
- Surry County
- Elkin City Schools
- Mt. Airy City Schools
- Swain County
- Transylvania County
- Tyrrell County
- Union County
- Vance County
- Wake County
- Warren County
- Washington County
- Watauga County
- Wayne County
- Wilkes County
- Wilson County
- Yadkin County
- Yancey County
This story was originally published August 4, 2021 at 6:15 AM with the headline "Mandatory or optional masks for students? Here’s what NC school districts are doing."
