The Loudoun County, Virginia, School Board has voted to continue requiring students and staff to wear masks.
The school system said in a statement on Wednesday that the board voted Tuesday to continue the mandate, following the recommendation of Superintendent Scott Ziegler.
In keeping the mandate in place, the system said it is following state law “directing school boards to offer and prioritize in-person instruction. It also requires school boards to adhere to mitigation procedures, like mask-wearing, to the extent practicable as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control.”
The system also has removed the testing requirement for student-athletes and suspended the vaccine and testing requirements for teachers.
“We acknowledge that these ongoing mitigation measures are not ideal or easy,” the school system said, “and we will keep monitoring transmission data [and] advice from the Virginia Department of Health, and continue consultation with the local Loudoun County Health Department.”
Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Saturday, his first day in office, signed an executive order letting parents declare their children exempt from school mask mandates. Some school systems have followed his lead and dropped the mandates; others have left them in place, and a group of parents has sued the governor.
The order is supposed to go into effect Jan. 24.
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