PPS has stated that on March 14, it will remove the mask requirement, with other metro area school districts likely to follow suit. Other West Coast urban school districts, including San Francisco and Seattle, have indicated that they will extend masking requirements, even as mask mandates are lifted in other settings.
Portland’s decision to lift the mask mandate came closer after Gov. Kate Brown’s administration announced an end to indoor masking in Oregon. The first date stated to end masking was March 31. It was then moved up to March 19, and finally at 11:59 pm on March 11.
Oregon generally and in the Portland district specifically had been among the last in the country to reopen school buildings in the spring of 2021. The strategy used called only for a handful of hours per week, with strict safety mitigation protocols in place to include six foot distancing.
Oregon’s largest school district is making it optional as of Monday, March 14, and other large districts, both statewide and in the Portland metropolitan area, are expected to follow suit.
The CDC reported last week of a decline in masking for over 70% of the country. New guidance from public health officials at the federal, state and county levels indicated that the entire metro area is now at a low risk level from COVID-19, given plummeting hospitalization rates and case counts.
The state of Oregon is reported to be in either the medium or low risk category. At the start of the current school year, PPS signed an agreement with the Portland Association of Teachers to “comply with the statewide and Multnomah County mask mandate.” That mandate is no longer in place.
