“Safety remains our highest priority. The district will advocate for all eligible students and staff to receive vaccines and strongly encourage masks to be worn by everyone in schools,” the statement reads. “The district will also work to adhere to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, including frequent cleaning and disinfecting of our schools, physical distancing, hand washing, and staying home when sick.”
Broward County, situated just north of Miami-Dade County, includes Fort Lauderdale.
However, the school board for Alachua County — located in north central Florida — voted Tuesday to require masks for the first two weeks of school, citing a “dramatic” rise of Covid-19 cases.
In northeast Florida’s Duval County, the school board voted 5-2 Tuesday night to allow parents to opt their children out of wearing masks in schools.
The school district updated the mask policy in the Student Code of Conduct to say any student not wearing a mask must have their parent or guardian complete “opt-out proceedures.”
What does the order mean?
It adds that this was done “to protect parents’ freedom to choose whether their children wear masks.”
The order states that if the State Board of Education finds a school district board unwilling or unable to comply, it is able to withhold the transfer of state funds, discretionary grant funds or discretionary lottery funds.
The board can also declare a school ineligible for competitive grants if the district doesn’t comply.
On Tuesday, DeSantis re-emphasized his opposition to mask mandates and economic shutdowns as measures to mitigate Covid-19.
The state, he said, will not be “shutting down; we’re going to have schools open.”
He said Covid-19 mitigation efforts and “interventions have failed time and time again throughout this pandemic” to prevent virus spread, “not just in the United States but abroad.”
More than 110,400 cases were reported over the seven-day period ending July 29, with the week prior reporting 73,000 and the two previous weeks tallying 45,000 cases and 23,000 cases, respectively.
CNN’s Rosa Flores, Hollie Silverman, Leyla Santiago and Sara Weisfeldt contributed to this report.
Source : CNN