NJ May Allow Kids To Go Maskless At School, Gov. Murphy Says

BERGENFIELD, NJ — A week after saying he expects some students and staff will be wearing masks in schools this fall, Gov. Phil Murphy acknowledged that “there is a chance” students may go maskless in September as the state continues to move beyond the coronavirus pandemic.

Murphy made the comment in response to a question from a reporter following a tour of in-person classes at Bergenfield High School in Bergen County.

“As of this moment in time, given vaccinations have only just begun for the 12- to 15-year-olds, and we don’t have an authorized vaccine for the under 12 yet, my guess is” that students will have to wear masks, Murphy said.

“Having said that, we put our guidance out in June of last year for what reopening would look like, and we tweaked it a number of times between June and September. Three months from now might as well be five lifetimes in a pandemic, so the answer is, absolutely, our minds are open.”

The trip was made to highlight the importance of in-person education, and it also showed how far schools have come in September. After a summer of uncertainty, the state saw a mix of districts offering all-remote learning and a mix of in-person and full-remote learning.

As of Wednesday, there were only eight local education agencies statewide without some form of in-person education, and 99 percent of school districts offer in-person learning either on a full-time or hybrid schedule

In September, full-remote learning will no longer be an option. It was this kind of rapid progress Murphy referenced when saying the door was still open for maskless students.

How quickly students get vaccinated will play a role. During a news conference later Wednesday, Murphy said 5.3 million New Jersey students ages 12-and-older had received at least one dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. That’s 70 percent of all eligible students in that age group.

“One thing that’s not negotiable is that the expectation is there that all students have in-person learning opportunities,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, who joined Murphy on the tour of Bergenfield High School. “We know that’s where they learn best. Even in my role as commissioner in connecticut before I became the secretary of education, I knew that the pandemic will drive the decisions that we make, and that we have to work very closely with the health experts to determine revisions to guidance.”

The Toms River Regional Schools Board of Education recently sent Murphy a letter asking him to drop the mask mandate for students and staff in the fall.

In Berkeley Township, Triantafillos Parlapanides, superintendent of the Central Regional School District, also has urged Murphy to end the mask requirement, but he would like to see it gone for the rest of this school year "so that students can breathe and that at graduation, parents can see their child's face." See related: Masks In NJ Schools: Here’s Who May Be Wearing Them In The Fall

Said Cardona: “While I’d like to predict that we’re going to be able to reopen schools in the fall without masks, I’m going to lean on my health expert partners to make sure we maintain that level of confidence that’s needed to reopen our schools.”