Ridgewood Schools Could Go Mask Optional This Fall

RIDGEWOOD, NJ — Good news could be on the horizon soon, as Ridgewood Superintendent Thomas Gorman hinted that masks may be optional for students and staff next fall.

This comes after Gov. Phil Murphy announced that there would be no mask mandate coming down from the state level, and as the New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH) and New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) announced updated health and safety guidelines for the upcoming school year.

Most important from those new guidelines is that all districts will be required to provide full-time, in-person learning with no remote option available. Among the next hottest topics is likely to be a potential mask mandate, which now will be decided by individual districts.

Though, Ridgewood officials have yet to announce officially what the mask policy will be, Superintendent Thomas Gorman said the goal is to return to "pre-pandemic norms."

"Over the summer as specific guidance is made available to school districts, the RPS mask policy will be updated, but based on the announcement, we anticipate masks to be optional. We look forward to a positive start in September," said Gorman, in a statement to Patch.

The Department of Education released three documents for districts to follow, including:

• health and safety recommendations that provide strategies to reduce risks to students and staff from COVID-19, while still prioritizing full-time, in-person learning;
• a self-assessment of district readiness to accelerate learning and to provide supportive school climates; and
• a compilation of specific, research-backed priorities and practices accelerating learning.

Districts are advised to follow these recommendations included in the guidance document released on Monday:

• Maintaining physical distance between students to the extent practicable. This recommendation must not prevent a school from offering fulltime in-person learning; districts should implement physical distancing only to the extent they are equipped to do so while still providing regular in-person school operations.
• Interventions to aid with social distancing include facing desks in the same direction and avoiding group seating arrangements.
• Putting procedures in place to identify and respond to a student or staff member who becomes ill with COVID-19 symptoms.
• Maintaining close communication with local health departments to share information and resources on COVID-19 transmission, prevention, and control measures and to establish procedures for notification and response to illness. Schools should also maintain transparent and ongoing communication, as appropriate, with their staff, students, and caregivers regarding school operations and health and safety information.

Officials reiterated that these recommendations are not mandatory, and won't prevent school districts from reopening in the fall.

NJDOE also released a self-assessment tool that school districts may use to develop and implement a plan for the transition to full, in-person instruction. It provides guiding questions and resources in various topics, including learning acceleration, supporting the social-emotional needs of students and educators, attendance, discipline, support for student subgroups, and districts' financial obligations.

NJ DOE also released a guidance document that provides specific research based principles and strategies to accelerate learning and prepare students for the new school year. It is designed to serve as long-term guidance that helps anchor academic, social, and behavioral interventions for the state's school districts.

The three documents can be found on the NJDOE website.

With reporting from Anthony Bellano.

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