Falls Church City Public Schools (FCCPS) began a new phase in the pandemic on February 14: optional masking for students.
In a letter to the community on February 10, FCCPS Superintendent Peter Noonan said the option to opt-out of masking comes with a decrease in positive COVID-19 cases since the health district’s peak on January 10th.
“We are seeing very small numbers of positive cases in our [Virginia School Screening Testing for Assurance] program surveillance testing (less than 1% positivity), which indicates that there is not a lot of infection in our schools,” Noonan said.
Noonan said unvaccinated students who have opted out of masking are highly encouraged to get PCR tested weekly, regardless of coming into close contact with the virus. If those students test positive, the school district has a system in place to assure those students participate in some form of learning.
“All students in school for days 6-10 [of quarantine] will be required to wear a mask to return to school,” Noonan said. “If you elect that your student not wear a mask, the alternate option for days 6-10 is to keep your student in quarantine for the entire ten days, with streaming instruction for days 6-10.”
Despite the opportunity to remove masks on school grounds, students will still be required to mask on school buses, in accordance with President Biden’s executive order.
“All students will still be required to wear a mask on a school bus, as there remains a federal requirement to mask on public transit,” Noonan said.
Despite the decrease in COVID cases, Noonan noted Falls Church City remains in a “high transmission” zone and advises parents to take certain considerations into account when choosing to opt students out of masking.
“We have immunocompromised staff who are transplant recipients and who have underlying health conditions,”Noonan said. “I ask you to remember that we are part of a bigger community of people and must look out for each other,” Noonan said.