My fully vaccinated children will wear face masks when they return to school later this month. With rising cases of the more contagious delta variant, we want to do whatever it takes to try to reduce the spread and keep in-person learning going.
Masks, when worn properly, help protect the most vulnerable and prevent the virus from spreading. But school mask mandates also come with costs for some children. It's important to recognize and discuss those concerns and determine if the benefits continue to outweigh the risks as the year progresses.
I've seen posts labeling those who ask questions about masking children as "selfish" and "stupid." That's counterproductive to building the buy-in needed to keep public health measures in place, especially in communities with high levels of resistance. (It's just as ridiculous to claim that masks are a form of "child abuse.") Assuring that parents feel heard is critical to gaining their cooperation.
One significant population to consider is students with special needs. In 2019–20, 7.3 million students ages 3 to 21 received special education services under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. That is about 14% of all public school students. Depending on the disability, wearing a mask could present an additional impediment for some students.
It can be harder to hear teachers and peers speaking from behind a mask; it's more difficult to discern emotions and tone, and more challenging to pick up on social cues. An adult putting on a mask to shop for groceries is not equivalent to a young child wearing one all day, every day, while learning to speak, read and interact with others. And if there are accommodations made for some children, how will that impact the efficacy of masking in the entire building?
An additional challenge is the lack of long-term data or research on these issues.
"It's a deeply complicated question, and few people are engaging with it as a deeply complicated question," said Beth Wilensky, a clinical professor of law at the University of Michigan. She said her children will also be masked when they return to school. She would like to see more data on what the actual marginal benefit is, especially for younger children, when they are masked in school. It's hard to measure because there's so much variance in the types of masks and how they are actually worn, as opposed to how they should be.
It's even more difficult to measure the tradeoff costs when an immediate threat like COVID is compared with risks to kids' social or emotional development, which may compound over time. But when we are talking about masking millions of children for up to two cumulative years of school, these are questions that need to be considered.
Ideally, these conversations are happening in the larger context of other mitigation strategies such as social distancing, spending more time outside and ensuring proper ventilation inside. School officials should be allowed to take into account local vaccination and infection rates when assessing risk for their school populations. A high school with more than 80% of students and staff vaccinated is an entirely different situation from an elementary school where children are not yet eligible for the vaccine.
Every tool must be used to contain the virus in COVID hot spots with large numbers of unvaccinated people and a variant that is affecting more children. But parents should also be informed of the off ramps for any interventions put in place.
"It's easy to put precautions in place and harder to take them away," Wilensky said.
Every person has their own level of risk tolerance. It's tempting to look at something as "simple" as requiring a mask and feel a false sense of security from it.
In the evolving context of this pandemic, with so many unknown and unpredictable variables, it's understandable to want to take broad measures to prevent death and serious illness. I'm glad my children will be in schools with masks required in the fall. But I am also concerned about the costs.
It's possible to hold both thoughts.