Students and adults in Boulder County public schools are now required to wear masks in classrooms and other indoor settings as public health officials try to halt the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19 while allowing in-person learning.
Boulder County Public Health, or BCPH, issued Public Health Order 2021-07 Monday night after approval from the Board of Health, according to a Boulder County Public Health news release. The order requires mask wearing in the following situations, for all individuals ages 2 and over regardless of vaccination status:
- While indoors in any preschool through grade 12 school building anywhere in Boulder County
- While indoors at any childcare center or childcare facility, regardless of licensing status
- While indoors and participating in a youth camp, youth extracurricular activity, youth gym activities and youth sport. This requirement applies to all participants, attendees, spectators, staff, volunteers and coaches. (Individuals participating in youth sports indoors must follow Public Health’s Sports guidance.)
The order also requires schools and childcare facilities to cooperate with isolation and quarantine requirements, symptom checking and other mitigation strategies, according to the news release. In addition, school buildings, childcare centers and facilities that host activities covered under this order must post signs about the mask requirement.
Boulder County Public Health officials said, in the news release, that experiences and data in Boulder County during the 2020-21 school year — backed by international and national studies — have shown that adoption of universal facial covering policies “are an extremely effective tool to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and minimize disruptive quarantines and isolations in the school setting.”
In a letter to parents and staff Monday night, St. Vrain Valley School Superintendent Don Haddad said “while I have received significant and conflicting opinions from our community regarding whether masks should be required, we must adhere to this order from our local health department.”
“Toward this end, one important element of this order is that masking all students and staff indoors will result in a significant decrease in classroom quarantines, which will serve to minimize disruptions to our students’ in-person learning,” Haddad said in his letter.
According to the letter sent to parents, “for any routine classroom exposure, students will not need to quarantine if they are masked while indoors at school.”
Confirmed cases of COVID-19 will be investigated and detailed information will be provided to families about the potential exposure. Should a student need to quarantine, they will be allowed to enter class through synchronous learning, which is only available to quarantined students. Last school year, families with concerns about the virus were able to continue synchronous classroom participation regardless of quarantine status.
The health department has also indicated that “higher risk” activities, such as athletics and music programs, could still be subject to regular quarantine protocols, the letter states.
Families may request a mask exemption “if their student has any medical reasons that would make wearing a mask difficult or harmful.” Families can request an exemption by filling out a form at tinyurl.com/wmth2kh3.
Boulder County Public Health’s Order aligns with the American Academy of Pediatrics and CDC’s guidance which recommends universal masking for childcare and PK-12 education for all individuals while indoors, regardless of vaccination status, the new release states.
BCPH’s top priority and planning efforts are focused on ensuring that children remain in-person for their learning and educational experiences with minimal disruptions due to quarantine and isolation, according to the news release. By implementing universal masking, schools will be able to reduce the number of routine classroom exposure quarantines, the news release states.
BCPH’s orders and recommendations balance the physical health risks presented by the Delta variant with the academic, mental health and social-emotional benefits of in-person learning, the news release states.
The Delta variant now constitutes 100% of sampled cases in Colorado and is known to be twice as infectious as prior variants and can cause more severe diseases and it's impacting those in younger age groups, the news release states. BCPH data shows rises in incidence rates among those under 19 years of age.
In Boulder County, a total of 39,500 school-aged children ages 5-19 are either ineligible (23,500 people) or unvaccinated (16,000 people).
Anyone with questions regarding the order should call the Boulder County Call Center at 720-776-0822 or view the COVID-19 information on BCPH’s website at BoCo.org/COVID-19.
