The Archdiocese of Chicago will make masks optional for students in most of its suburban Catholic schools beginning Thursday.
Greg Richmond, superintendent of schools for the archdiocese, sent a letter to parents of students late Tuesday night explaining the change and the reasoning behind it.
“Currently, we have no classrooms in quarantine anywhere in our archdiocese and we have no schools that have more than 3% of their students currently testing positive,” Richmond wrote. “In fact, nearly half of our schools are reporting no cases at all. This has been a dramatic drop within the past few weeks.”
The archdiocese educates about 45,000 students in 162 schools in Cook and Lake counties. The policy change applies to all schools except those in places where it’s overridden by public policy.
“In the city of Chicago, Oak Park and Evanston, masks will still be required because local health departments have issued lawful orders that require them,” Richmond wrote. “We are complying with those orders and will lift the mask mandate when we can.”
Richmond wrote that all other COVID-19 protocols would remain in effect, including requirements for students to wear masks when coming out of isolation following a positive test.
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