Algonquin-based Community School District 300, and Cary School District 26 both made masking optional following special meetings this weekend in response to an appellate court decision last week that ruled COVID-19 mitigation policies in schools had expired and no longer applied.
The pair of districts join many others across McHenry County, who began reaffirming their masking policies that called for recommended, but not required, masking in schools.
Originally, after a Feb. 4 ruling from a Sangamon County court said Gov. JB Pritzker didn’t have the authority to issue the mask mandate, many districts in McHenry County opted to move to a recommended masking policy. However, Cary District 26 and District 300 said at the time that only those mentioned in the lawsuit would not have to wear masks, requiring everyone else to do so.
A little more than a week later, on Feb. 15, the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, a legislative panel in Springfield, voted to suspend the newest version of COVID-19 mitigation, which included masks, for schools in Illinois after they were set to expire. The committee cited the pending litigation surrounding the rules as a reason why.
As a result, the appellate court Thursday said because those rules had expired, they could no longer be applied, allowing school districts across the state to issue their own decisions on masking and other protocols.
Read more here. The news release from District 300 can be viewed here.
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