The administration of Gov. Tom Wolf announced Tuesday afternoon that the acting state secretary of health has issued an order that will require masks to be worn inside K-12 school buildings, early learning programs, and child care centers starting on Tuesday, September 7.
The order, issued by Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam, calls for universal masking in schools and follows the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
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“The order applies to everyone indoors at K-12 public schools including brick and mortar and cyber charter schools, private and parochial schools, career and technical centers (CTCs), and intermediate units (IUs). The order also applies to early learning programs and child care providers for children ages 2 and older, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The order outlines the situations when a mask must be worn and includes limited exceptions to the face-covering requirement. The order does not apply to school sports or outdoor activities,” state officials said.
The state health department secretary can issue orders on mitigation measures through the Disease Prevention and Control Law of 1955, which was not impacted by the May 2021 approval of a constitutional amendment and vote by Republican lawmakers to limit Wolf’s emergency powers.
Acting Health Secretary Alison Beam said she issued the order as COVID-19 cases are impacting schools in the state, citing several schools in Pennsylvania that have had to cancel programs and football games this month due to cases.
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“The reality we are living in now is much different than it was just a month ago,” said Beam. “With case counts increasing, the situation has reached the point that we need to take this action to protect our children, teachers and staff. The science is clear. If we want to keep our schools open, maintain classroom learning and allow sports and other activities to continue, masking significantly increases our chances of doing so.”
The Pennsylvania Department of Health said COVID-19 cases among kids enrolled in state-licensed child care facilities have increased “significantly” in recent months.
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“For example, on June 4, child care providers reported eight cases of COVID-19 among children in the previous week. On August 27, the number of new COVID-19 cases among children in child care the previous week was 162,” the department said in a statement.
Health officials said overall COVID-19 cases in the state went from less than 300 per day in July to more than 3,000 per day recently. They noted that cases among school-aged kids increased by 11,000 over the past month.
“We know there will be objections to this action,” Beam said. “We are asking folks to keep it in perspective. Last year, when there was this level of community transmission, our students were learning virtually.”
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State Secretary of Education Noe Ortega said he wants kids to be back in school and mitigation measures, like masking, will help accomplish that.
“Unfortunately, we’ve already seen schools across the nation close because of COVID-19. Wearing masks is a proven strategy that will help Pennsylvania’s schools reduce the spread of COVID-19, protect their communities, and keep our students and educators where we know it’s vital for them to be – teaching, learning and growing together safely in their classrooms,” he said.
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Pennsylvania Department of Human Services Acting Secretary Meg Snead, a mother herself and whose agency oversees child care programs, said masking around kids, especially those who are not vaccinated, is key to keeping children healthy and parents able to go to work.
“A thriving child care industry is also foundational to the rest of our economy, and this industry and the dedicated educators who show up every day to help our children grow will be essential for our recovery from this pandemic. Simply put, without access to safe child care and early learning programs, many parents cannot work,” she said
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Ortega said schools are authorized to enforce the order and they have done so with other state orders for years.
“Failure to implement or follow the order may subject a person to penalties under the Disease Prevention and Control Law of 1955 and exposure to personal liability,” officials said.
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The Levittown-area’s four school districts – Bristol Borough, Bristol Township, Neshaminy, and Pennsbury – were already requiring some sort of masking of students.
State officials said they will “continually” review the mitigation order and take a much closer look in October to see if the order should be rescinded or changed.
The new order is almost certain to upset some school board members and parents who didn’t want their kids wearing masks for another school year. It could even spur lawsuits.
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“My office has received an outpouring of messages from parents asking the administration to protect all children by requiring masks in schools,” said Wolf. “The science is clear. The Delta variant is highly transmissible and dangerous to the unvaccinated, many of whom are children too young to receive the vaccine. Requiring masks in schools will keep our students safer and in the classroom, where we all want them to be.
Asked why the state waited until schools were already opening to issue the order after previously stating one wasn’t being considered just weeks ago, the governor defended his administration’s actions.
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“You could argue Pennsylvania should have done this earlier … I think the time is now to do it,” he said.
One factor was that many school district’s weren’t following federal guidance for schools, Wolf told reporters.
“I preferred for local school boards to make this decision. Unfortunately, an aggressive nationwide campaign is spreading misinformation about mask-wearing and pressuring and intimidating school districts to reject mask policies that will keep kids safe and in school. As we see cases among children increase in Pennsylvania and throughout the country, this is especially dangerous and challenging as we seek to keep kids in school and maintain a safe and healthy learning environment,” Wolf stated.
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The Republican-led legislature has declined to write legislation mandating masks in schools.
Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, a Republican, called the health secretary’s Tuesday order “government overreach.”
“Throughout the summer, Gov. Wolf and Acting Health Secretary Beam were adamant about allowing these decisions to be made at the local level based on the best available data. It is completely disingenuous for him to flip-flop now when he didn’t like the choices school districts made,” he further stated.
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Corman noted he has doubts the state has the legal authority to institute the mandate, but Wolf stated it was power vested in the acting health secretary in the Disease Prevention and Control Law of 1955 and it has its roots dating back to the 1920s.
Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff, a Republican, said local control for masking riles is the best option, noting the varying COVID-19 conditions throughout the state. He added Wolf’s administration has “turned a deaf ear to the people of Pennsylvania.”
Pennsylvania State Education Association President Rich Askey praised the state’s mitigation order.
“This isn’t a choice between masking or not masking. It is a choice between keeping schools open for in-person learning or forcing far too many students to learn from the other side of a screen,” he said.
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The Pennsylvania School Board Association said in a statement they believe mitigation measures are best left to locally-elected school boards.
State officials released an initial series of answers to frequently asked questions about the acting secretary of health’s masking order.
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