The following article was first posted on Berchem Moses PC’s Connecticut Labor and Employment Law Journal. It is reposted here with permission.

Gov. Ned Lamont announced a plan Feb. 7 to end the statewide mask mandate for schools and childcare centers in Connecticut effective Feb. 28, 2022.

The plan places the decision whether to require masks in schools and childcare centers with local authorities.

With Lamont’s emergency powers set to expire on Feb. 15, 2022, the governor reached an agreement with legislative leaders to continue certain executive orders past the Feb. 15 date.

One of those executive orders allows the State Department of Education and the Department of Public Health to establish rules regarding mask mandates in schools and childcare centers.

The statewide mask mandate would be dropped Feb. 28, while the Department of Public Health would then issue guidance for school districts on how to decide whether to institute a mask mandate.

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DPH does not plan to provide concrete metrics to determine whether a mask mandate should be present.

Other guidance will be issued for handling COVID-19 cases in schools where masks are not required.

Although the availability of vaccines is a major driver of the decision to eliminate the mask mandate, the decision applies to children who are currently too young to be vaccinated.

After the statewide mask mandate for schools and childcare centers is removed, local leadership will need to decide whether to require...

Read Full Story: https://www.cbia.com/news/hr-safety/ct-end-statewide-mask-mandate/