Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Less Than 1% Of Students Opt Out Of Masks In First Week Of New Duval Policy

Lynne Sladky
/
Associated Press

Duval County Public Schools' new mask mandate has cut down significantly on the number of students who have opted out of wearing a face covering on campus within the first week of enforcement, new numbers show.

According to the school district, 206 medical opt-outs have been filed by families and granted out of the nearly 104,000 brick-and-mortar students. Students attending Duval Virtual Instruction Academy or a charter school within Duval County are not counted in this figure.

Separately, six of Duval County's nearly 21,000 charter school students have returned opt-out paperwork, though charter schools are not required to honor the district's mask mandate and COVID-19 policies vary by school. It's not clear which charter schools are requiring opt-outs at this time.

Read the rest of this story at from WJCT News partner The Florida Times-Union.