Duval County Public Schools

The wearing of a face covering or mask in all school settings, including school bus transportation, is now fully optional without any further process or requirement.

The only kids at the shuttered Lake Forest Elementary School now are the ones painted in the portraits on the school's red brick walls. But those too will be gone soon, under a plan to tear down the building and replace it with an affordable housing complex. Neighbors say that the project is being forced on them without their consent and that they weren't included in the decision until after the School Board had signed off on a purchase agreement.

In Duval Schools, the number of teacher vacancies has increased by nearly 58 percent since this time last year. Now, district officials say they don't have enough substitutes available to fill the gap.

Duval County Public Schools need more bus drivers, according to contractor Student Transportation of America. Manager Pete Conway said all three of the city’s driver hubs have dozens of idle buses.

As schools around the country consider mask mandates and other pandemic procedures, meetings have sometimes become a battleground where anti and pro-maskers and school administration clash.

An appellate court panel stopped short of deciding a lawsuit that seeks to force Alachua and Duval schools to let parents opt children out of mask requirements. But in a seven-page order, the panel said the districts have been “remarkably open in their defiance” of the state.

The district says a mask mandate will remain in place, but medical documentation is no longer required to opt out. The change will take effect Monday.

Duval, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties are the only Florida school districts holding onto districtwide mask mandates as COVID rates decline.

Duval school employees can get free COVID vaccines, boosters and flu shots from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the district’s headquarters. Jacksonville-based grocery store chain Winn-Dixie is giving out the shots and $10 grocery store gift cards per shot.

Duval is among six districts challenging a state health department rule aimed at preventing student mask requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic.