Students to continue wearing masks in Cedar Rapids Community School District

CEDAR RAPIDS — Students will continue to wear masks through the end of the school year in the Cedar Rapids Community School District.

Students attending summer school and teachers, while interacting with these students, also will maintain mask wearing protocols.

In an email to families Tuesday, Superintendent Noreen Bush said that with only 13 days left of school, the district is choosing to maintain its mask policy through the end of the school year.

Decisions about mask-wearing for the coming school year will be announced this summer, Bush said.

Kelly Garcia, interim director of the Iowa Department of Public Health, sent a letter Friday announcing revised COVID-19 guidance for school districts, which advised an end to mask mandates.

The district received guidance from Linn County Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that recommended schools and child care settings continue prevention strategies.

In her email, Bush said students are largely unvaccinated at this point as the vaccination process for children 12 and older has just begun.

The last day of school for Cedar Rapids students is June 4.

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