Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran issued a letter telling school districts to amend their mask policies for the 2021-22 school year to make masks optional.
Both Sarasota and Manatee County school districts have mask mandates for students and staff in place, with exceptions narrowly tailored to specific activities or for medical exemptions.
Corcoran said the Department of Education had reviewed data from across the state and did not find a correlation between sweeping mask mandates and the presence of COVID-19 in schools.
“The data shows us that districts’ face covering policies do not impact the spread of the virus,” Corcoran wrote, calling for more “surgical – not sweeping” policies.
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