Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters.
HARRISBURG — A statewide order mandating students, staff, and visitors to public and private K-12 schools to wear a mask while indoors is expected to be lifted Jan. 17, Gov. Tom Wolf announced Monday.
At that point, local school officials will be allowed to decide what mitigation efforts to implement.
Part of the order that applies to early learning programs and child care centers will remain in effect until further notice, Wolf said in a statement.
The order was issued by Acting Health Secretary Alison Beam on Sept. 7, about a week into the school year and about a month after Wolf said his administration would leave decisions about mask requirements up to local officials. The administration moved forward with the mandate after many of the state’s 500 public school districts did not require masking, and as cases of COVID-19 started to increase in the state as a result of the spread of the delta variant.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all students, staff, and visitors wear masks in schools, regardless of vaccination status.
“Now, we are in a different place than we were in September, and it is time to prepare for a transition back to a more normal setting,” Wolf said in a statement Monday. “Unfortunately, the COVID-19 virus is now a part of our daily lives, but with the knowledge we’ve gained over the past 20 months and critical tools like the vaccine at our disposal, we must take the next step forward in our recovery.”
The CDC expanded recommendations for the Pfizer vaccine to children 5 to 11 on Nov. 2. Since then, health systems and pharmacies across the state have begun vaccinating children in that age group, but data showing how many children have received the vaccine will not be available until later this week, according to the CDC.
The administration’s order has been challenged by Republicans in the state legislature and is the subject of several lawsuits, two currently before Commonwealth Court.
The first was brought by state Sen. Jake Corman — the top Republican in the Senate — and Rep. Jesse Topper (R., Bedford), both in their capacity as parents, not lawmakers. Corman and Topper, along with a group of other parents, argued that the order is unlawful because it should have been issued through the regulatory process, and questioned whether the health secretary has the authority under public health law to issue such an order.
The second lawsuit, brought by a separate group of parents, argued that the order violated religious freedoms.
Commonwealth Court heard arguments in both lawsuits Oct. 20 and has not yet issued a decision.
The order was similarly challenged by the House Health Committee, chaired by Rep. Kathy Rapp (R., Warren), which voted along party lines in September to ask for a rarely assembled state panel to review the order and decide whether it should have been issued instead as a regulation.
The letter, initiated by Rapp, also questioned whether the health secretary had the authority to issue the order without a state of emergency declared by the governor.
The Joint Committee on Documents, which includes members of the Wolf administration and leaders from the state legislature, rejected Rapp’s argument in October by a 7-4 vote, finding it did not need to be issued through the regulatory process and allowed it to stand as issued.
Learn more about Spotlight PA.
