From buses to classrooms, KY’s back-to-school plans rely on masks. Will kids wear them?

Fayette County school bus driver Bob Miller is among those eager to see students wear mandatory masks to ward against COVID-19 as they ride to school this fall.

“As a bus driver I am very concerned about the safety protocols that will be implemented,” Miller told the Herald-Leader Thursday. “Many drivers and monitors are in a high risk age group and are anxious to see what steps are being taken to insure the safety of transportation workers.“

As many Kentucky school leaders are starting to talk about specific reopening dates, much of the state’s reopening guidance-- from buses to what the schedule looks like to how schools function day-to-day -- appears to boil down to wearing masks.

Students enrolled in first grade and above and staff should be required to wear a cloth face covering inside schools and on buses unless a medical reason suggests otherwise, according to state guidance documents. Masks can be lowered during classroom time if all students and staff are six feet apart and no one is walking around.

At career and technical education programs, all staff and students must wear a cloth mask or face covering unless total isolation can be maintained.

Fleming County Superintendent Brian Creasman, who wears a mask in public, said its an ”unrealistic assumption” that come Aug. 24, when many districts start school, that every student in Kentucky is going to be “A-OK” with wearing a mask in class when their parents don’t support that.

Creasman said his district is going to use outdoor learning spaces as much as possible for as long as the weather allows so students can drop their mask and also engage in physical activity.

“It is an unrealistic expectation that we are going to have kids wearing a mask eight hours a day -- and staff,” Creasman said.

Creasman said his district is already seeing an increase in kids whose parents are enrolling them in virtual programs instead of the in-person option.

“It’s the masks,” he said. “They want their kids not to have to be subjected to wearing a mask so they are enrolling in the virtual program.”

“I know that the idea of wearing masks has become more of a political statement than a public health one,” Interim Kentucky Education Commissioner Kevin Brown said in a recent message to families. “That’s unfortunate, because wearing a mask is one of the best ways we have right now to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection.”

A June 30 virtual meeting with state education officials and superintendents centered in part on whether students who refused to wear masks or have their temperature checked could be refused bus transportation.

Kentucky Department of Education staff reiterated earlier statements that school staff should use persuasion – providing masks, explaining that they are important, and contacting parents – rather than punitive measures, but raised the possibility that refusal could result in disciplinary action, a news release said.

If students still won’t comply, districts “may need to look for alternate means,” including disciplinary action, said Department of Education Interim General Counsel Todd Allen. But that should be a last resort, he said.

Brown and Connie White, deputy commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Public Health, compared mask guidelines to dress codes. People aren’t divided on the expectation that everyone will wear shirts and shoes, but masks are still controversial, Brown said.

He said for students to return to the classroom “we must make sure our schools are not turning into sources of infection for our communities.”

Eddie Campbell, president of the Kentucky Education Association, said his teacher and administrator members are behind the recommendations that include wearing masks.

“.. This will be hard, but educators are accustomed to doing hard things on behalf of their students and this pandemic is certainly no exception. Whether it’s the quick application of distance learning that was required last school year or the implementation of these recommendations for the coming school year, educators can and will do what’s best for our students,” said Campbell. “We’re calling on parents and communities to please help us by supporting and respecting these guidelines.”

Daniel Hill, a physical education teacher at Lexington’s Tates Creek Elementary School, said if kids have role models who say, ‘’Hey this is something you need to do,’’ they will probably do it. If they hear the opposite, they might balk at wearing a mask.

“Kids will respond, I think, to the expectation,” Hill said.

One option Fayette school officials are posing to parents in a survey is that all students would physically attend school and be required to wear a mask. Under that scenario, families could opt out for a virtual or remote learning experience.

Fayette Superintendent Manny Caulk also said that staff will be surveyed.

People with respiratory problems and special needs students are the ones most likely to need a medical exemption from wearing a mask, but their situations are so diverse they should be dealt with case by case, White said in the state meeting.. She said families will need to contact their healthcare providers for advice.

Brown has said students will need to wear masks whenever they’re closer than six feet or when they’re moving around. Flexibility may come from scheduling some classes in larger rooms or creating break periods when students can be separated so masks can be taken off for a while, he said.

“Districts are going to have to weigh the pros and cons of all those scenarios,” Brown said.

More parents may drive students to school or allow them to walk, officials said.

Schools may need to make adjustments so groups of students won’t mix, Elisa Hanley, with the Kentucky Department of Education’s Office of Finance and Operations, said at the state meeting. If students do ride the bus, they generally will need to wear masks, undergo temperature screenings and use assigned seats to maintain distance.

The number of students on the bus is dependent on the prevalence of COVID-19 in the community, Hanley said.

Students in first grade or above need to wear masks on the bus unless they have a medical waiver, Hanley said. Districts should ask parents to get their kids used to wearing masks now so they will be comfortable with it when they need to wear one for school, she said.

Abbie Jones, a Fayette County parent, told the Herald-Leader Thursday that her children who will be entering first and second grade have kid-friendly masks made by their grandmother that they wear in public.

“We’ve already been talking about ‘you’ll probably have wear these a lot if we go back to school.’ They are understanding of that,” she said.

“We understand that if you are in certain places, you take precautions,” she said.

Student riders should be given hand sanitizer from a dispenser as they board a school bus, Hanley said, and buses should be sanitized at the end of each route.

Under guidance recently released by the state, student riders would have an assigned seat, seats will be filled from back to front, and when boarding, each bus would have a roster of eligible student riders and documented assigned seats for contact tracing.

School districts would work with families during the summer to help acclimate students to properly wearing a mask on the bus. All students in first grade and beyond have to have a mask. Districts may provide masks to students who do not have access to one from home.

All students must have a temperature screening prior to going to school each day, possibly as they enter the building. The district may choose to have a bus monitor do the temperature screen for each rider as the student boards the bus. In that situation, riders do not need to have the temperature screening done again at school.

Students who board the bus with a fever and can’t be taken home will be taken to school, but those who have been identified with a fever at any point during the school day would not be transported home on a bus.

Districts would work with local health officials to determine the occupancy rate of buses and whether one or two students would be sitting on one seat.

Many of the new recommendations could require more staff, at least part-time, or changes to current duties of employees.

Under the new state recommendations, all school bus garage employees will stay six feet apart. They should enter through one door and exit through a different door if available. All employees will have temperature and health screenings each day.

The new recommendations say drivers and monitors will wear a face mask or faceshield whenever they are inside a bus unless they have been provided with a doctor’s excuse.. They will use gloves for any direct contact with a student. Surfaces and high-touch areas should be cleaned and disinfected between runs. Buses have to be ventilated to maintain air circulation.

At least 25 Fayette County residents tested positive for COVID-19 who worked as Fayette County Public Schools transportation staff this past spring. Nineteen were at the Miles Point bus garage and six were at the Liberty Road school bus garage, Kevin Hall, spokesman for the Lexington Fayette County Health Department, previously said.

Miles Point, where 19 employees tested positive for COVID-19 and one died, is under review by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration to determine if the school district kept employees safe.

This story was originally published July 3, 2020 at 12:03 PM.