Florida begins the week with peak pandemic conditions. Saturday’s 23,903 new COVID-19 cases established a new peak day. Florida averaged 19,250 cases daily over the past week. That compares with about 6,500 daily cases a year ago. Furthermore, COVID-19 hospitalizations have also reached a new pandemic high in Florida with 13,793 hospitalizations through Sunday.
As the 2021-2022 school year is set to resume tomorrow in Palm Beach County, mask mandates with parental opt-outs are in place. The decision was made by Superintendent Michael Burke after Friday’s meeting by the Florida Board of Education in which they adopted a rule change allowing for parents to decide whether their children will wear masks. Parents who want to opt their children out must provide written notice which their children will provide to their first-period teacher. Broward is likely to revisit its policy, which is currently in non-compliance with the state’s guidelines, prior to the start of classroom education next week.
The Florida Board of Education also created a new category of harassment/bullying under which Florida’s Hope Scholarship may be used for parents to transfer their children to a school of their choosing. The newly created definition of COVID-19 harassment states, "any threatening, discriminatory, insulting, or dehumanizing verbal, written or physical conduct an individual student suffers in relation to, or as a result of, school districts protocols for COVID-19, including masking requirement, the separation or isolation of students, or COVID-19 testing requirements".