Two more Tippecanoe County school districts are moving towards a mask-optional policy starting this week.
The Tippecanoe School Corporation announced earlier this month it would gomask-optional. The Lafayette School Corporation dropped its mask requirement starting Tuesday.
Lafayette School Corporation Superintendent Les Huddle said the decision to make masks optional was based on new guidelines from the Indiana Department of Health, which ended school quarantine requirements for students exposed to COVID-19 but not showing symptoms starting Wednesday.
High quarantine rates among Tippecanoe School Corporation staff and students led the school to move from optional masks to required masks at the start of the school year.
And the West Lafayette School Corporation sent a letter to parents this week announcing the changes to quarantine and contact tracing requirements, noting that the district will assess COVID data on Feb. 28, and - if COVID numbers continue to decline - move to a mask optional policy on March 4.
“In many ways,” the letter reads, “ these updated recommendations return our school buildings to a much needed pre-pandemic normal.”
Tippecanoe County Health Officer Dr. Jeremy Adler said he had advised TSC to keep its mask requirement in place earlier this month. Adler did not respond to WBAA’s request for comment on the latest school mask policy changes.
