(NewsNation) — With the start of the new school year, the COVID restrictions that have occupied classrooms for the past two years have noticeably disappeared. This is because no state in the country plans to make vaccinations mandatory for students.
About 75% of U.S. schools needed them at the beginning of the school year last year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Similar requirements are now rare. Only Washington, DC, has a mandatory vaccine policy for adolescents 12 and older this year.
Masks, on the other hand, are optional almost everywhere.
Of the 500 largest school districts in the country, only four require masks at the start of instruction.
Schools in Philadelphia will be compulsory for the first 10 days, but may be less restrictive after that. Another outlier is in Jefferson County, Kentucky. Prince George County, Maryland and Newark, New Jersey.

- Jefferson County, Kentucky (97.9K)
- City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (132.5K)
- Prince George County Public Schools, Maryland (132.7K)
- Newark Public Schools, New Jersey (40.4K)
As with the CDC’s latest recommendations, the need to quarantine or quarantine after exposure has all but disappeared.
Many school districts, including New York City, have scrapped “test for stay” programs and stopped randomized testing.
Students who tested positive in most locations will continue to be required to isolate and wear masks when they return to their classrooms. In New York, the new rules will go into effect five days after her, and masks will be back in five days.
All of these measures are designed to ensure more children are in the classroom more often, but some administrators say this is lagging behind.
“Kids are actually failing at the grade level, reading level. They are also slipping in social-emotional learning. It is very important to let
Things are back to normal for most students, but not for some teachers.Vaccinations are still required in some major school districts, including New York.
Additionally, people who have been laid off because of assignments or fake vaccine cards still find it difficult to find work today.