NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — North Little Rock School District announced Thursday night that they will be lifting their mask mandate and instead make face coverings optional.
The move comes after the district had previously lifted some of their COVID-19 restrictions on Feb. 1, along with other school districts.
Some of those changes to the district's COVID guidelines consisted of:
- Full capacity returning to both outdoor and indoor venues
- Allowing PTA and adult-youth mentoring back onto campuses
- The allowance of local field trip under approval of the principal
The district said that attendees of sporting events are still required to be screened before they enter the venue.
The same requirement goes for PTA and adult-youth mentors, with volunteers having to be screened before they're able to come on to campus or enter buildings.
The district made the decision after it saw a large decline in COVID cases back in early-February, with only 165 students and staff in quarantine, which was down from around 650 in January.
This was something that the district expected, as they said in February that they would lift more restrictions if cases continued to decline.
Since then, the state's daily case tally has fallen dramatically in comparison to the omicron surge.
The stark dip in cases has grabbed the attention of health officials, who are optimistic that we could reach an endemic soon if cases continue to plateau.
NLRSD's ending of their mask mandate comes after Bryant School District ended their mandate earlier this year. PCSSD also lifted some of their restrictions after they stopped contact tracing a month ago.