MCPS BOARD OF EDUCATION
MCPS Board of Education will vote at their next meeting on March 8th to make masks optional in MCPS facilities. This action would needlessly put at risk the health of thousands of MCPS students and their family members who remain at high risk for severe illness and death from COVID-19. Furthermore, this action would force some parents to make an impossible choice, risking their child's educational progress with in-person learning or risking their health in an unsafe school.
To: MCPS Board of Education
From: [Your Name]
Please protect our most vulnerable MCPS students by keeping the current Mask Mandate in place.
According to Montgomery County Commission on People with Disabilities, 85,852 individuals with disabilities live in Montgomery County and MCPS currently educates 20,585 students with disabilities. We know that people with disabilities, especially those who are immunocompromised, have a high risk for severe illness and death from COVID-19. In addition, MCPS facilities have student populations who are still too young to receive a vaccine, including all of the 3,596 Pre-K students and not all students eligible have have had enough time to be fully vaccinated.
Removing the mask mandate would force some MCPS families to make the impossible choice of risking the academic progress of their student or knowingly sending them into a high health risk environment. Removing the mask mandate would violate these students' rights to a free and appropriate education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
Keeping masks mandatory is the right thing to do to keep students and our community safe.
Thanks for posting here!
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