On Thursday, Cobb County Schools superintendent Chris Ragsdale announced that the Cobb County School District would update Covid-19 protocols and revise quarantine guidelines for the upcoming school year.
While Ragsdale didn’t get into particulars, he did emphasize that Cobb County will be adopting an optional mask policy for students and staff.
“Our intent is going to be to back normal as much as possible,” Ragsdale said in a Cobb County Board of Education work session. “But it’s not going to be back to normal.”
Chris Ragsdale, Superintendent of Cobb County Schools
He included that there will be virtual learning options available if parents opt to resume their student’s learning from home.
The district will send the updated safety protocols via social media, e-mail, and other school district communication channels.
Cobb County will be starting the school year on August 2, which is one of the earliest dates out of Metro Atlanta school districts.
Many metro Atlanta districts such as Dekalb, Decatur, and Clayton will continue mask mandates that they adopted last year and require masks for everyone, even if they are fully vaccinated.
Other districts such as Gwinnett and Fulton will be making masks optional for all.
While Cobb County similarly had mask mandates for much of the last school year, fully vaccinated individuals weren’t required to wear masks near the end of the school year.
While Cobb County was sued by parents just a few months ago, they dropped the lawsuit after Cobb County announced a mask optional policy for students and staff.