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If a child in Woodward Public Schools is wearing a mask and is exposed to a person also wearing a mask with COVID-19, they will no longer be required to quarantine.<\/span><\/p> The district\u2019s new rule was approved by Woodward\u2019s school board Wednesday. It defies current guidelines from the Oklahoma State Department of Health and Centers for Disease Control.<\/span><\/p> Those federal <\/span>guidelines<\/span><\/a> – widely followed by schools that\u00a0 are in-person around the country and in Oklahoma – say that when a child is within six feet of a person who tests positive for COVID-19 indoors they must self-quarantine for 14 days.<\/span><\/p> \u201cSchool districts do not have the authority to make determinations around quarantining,\u201d State schools superintendent Joy Hofmeister said. \u201cThat is already set by the State Health Department as well as the CDC.\u201d<\/span><\/p> But Woodward Superintendent Kyle Reynolds said the move is a sound and thought out one, based in science and designed to incentivize good mask wearing – a widely recognized way to slow COVID-19\u2019s spread.\u00a0<\/span><\/p> Woodward, which has about 2,500 students, has had hundreds of quarantines at a given time. And students who are supposed to be away from school are going out into the community and engaging in far riskier activities while away from the classroom, he said.<\/span><\/p> \u201cOur overarching goal or mindset is… our kids are safer at school. I mean, that’s the very bottom line,\u201d Reynolds said.<\/span><\/p> So Reynolds said he wanted to find a way to limit those quarantine numbers. The most important piece of the new rules is masking, and it comes with a full mask mandate rather than a recommendation used in the past. Both the person who tests positive and the person who was within six feet must both be wearing masks properly for the exposed person not to have to quarantine.<\/span><\/p> Reynolds said an incentive is necessary to get masking compliance from parents in Woodward, where masking is a touchy political subject.<\/span><\/p> \u201cThey didn’t feel like there was an incentive for the child to wear a mask,\u201d Reynolds said. \u201cAnd so we did get input from parents in the community who were very resistant to the mask concept.\u201d<\/span><\/p> They said if no quarantine was necessary, they\u2019d be more likely to mask their child.<\/span><\/p> Hofmeister said masking is an important piece to fighting COVID-19. <\/span>She\u2019s said it repeatedly for months<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p> But ultimately the science isn\u2019t there yet to say limiting quarantines is OK, she said.<\/span><\/p> \u201cWe’re going to continue to support and abide by the recommendations of public health officials who carry that mantle of authority and have the duty to study that science and discern the data,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>