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By JOYANNA LOVE/ Managing Editor

Chilton County Schools will remove mask requirements at all schools, effective Sept. 20.

“Over the course of the last few weeks with the mask mandate at most schools, the number of COVID positive students and … faculty/staff has been approximately 1% of the total number of students and faculty/staff in our school system,” CCS Superintendent Jason Griffin said in a statement released Sept. 15. “… Based on those numbers, Chilton County Schools will return to masks being optional and encouraged.”

Students will still be required to wear masks on the school buses.

If the cases at an individual school rise above 10% that school will have face masks required again until the number of cases decreases below 10%.

On Sept. 10, CCS had 98 confirmed cases for the previous seven days, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health.

Griffin said the numbers of COVID-19 cases at individual schools will be available on the Chilton County Schools website (chilton.k12.al.us) on Sept. 29.

“Thank you for your patience as we continue to try to mitigate the virus and keep schools open,” Griffin said.

Parents and guardians will continue to be notified if their student has been exposed to someone at their school that has tested positive for COVID-19. Students will be required to stay home after exposure in some cases.

However, isolation will not be required if the student has been vaccinated against COVID-19, was wearing a mask or has had COVID-19 in the past 90 days.

“Parent/guardians may choose to self-isolate the student even if they are not required to isolate,” Griffin said. “Some parent/guardians choose to do this out of an abundance of caution. If a student has symptoms that are COVID-like, then they should go home until they can be evaluated by their healthcare provider. Verification of an alternate diagnosis by a health care provider will allow the individual to return to school.”