NJASA's eNewsletter Volume 2 | August 6, 2021
Special Source at NJASA
Indoor Mask Requirement
for Beginning of 2021-2022 School Year
“Today, as school leaders, we can breathe a collective sigh of relief as school districts can now put the increasingly divisive debate about masking in schools in the rearview mirror.”

“Thank you, Governor Murphy and countless medical and health professionals, for recognizing that medical science must govern the masking debate.”

NJASA President Dr. Janet Fike
Chief Education Officer, Morris-Union Jointure Commission


“This necessary, incremental step, aligned with guidance already provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention along with the American Academy of Pediatrics will help ensure our East Brunswick School community’s safety during periods of spiked variant transmissibility and until vaccinations are available to all our students.”

Dr. Victor Valeski
Chief Education Officer
East Brunswick Public Schools
East Brunswick, NJ ....Joined by educators, medical professionals, parents, and school administrators, Governor Phil Murphy today announced that all students, educators, staff, and visitors will be required to wear face masks indoors for the start of the 2021-2022 school year. The Governor signed Executive Order (EO) 251, which will mandate masking in the indoor premises of all public, private, and parochial preschool, elementary, and secondary school buildings, with limited exceptions. The EO is effective on Monday, August 9, 2021. 
While masks will be broadly required in school buildings for the coming school year, exceptions will remain unchanged from the 2020-2021 school year, and include:

  • When doing so would inhibit the individual’s health, such as when the individual is exposed to extreme heat indoors;
  • When the individual has trouble breathing, is unconscious, incapacitated, or otherwise unable to remove a face covering without assistance;
  • When a student’s documented medical condition or disability, as reflected in an Individualized Education Program (IEP) or Educational Plan pursuant to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, precludes use of a face covering;
  • When the individual is under two (2) years of age;
  • When an individual is engaged in an activity that cannot be performed while wearing a mask, such as eating and drinking or playing an instrument that would be obstructed by the face covering;
  • When the individual is engaged in high-intensity aerobic or anerobic activity;
  • When a student is participating in high-intensity physical activities during a physical education class in a well-ventilated location and able to maintain a physical distance of six feet from all other individuals; or
  • When wearing a face covering creates an unsafe condition in which to operate equipment or execute a task.
NJASA, 920 West State Street, Trenton, NJ 08618; 609.599.2900, njasa.net