Tuscaloosa City Schools Trending to Reinstate Mask Mandate

Tuscaloosa City Schools could soon see a return to a system-wide mask mandate next week, as students are testing positive at a rate above the acceptable threshold.

"We thank you for your patience and support as we work through this Omicron surge. This communication serves to keep you posted on where we are specific to masks being used in our school system," said TCS Superintendent Mike Daria. "Masks are currently recommended but still optional."

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TCS has adopted a policy that sets a 1% two-week positive student case benchmark to determine the use of masks in schools. This week serves as the second week in the calculation of the first two-week period of the semester.

As of Monday afternoon, the two-week average, which calculates positive cases from this week and last week, is trending at 1.55%.

Should the two-week average be above 1% at the end of this week on January 14, TCS will move to "masks required" on January 18.

TCS will notify parents of the decision stating such later this week.

Should the school system resume its ask mandate, they will use the very same metric in two weeks (January 18-28) to determine if the mask mandate will continue or if TCS will revert to masks optional.

To find the most up to date COVID-19 numbers in Tuscaloosa City Schools, visit the TCS COVID dashboard here.