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Though a health order requiring children ages 2 to 12 to wear masks indoors will expire next week, Lawrence school district students will still be required to wear masks at school when they return from winter break in January.

The Douglas County Commission voted in September to extend the health order that required kids 2-12 to wear masks in all indoor public places through the end of the fall semester, but the order will expire on Dec. 22 as the public health department has not proposed another extension. However, individual school districts can still require masks and other health-related precautions without an order in place, and the Lawrence school district has elected to keep its mask requirement for the time being as it monitors virus transmission.

Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health Director Dan Partridge, who noted that health officers work in concert with the county commissioners on health orders, said that the factors considered when allowing the order to expire included the availability of vaccines to younger age groups as well as the fact that organizations have the ability to issue their own policies to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. That would include school districts, and Partridge said the health department and schools have a long track record of working together to share information, and in his opinion schools have learned a great deal that supports future decision making.

Commissioners and health officers cited the inability for children under 12 to receive vaccines when proposing and extending the health order earlier this year. At the time, those under 12 were not eligible to receive the vaccine. The vaccine is now available for children 5 and older, however cases have been rising in recent weeks.

Lawrence school district spokesperson Julie Boyle said that included an increase in COVID-19 cases in schools after students returned from a weeklong break for the Thanksgiving holiday. Boyle said the district would not be making changes to its mask and other policies related to COVID-19 before assessing the spread of the virus in schools once students and staff return from winter break.

“After seeing a spike in the number of COVID-19 cases in schools after the fall break, the district plans to continue to evaluate the level of risk of virus transmission following winter break before changing its mitigation strategies,” Boyle said.

When it comes to being able to lift the mask requirement, Boyle said the district strongly encourages members of the school community to follow public health guidance, including vaccination and booster shots for all eligible individuals as well as mask wearing and social distancing when indoors in public places or at large gatherings.

“The district also wants to see an end to the need to wear masks and believes that will only occur when we all do our part to protect the health and safety of our community,” Boyle said.

– Reporter Dylan Lysen contributed to this report