Superintendent Barbara Jenkins passed an opt-out face mask mandate late last Friday as coronavirus cases continue to surge in the area.
A spokesperson for Orange County Public Schools says so far they’ve only received about 8,200 requests from families who want to opt out of the face mask policy.
That's about four percent of students in the district.
The district requires all adults to wear facial coverings in school buildings, along with students whose parents don’t opt out of the new rule.
Forty percent of staff including teachers on campus have the COVID-19 vaccine, even though students under the age of 12 can’t get vaccinated.
As of late Wednesday afternoon, some 253 cases of COVID had been confirmed in the schools with 64 people actively quarantining. More than 170 of those cases were in employees and 76 students had tested positive for the virus.
