Catholic Schools Will Go Mask Optional Beginning Monday; CPS Plans To Keep Mask, Vaccine Mandates In Place

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Catholic schools in Chicago, Evanston, and Oak Park will go mask optional starting Monday.

The Archdiocese of Chicago sent a letter to parents explaining masks will now be optional based on low COVID cases.

Catholic schools in suburban Lake and Cook County have already been maskless for a few weeks, but this now applies to all schools in the Archdiocese.

Other COVID precautions will stay in place. If a student is returning from quarantine, they must wear a mask for five days.

But Chicago Public Schools plan to keep students masked.

The Stay in School Coalition presented a petition with a few hundred signatures to make masking optional, But the school board points to the student vaccination rate falling far below the city as a whole as to why CPS will keep its masking and vaccination policies in place.