Education

Mask requirements have changed at South Florida public schools. Who does it affect?

Miami-Dade County Public Schools has ended its mask mandate.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools has ended its mask mandate. emichot@miamiherald.com

Starting Monday, no one will have to wear a mask inside Miami-Dade public schools.

Miami-Dade’s public school district lifted its mask mandate for adults, including teachers, school bus drivers, and parents, inside schools and other district facilities, including district offices and school board meetings. Masks were already optional for students in the classroom. The school district made the announcement during the weekend.

There is still one mask mandate in place: All spectators at school athletic events are required to mask up until further notice, the district told the Miami Herald in an email Monday.

Monday is also the first day of Miami-Dade’s new superintendent José Dotres.

Broward County Public Schools on Monday also scrapped its mask mandate, saying that visitors and vendors will no longer have to wear a face covering to be inside a school or other district facility. In Broward, masks were already optional for students, teachers and other district employees.

Both school districts say they are still encouraging people to mask up.

This story was originally published February 14, 2022 at 8:18 AM.

Michelle Marchante
Miami Herald
Michelle Marchante covers the pulse of healthcare in South Florida and also the City of Coral Gables. Before that, she covered the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes, crime, education, entertainment and other topics in South Florida for the Herald as a breaking news reporter. She recently won first place in the health reporting category in the 2025 Sunshine State Awards for her coverage of Steward Health’s bankruptcy. An investigative series about the abrupt closure of a Miami heart transplant program led Michelle and her colleagues to be recognized as finalists in two 2024 Florida Sunshine State Award categories. She also won second place in the 73rd annual Green Eyeshade Awards for her consumer-focused healthcare stories and was part of the team of reporters who won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for the Miami Herald’s breaking news coverage of the Surfside building collapse. Michelle graduated with honors from Florida International University and was a 2025 National Press Foundation Covering Workplace Mental Health fellow and a 2020-2021 Poynter-Koch Media & Journalism fellow.  Support my work with a digital subscription
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