Face coverings are optional for everyone inside all LPS buildings and on all LPS buses. Individuals may wear a face covering based on their personal preference and informed by their vaccination status and personal level of risk.
Please note: Lincoln Public Schools may adjust face covering protocols as necessary to address changing conditions. Requirements may be implemented for a specific school building, program, classroom or setting based on number of positive cases, community test positivity rate, outbreaks, community conditions and risk of spread.
When wearing a face covering in circumstances where required:
- Face coverings must be multiple layers of tightly woven, breathable fabric that blocks light when held up to a bright light source.
- Face coverings with exhalation valves or vents will not be allowed.
- Per our current school dress code, bandanas are not allowed.
- Plastic face shields are not a suitable replacement for multilayer cloth face coverings.
- LPS will have face coverings available for staff and students who do not provide their own.
- Families are allowed to provide their own multilayer cloth face coverings. Please note: Gaiters are single layer and can only be used if doubled up and cover both the nose and the mouth.
- Students and families are responsible for laundering and wearing their face coverings each day.
- LPS will treat face coverings as a required part of dress code where applicable and discipline for not following dress code is outlined in our Important Information Handbook.
Face Covering Exemption Process
If face coverings become required at any time for a classroom, program, or school, the following will be used for the face covering exemption process. Students who were granted a face covering exemption last school year will be exempt from any requirement for the 22–23 school year. For new students, a form to apply for the exemption will be provided to families with communication about any requirements.
K-12 Students
The criteria for face covering exemptions are below.
Medical issues that are documented in the student’s emergency health plan, OR Individual Health Plan (IHP):
- Students who require oral suctioning
- Students on a ventilator
- Students who have a trach
- Students who frequently secrete bodily fluids from the eyes, nose, and/or mouth.
Significant behavioral needs that are documented in the student’s Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) or 504:
- Students for whom face coverings may cause on-going significant distress that cannot not be remedied through teaching, problem solving, or other accommodations.
- Students for whom significant distress may disrupt education, or whose distress may disrupt the education of others.
- Students with a history of issues concerning restrictive clothing, close spaces, or high anxiety, or with other data supporting significant student distress.
Preschool Students
The criteria for face covering exemptions are below.
- Children with documented (in the child’s school records or from information obtained from the family from the child’s physician or medical provider) medical conditions, which may include: Asthma, lung disease, tracheostomy, ventilator or children for who are oxygen dependent or require oxygen levels to be checked throughout the school day.
- Children with other conditions, which may include:
- Sensory impairments and issues for which the face covering may cause on-going significant distress that cannot be remedied through teaching, practice and support and may disrupt. This distress may disrupt the child’s participation in preschool or the participation of others;
- Children who secrete bodily fluids from their eyes, nose, and/or mouth;
- Autism; or
- Children who are unable to physically remove the face covering or are not able to communicate a need to remove the face covering because the face covering presents a choking or strangulation hazard.