Kane County Reporter

Gubernatorial candidate Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) is urging schools to stick with in-person learning.

"With school starting, it is my hope kids all across the state will get the in-person classroom instruction they need and deserve," Bailey said in a statement. "It appears many of the COVID-19 restrictions at schools are gone so we are trending in the right direction. We did tremendous harm to kids by not doing in-person learning during the pandemic. It is essential we return to normal and give kids the in-person instruction they need."

Kane County health officials have recently commented on COVID in relation to the 2022-23 school year. 

"There is still quite a bit of COVID that's circulating," Michael Isaacson, executive director of the Kane County Health Department, told the Daily Herald. "With the high use of home tests, it makes it challenging for us to get an accurate picture of how much COVID there is. We are still looking forward to a much more 'normal' school year this fall.”

The Illinois State Board of Education has noted unvaccinated students should mask for 10 days after coming into close contact with a COVID case in the upcoming school year, according to Prairie State Wire.

Nationally, some schools are reinstating their masking policies. 

“It’s at least encouraging that many even in the scientific or medical community have moved on from masking, tacitly acknowledging that there are no benefits,” Ian Miller reports on his Unmasked Substack. “But as feared, there are seemingly limitless amounts of politicians, health officials and local administrators willing to re-engage in COVID theater. Just in past few days, a number of cities and school districts have announced their intentions to reinstate mask mandates.” 

Miller noted that Los Angeles, the San Diego Unified School District, Athens, Georgia, Lincoln, Nebraska have returned or will soon revert to masking to some degree.