CDC director, education secretary to talk school safety in Boston

ROXBURY — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director, Rochelle Walensky, and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona are scheduled to visit Roxbury’s Yawkey Boys and Girls Club for a Friday afternoon event on a safe transition for children returning to school this fall.

Walensky and Cardona will participate in a town hall discussion along with YMCA of Greater Boston CEO James Morton and Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston CEO David Ambroz. Parents and students are invited to attend and ask questions.

Walensky is the former chief of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital, a job she held before leaving to serve in the Biden administration. She will address concerns parents and educators have with just a month remaining before the fall semester begins.

The state encourages unvaccinated students to wear masks, whereas the CDC has said everyone inside schools should wear masks regardless of vaccination status. Pediatric cases of COVID-19 are rapidly rising nationwide, but the number of children becoming seriously ill and hospitalized remains low.

The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is planning to lift COVID restrictions to start fall along with the expectation of full-time in-person learning statewide.

DESE and the Department of Public Health recommend students in kindergarten through grade six wear masks indoors except while eating r for those who cannot wear them due to medical reasons or behavioral needs.

Individual school district policies surrounding the start of the school year are handled at the local level with state and federal input.

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