Masks 101: Help Keep School A Symptom-Free Zone

Dear RPS Students and Families, 

Yesterday, we reached out to you about conducting a home health screening each morning. Ensuring your child is symptom-free before sending them to school is an important step in helping us to keep COVID-19 out of our schools. 

Today, we want to talk about face coverings. Here are some best practices for wearing and cleaning face masks.

General Tips

• A face covering must be worn to cover the nose and mouth completely, should not be overly tight or restrictive, and should feel comfortable to wear. 
• We recommend the use of a multi-layered cloth mask as the preferred option as this has been recommended by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) as the best method for preventing the spread of COVID-19. Any face coverings that are made of only one layer of cloth are recommended to be worn folded over to provide two layers of material.

How to Make Your Mask More Comfortable

• If it bothers your ears, you can get a headband with buttons, a plastic “ear-saver” or hook it around pigtails.
• You can purchase a mask that ties in the back of the head instead of looping over the ears.
• If your mask doesn’t fit tightly enough, try tying a knot in each ear strap. 

Care & Disposal

• Never share or trade your face covering with someone else!
• Make sure you have a safe place to put your face covering when you take it off outside or to eat or drink so that it does not get mixed up with someone else’s.
• The same face covering can be worn throughout the school day unless it becomes dirty or wet, in which case it should be replaced with a new, clean one.
• Masks should be washed each day. You can put in the regular laundry on the warmest appropriate setting for the type of cloth or hand wash it with soap and hot water, then hang it to dry overnight.
• Used disposable masks should be thrown away.

More information about our face covering policy and how to wear a mask can be found on our COVID-19 page in the “Guide to Face Coverings” section.

Only with your help can we ensure our schools remain symptom-free zones.

If you have any questions, please contact your school’s health office.