Henry County’s public schools will be relaxing their COVID-19 mitigation standards slightly as of this week. Officials announced Friday that the district was moving from Level 4 to Level 3 starting October 18.

“As a part of our commitment to keeping our students, staff, and families safe over the past 19 months, we have closely monitored and shared the health metrics from the impact of COVID-19 in order to make the best decisions regarding learning options for our students,” said Superintendent Mary Elizabeth Davis. “I have been committed to being responsive to the data that captures the prevalence of COVID in our community, which is why after further study this week and continued collaboration, I am announcing that we will move to the Level 3 mitigation phase on our continuum of mitigation strategies.”

The district has used its COVID-19 Playbook and Continuum of Multi-Layered Mitigation Strategies since the start of the 2021-2022 school year to help provide appropriate responses to any increases in the number of COVID-19 cases impacting our schools.

“We have a plan that is working to keep schools open and to keep students and employees safe, and just as decisive as we demonstrated we may need to be if the community health conditions changed, we will stand ready to do that in future instances, if that becomes necessary,” said Davis. “In the meantime, we have to use our plan and take the cautious step to lower levels of mitigation intensity, and now is the right time to do that.”

The details of Level 3 requirements can be found at henry.k12.ga.us. The district will move away from the mask requirement to a stance of masks being strongly recommended. Additionally, field trips will resume and capacity limitations on outdoor events will be lessened. However, enhanced signage, cleaning protocols, regular air filtration cleaning, accessibility of hand sanitizer, and sanitizing of high-touch surfaces will remain.