The Office of Head Start (OHS), the federal program within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that provides preschool and childcare services to low-income families, announced today that it will soon be dropping its universal masking rule for its grant recipients.
In a statement provided to The Hill, an HHS spokesperson said, “Today, OHS notified programs that, in the near future, it intends to publish a final rule that will formally remove the requirement for universal masking in Head Start programs for all individuals ages 2 and older, which will align Head Start program masking requirements more closely with the updated CDC guidance.”
A specific date was not provided on when the mask mandate for Head Start programs would formally be dropped. The finalized rule is expected to be issued soon, some time in late September or early October, according to an HHS representative.
[Remember when HHS said it would take a long while to resolve this? — Ed]
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