Over three years after the advent of the coronavirus pandemic, educational mask and vaccine mandates are increasingly uncommon. However, as the new school year is set to begin, a handful of colleges remain holdouts, especially when it comes to COVID vaccine mandates for incoming students.

While several states had plans to enact perpetual COVID-19 vaccine mandates for some students, all appear to have dropped those proposals. In October 2021, California announced it would require COVID vaccinations for middle and high school grades. However, officials scrapped the mandate in February 2023. Illinois ditched a college student–specific mandate in 2022, and D.C. public schools, after pushing back the start date of a COVID vaccine mandate for students 12 and older several times, appears to have quietly abandoned the proposal.

However, while state governments have stopped attempts to mandate masking and vaccines in schools, a handful of individual colleges are still holding onto restrictive pandemic-era policies.