This Friday, Feb  4, 2022, a judge ordered a Temporary Restraining Order regarding several COVID-19 mitigating measures. In the case brought by parents across the state who were upset by these mitigations Austin vs. Pritzker, 145 public school districts, including D214, made the temporary decision that those schools would no longer have the ability to require masks or testing for unvaccinated teachers within the school buildings. However, students are still required to wear masks on transportation due to the CDC Federal Requirement of doing so, meaning students and staff will still have to wear facial coverings on buses. Students who test positive for COVID- 19 will still have to isolate, but the schools included in the case will no longer be contact tracing students who were in direct contact with the virus. 

Since the ruling of this case is still very new and currently temporary, a lot is still up in the air. D214 sent out an email to parents where they stated that they are, “continuing to meet with [their] legal team for further guidance.” District 214 has said that they will revert to their original policies if this is appealed, but they intend to follow the judge ruling at the time being.

The Office of J.B. Pritzker  released a statement on Friday, Feb. 4, saying that the State of Illinois will continue to push to appeal this decision and revert things back to how they were prior. 

“The grave consequence of this misguided decision is that schools in these districts no longer have sufficient tools to keep students and staff safe while COVID-19 continues to threaten our communities – and this may force schools to go remote,” Pritzker said.

So far, D214 has not released anything to students and parents about the possibility of going remote for the time being and students are still expected to go to in person school as usual. Information on how to obtain free rapid tests and free N95 masks can be found in the email sent out to parents for families who are concerned about these new rules put in place. D214 encourages students and parents to stay safe during this uncertain time, where there is still so much up in the air.