Unmasked and unvaccinated students should be allowed to stay in class

Student learning and well-being must be the priority after extended school closures

With mask mandates now common across the United States and some districts even imposing vaccine mandates on students, the risk is that children unwilling or unable to comply with these mandates — those with special needs who can’t mask or living in vaccine hesitant homes — will face yet another year of the “suboptimal alternative” that is virtual instruction.