Mayor Eric Adams announced on March 4, 2022, that masks would become optional in NYC school buildings for students over the age of 5 effective March 7.

In response, UFT President Michael Mulgrew issued the following statement: 

Our doctors agree with the city's medical experts that this is the right time to safely move from a mask mandate to an optional mask system.

Both the take-home tests and the in-school random tests showed no post-holiday spike and put the infection rate at less than 1%.

This is the responsible, thoughtful way to make our next transition.

We will, however, keep our testing program in place — both in-school and the take-home tests — to make sure we remain on the right path.