By JULIE CUNNINGHAM
(Massachusetts) Massachusetts Education Commissioner Jeffery Riley is seeking to hold a meeting August 24 in which he will ask the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to give him the authority to mandate masks in schools through October 1. The idea is to allow more educators and students to be vaccinated and to ensure safety in the reopening process. If a high school or middle school reaches a vaccination rate of 80%, that school would be permitted to lift mask mandates for vaccinated individuals only. Medical conditions and behavioral needs would remain exceptions to the mask rule. Masks would not have to be worn outside and children under the age of five would also be exempt.