What primary and secondary school classrooms will look like in the fall has yet to be determined.  There's no approved COVID-19 vaccine for kids aged 2 to 12, and no timeline for when emergency use authorization may be given. 

Neither local towns nor Boards of Education have control over whether to mask children or not.  The governor and the Commissioners of Education and Public Health are the ones making that decision for the coming school year.  Local Boards of Ed can only execute what the state mandates. The rules last year were the same for every municipality, but the interpretation of the rules did vary. 

Brookfield First Selectman Steve Dunn notes that once a decision is made, someone could sue the state.  Brookfield Superintendent John Barile told Dunn that there's significant pressure on the state to make a decision quickly.  Dunn acknowledged that parents are going to need to make a decision sooner rather than later about where to place their child in the fall. 

But he says it gets very involved when talking about mask or vaccine requirements and how to protect kids privacy.