How normal will the return to school be this fall? One indicator is likely to be how many of the faculty and staff are wearing masks – and whether masks are required. That, in turn, will be influenced by how much concern there is over fluctuating COVID numbers amid the delta variant. And also by the politics in each of Colorado’s 178 school districts.

Most districts in Colorado’s major metro areas seem to be comfortable letting parents decide whether to mask up their kids. We believe that approach is wisest based on the pandemic numbers we’re seeing and, importantly, on the data gathered throughout our bout with COVID. That data reaffirms the low risk of children contracting the virus as well as the extremely low risk of severe symptoms or other consequences if children do catch the virus.

Colorado’s largest school district, Denver Public Schools, is requiring masks for everyone. Yet, Denver’s largest neighboring districts, including the state’s second-largest, Jefferson County Schools, and No. 3 Douglas County Schools, are allowing a lot more leeway. JeffCo schools are not requiring masks for students 12 and older, i.e., those who are eligible for the vaccine. And DougCo Schools are not mandating masks for any age group. Fourth-largest Cherry Creek School District also is not mandating masks for students. Neither is No. 5 Aurora Public Schools.

In the state’s No. 2 metro area – the Pikes Peak region – Colorado Springs School District 11 similarly is not requiring masks.

So, school districts are invoking their considerable autonomy – reaffirmed under the Colorado Constitution – to go their own way. Unlike last year, there are no executive orders overriding local school authority; at least, not thus far. And that’s a good thing because districts know the sensibilities of their parents better than does the state government or even a local public health department.

Yes, local school boards also must be guided by the input of public health officials as this latest iteration of the coronavirus makes the rounds. But at the end of the day, parents and guardians must have a lot of say over whether they want their children enduring masks all day long.

All the evidence suggests the risk to students of going without a mask at school is minimal. Even a year ago, as data on the behavior of COVID began to amass, it was clear children by and large weren’t in harm’s way. They nevertheless were kept home from most Colorado schools last fall for a wide range of reasons – some plausible at the time, some less so. Among the reasons was that, absent a vaccine, kids could transmit the virus to faculty and staff. And kids could act as super-spreaders and carry the virus home, endangering elderly members of their households, or so the education and public health establishments concluded.

A year later, most faculty and staff are now vaccinated or, if they’re not, will be required to mask up in many school districts. Similarly, grandparents and other elderly, at-risk or immune-compromised members of students’ households are also now, by and large, vaccinated.

There has been heightened wariness recently about the latest COVID variant and an uptick in new cases. Yet, the essential indexes – caseload, hospitalizations and deaths among Colorado’s population overall – remain a world away from what they were late last year just before the arrival of the vaccine. That’s not surprising given the advent of the vaccine itself.

The bottom line is our children will be venturing out into a fundamentally less perilous environment when they head off to school this month. Parents who want to add a little extra insurance are within their rights to supply their kids with masks as they walk out the door.

(School buses will require masks regardless of the district because of federal regulations on transportation.)

Our hope is that masks don’t become another bone of contention either in the few districts like Denver’s that mandate them for all students, or in the many districts that don’t. Let’s hope those districts that continue to enforce mask use for students recognize the minimal risk in lifting the requirement, and relent, soon.

Masks were intended from the outset of the pandemic to be an added safety net – literally – not a statement about a school district’s concern for our kids. Those who vest masks with symbolic value are of course free to continue wearing them. But let’s let our kids be as free as is reasonably possible to start off the semester with last year’s ordeal far behind them.