At the beginning of September, Governor Mike DeWine joined the Ohio Children's Hospitals Association in encouraging school superintendents to require masks for staff and students this fall. The recording of the zoom call is available at the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association website.
This appeal comes at a time where COVID-19 cases are increasing at nearly twice the rate among school-aged kids as compared to the rest of the population. On top of that, in Ohio school districts where masks are optional, among school-aged kids, there are both higher case rates per 100,000 at 945.7 and a greater week-over-week increase in cases, according to the Governor.
To continue encouraging eligible kids to get vaccinated, on September 23 Governor DeWine announced the Ohio Vax-2-School program, which will be open to Ohioans aged 12-25, and will be similar to the scholarship portion of the successful Vax-a-Million program.
Prizes are reported to include 50 scholarships worth $10,000 each and five $100,000 scholarships to an Ohio college or university for career or technical education. Prizes will be announced Monday through Friday beginning the week of October 11. Mor information will be released in the coming weeks.