Seven in 10 parents are still urging their kids to wear masks at school, even while some states are relaxing their COVID-19 policies.

OnePoll asked 2,000 Americans (1,000 parents and 1,000 non-parents) about their views on mask mandates, revealing that 73% of parents feel schools should enforce mask usage to keep children and teachers safe as long as the pandemic continues. 

Surprisingly, 37% of non-parents don’t think it’s safe enough to end mask mandates in schools versus 28% of parents who feel that way.

This comes after several states, such as New York, California and Oregon, ended indoor mask policies in schools and most public locations. 

Our March 2022 study found 66% of parents believe lawmakers shouldn’t decide whether to keep or remove mask mandates.

Additionally, many respondents expressed that health officials haven’t always been clear when issuing pandemic guidelines. 

Six in 10 of all respondents agreed that the COVID guidelines recommended by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) can sometimes be too confusing to understand (62%). 

And while 65% of all survey-takers said they couldn’t wait for the day when they didn’t have to wear masks anymore, 47% plan to continue using them even after the pandemic ends.


OnePoll survey finds 73 per cent of parents feel schools should enforce mask usage to keep children and teachers safe as long as the pandemic continues

This OnePoll online survey was conducted between March 3rd and 9th 2022, with 2,000 Americans (1,000 parents of children 0 to 18 and 1,000 non-parents). As members of AAPOR – the American Association for Public Opinion Research, OnePoll researchers adhere to the principles and actions set out in the AAPOR Code.