Poll shows majority of parents support school mask mandates, but not vaccination requirements

Parents of school-aged children are supportive of some, but not all coronavirus restrictions as kids gear up to return to the classroom this fall, a poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation released Wednesday shows.

A majority of parents — 58 percent — don't want their child's school to require COVID-19 vaccinations. The results were split along party lines, with 66 percent of Democratic voters supporting vaccine requirements compared to just 13 percent of Republican voters, but even among Democrats the rate was lower than the 82 percent who have age-eligible children who have already received the vaccine.

On the other hand, most parents do support mask requirements for students and staff who remain unvaccinated, though it's not clear what percentage backs masking for those who have received their shots.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The Kaiser Family Foundation survey was conducted between July 15-August 2 among 1,259 American adults who are the parent or guardian of a child under the age of 18. The margin of error was 4 percentage points. Read the results here.