GREEN BAY, Wis. (NBC 26) -- It's a decision that will change Jann Larson and her kids' everyday lives.
"If the Green Bay school board would've said 'no masks and we can guarantee that for the school year,' I would definitely be keeping my children in the school system," Larson said.
On Wednesday, the Green Bay Area School District Board of Education voted to require masks for students and staff this upcoming school year. So some parents are choosing to homeschool their kids instead.
"It was really hard because we're leaving the girls' friends, Larson said. "My oldest has been at the school for three years. She loves her friends."
"This is a pandemic," board member Nancy Welsh said at Wednesday's meeting. "It's not like mumps coming back. It's like way beyond I think anything I've ever experienced before."
According to the DPI, this past school year there were over 30,000 homeschooled students across the state.
Now Larson is set to add two daughters to that list and says she has friends doing the same.
Last fall and into 2021, Green Bay students learned mostly virtually.
"It's so important to keep our kids in school," Welsh said. "That is the main thing. And whatever we can do to keep them there, let's do it. Lets work together as a community and we'll nail this."
Larson's daughters were in person for just eight weeks.
"She was so bored she was laying on the floor," Larson said. "I'm not going through that again. I'm not gonna fight with her to sit in front of her computer all day to not learn anything."
Homeschooling is new to both Larson and her kids, but the family is excited to learn on its own terms.
"Knowing what is gonna happen tomorrow, knowing that they're not gonna have to put a mask on their face in order to walk into a building," Larson said. "I'm not gonna muzzle my kids anymore. No more."
The Green Bay school board also passed an amendment that allows the group to meet again if and when Covid cases decrease to 100 per 100,000 people over a two-week span in the area.
One of the reasons health officials are recommending masks is vaccination rates.
Right now, kids as young as 12 are eligible to get the vaccine. In Wisconsin, 32 percent of 12 to 15 year olds are fully vaccinated. Sixteen to 17 year olds are vaccinated at a 40 percent rate.
For a student to be fully vaccinated before the school year, they would have needed to started the series already.
