Hillsborough schools keep masks, ditch doctor's notes

At a meeting last night, Hillsborough County School board members voted to extend its mask policy without requiring parents to provide medical documents for their children to opt-out.

Why it matters: The county school system's case count dropped significantly through September. The 519 student and teacher cases reported on Sept. 7 fell to just 15 cases on Tuesday.

• Sarasota County announced Sunday that it is changing to a masks-optional policy for students, after that county's cases also dropped.

State of play: The board also approved the creation of an online form for schools to track which students have opted out.

• This comes after Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran sent school districts a letter on Sept. 22 saying that schools can no longer require medical documentation to opt-out of mask rules.

What's next: In two days, the state will determine if Hillsborough, Sarasota and nine other Florida school districts violated mask policy rules, Fox 13 reports.

Also at the meeting: The board discussed the possibility of asking voters to approve a real estate tax to fix its $60 million deficit, the Tampa Bay Times reports.