The Oregon education and health departments got it right. In publishing new COVID-19 guidelines for schools last week, the agencies dropped quarantine requirements that unnecessarily keep students out of school and instead stated our new reality: “Our communities,” the 26-page document noted, “will be living with the virus for the indefinite future.”

That pragmatic take informs much of its guidance, which prioritizes in-person instruction, still calls for isolating COVID-positive students and staff and recognizes the high-levels of vaccine and infection-caused immunity throughout the state. The agencies also emphasize the need to respect individuals’ masking choices – a potential challenge as masks have long been a contentious argument among parents, teachers and school community members. And they encourage using tests previously reserved for reducing quarantines to those at higher risk.

A significant shift from just a month ago when Gov. Kate Brown first announced that the statewide mask mandate would be ending, the state’s new guidance is key in helping make mask-optional school a reality. And thankfully for students, districts appear to be embracing it.

Portland Public Schools announced it plans to go mask optional as of March 14, the first Monday after the statewide mandate expires. For a district that ended its outdoor mask requirement for students less than a week ago, the step is huge. But it is also the right call. The very low risk of COVID-19 to kids, the high vaccination rates in Portland, plummeting case rates and the effectiveness of high-quality masks all support giving children the option to take off their masks. Other districts around the state have also announced plans to go mask optional as well.

The transition may be difficult for some – or, at least strange. We’ve had two years of masking, even as other states across the country have dropped it, even in classrooms. Our sense of normal and our ability to assess risk both may need some adjustment over the coming few months. School districts, if they have not already done so, should invest federal coronavirus dollars into ventilation systems for classrooms and providing high-quality masks, such as N95s and KN95s, for students and staff who want them.

But we need to recalibrate in other ways. Schools have been a battleground for two years over the safety of in-person instruction, proms and ceremonies. While it’s unrealistic to expect those distractions and disagreements to vanish overnight, families should work to be accepting and sensitive to others who don’t share their view of masking. Bickering among adults does nothing to support students’ educational and emotional needs, which must take center stage.

The pandemic is not over. Living with a virus does not mean surrendering to it, and there may be a time masks will again be necessary. But that also means we should take this stretch of calm to embrace the aspects of life that keep our community connected and ourselves emotionally healthy. The pandemic and its restrictions took so much of that away, eroding our patience and consideration for one another. Let’s not allow these days of relative normalcy be cause for greater strife.

-The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board