Updated August 10, 2021

This guidance issued by the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) and the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) pertains to all youth recreational sports, including, but not limited to, school-based sports (high school and elementary school), travel clubs, private leagues and clubs, recreational leagues and centers, and park district sports programs.

IDPH All Sports Policy

Park District Indoor Sport Programs

For sports played indoors, individuals aged two years and older who can medically tolerate a mask, regardless of vaccination status, must wear a mask and maintain physical distancing to the extent possible. This is in alignment with Executive Order 2021-18, which requires universal indoor masking for youth in public and nonpublic schools serving students from prekindergarten through grade 12 (P-12). Individuals playing sports indoors must wear a mask during training, competition, other active exercise, and during other contacts that do not occur during gameplay, such as on the sideline or bench, in the locker room, during team meetings, in the weight room, on the team bus or when carpooling, or during meals. Participants may remove their mask while participating in indoor sports when wearing a mask poses an injury risk as described by the American Academy of Pediatrics (see “When should face masks be worn?”).

All spectators, regardless of vaccination status, should wear a mask in attendance at indoor youth sports events. All spectators must wear a mask if the event is held indoors in a public or nonpublic P-12 school setting.