The Biden administration is probing the legality of bans on universal mask mandates in five states.
The U.S. Education Department announced that it is investigating through its Office of Civil Rights, Utah, South Carolina, Tennessee, Iowa and Oklahoma over the prohibitions. The agency wants to determine if they are hindering the ability of vulnerable children to safely attend school.
A letter to state officials stated that they “may be preventing schools from meeting their legal obligations not to discriminate based on disability and from providing an equal educational opportunity to students with disabilities who are at heightened risk of severe illness from COVID-19.”
“The Department has heard from parents from across the country – particularly parents of students with disabilities and with underlying medical conditions – about how state bans on universal indoor masking are putting their children at risk and preventing them from accessing in-person learning equally,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a press release.
The legal escalation comes after President Biden promised to scrutinize school mask requirement bans in some states across the nation.
The latest action does not include other states that have imposed universal masking bans like Florida and Texas because they are already being circumvented through court cases and other tactics.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has argued that masks should be optional in schools.
The CDC has lobbied for masking requirements in schools to combat the transmission of the coronavirus.
In his statement, Cardona said the mask mandate bans pose an unfair danger to disabled and immunocompromised kids.
Locally, city officials have imposed a mask requirement for all students and staff in schools.
