The Department of Education is launching a civil rights investigation against five states which have barred indoor masking mandates. The DOE alleges the governors are creating an unsafe environment. Four other states are also under watch.
5 states under civil rights investigations by DOE over bans on mask mandates
The Department of Education (DOE) has launched directed civil rights investigations against Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah over the governors of those states banning indoor masking mandates, NBC reported.
The DOE alleges preventing students with disabilities from wearing masks puts them at a heightened risk of severe illness amid the pandemic, especially in light of the surging Delta variant.
“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,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement. “It’s simply unacceptable that state leaders are putting politics over the health and education of the students they took an oath to serve. The Department will fight to protect every student’s right to access in-person learning safely and the rights of local educators to put in place policies that allow all students to return to the classroom full-time in-person safely this fall.”
4 other states under watch
Four other states, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, and Texas are not being included in the investigations at this time but are being closely watched, according to the DOE, ABC reported.
No action against those 4 states yet “because those states’ bans on universal indoor masking are not currently being enforced as a result of court orders or other state actions,” the DOE said in a statement. “The Department will continue to closely monitor those states and is prepared to take action if state leaders prevent local schools or districts from implementing universal indoor masking in schools or if the current court decisions were to be reversed.”
Decision on violation of law and appropriate actions pending
The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights said that, by opening this type of investigation, it “does not imply that OCR has decided whether there has been a violation of a law that OCR enforces.”
President Joe Biden instructed the education Secretary to “assess all available tools” to make sure students could return to classrooms safely.
According to a White House memo, this includes “consideration of whether to take steps toward the initiation of possible enforcement actions under applicable laws,” CNN reported.
