The Biden administration wants to take some anti-mask states to school.
Following through on recent warnings from a frustrated President Biden, the Education Department said Monday that it had launched a civil rights probe into five Republican-led states with bans on mask mandates, saying the measures might discriminate against students who have high COVID risks.
The investigations — which target Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah — arrive as the nation begins a new school year amid a more than tenfold surge in coronavirus case rates since the start of the summer.
“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,” Miguel Cardona, the Education Secretary, said in a statement.
In the statement, he described the behavior of state leaders as “simply unacceptable.”
The Education Department said it had sent notices to top school officers in each of the five states warning that state mask restrictions in schools could violate the law.
Ellen Wright Clayton, a professor of pediatrics and law at Vanderbilt University, said she believes that the states are on shaky legal footing. She said she thought lawsuits arguing that the bans violate the rights of children with disabilities would likely succeed.
“If you can’t go to school because you’re afraid you’re going to die, that’s a problem,” she told the Daily News.
COVID vaccines remain unavailable for children under 12.
The Education Department said it has not opened investigations into Arkansas, Arizona, Florida or Texas because those states have bans on mask requirements that are currently out of force due to court rulings or other actions. But the department said it was also carefully monitoring those states.
On Friday, a judge in Florida rejected an attempt by Gov. Ron DeSantis to bar schools from instituting mask mandates.
Biden has pleaded with local officials not to compromise the safety of students who are returning to schools, and he has urged masking in classrooms.
In an address on Aug. 18, Biden had threatened to send Cardona after leaders who are undercutting COVID guidance at schools. He noted then that the education secretary’s charge could include deploying “oversight and legal action.”
“This isn’t about politics,” the president said. “This is about keeping our children safe.”
