FL Mask Mandate Fight Not Over, Feds Investigate Schools

FLORIDA — The U.S. Department of Education's civil rights department has opened a civil rights investigation into Florida's ban on school districts mandating mask-wearing, saying those policies could amount to illegal discrimination against students with disabilities.

The federal move came Friday after the District Court of Appeals granted Gov. Ron DeSantis' request to reinstate the stay of a lower court ruling against the ban.

Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Suzanne B. Goldberg sent a four-page letter to Commissioner Richard Corcoran informing him that the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights is opening an investigation into whether the Florida Department of Education may be preventing school districts in the state from considering or meeting the needs of students with disabilities.

"Florida now requires public schools and school districts to allow parents or legal guardians to opt their child out from wearing a face covering or mask. The regulation further states that schools may not limit these unmasked students to certain physical locations, isolate them during school activities, or exclude them from any school-sponsored events or activities. It is unclear whether these restrictions remain in place even if the school or district determines, given the COVID-19 transmission rates in the surrounding area, that requiring the use of masks is necessary to protect students with disabilities who are at heightened risk for severe illness from COVID-19," Goldberg said in the letter.

Hillsborough and Sarasota counties have brought back mask mandates even with the governor's and Florida Department of Education's threats of punishment to schools requiring masks be worn by students and school staff. Hillsborough's schools board voted Thursday to extend the mandate an additional 30 days.

The letter also said that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends universal indoor masking by all students (age 2 and older), staff, teachers and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status.

In late August, the Biden administration notified the education chiefs in Iowa, Tennessee, South Carolina, Oklahoma, and Utah — but not Florida and several other states — of civil rights investigations because of their laws banning mask mandates locally.

The investigations will examine whether "students with disabilities, who are at heightened risk for severe illness from COVID-19, are prevented from safely returning to in-person education" as a result of the state policies preventing universal masking, according to the letters.

A spokesperson for the governor tweeted in response to the federal letter, "Bring it. Florida and Gov. Ron DeSantis will continue to stand up for parents' rights against federal government overreach," WTSP reported.

DeSantis and Corcoran withheld money equal to the pay of superintendents in Alachua and Broward counties as punishment for defying the governor's ban. President Joe Biden held a White House press conference Friday night saying that he had the back of

"Right now local school officials are trying to keep children safe in a pandemic, while their governor picks a fight with them, and even threatens their salaries or their jobs — talk about bullying in schools," Biden said. "If they'll not help ... these governors won't help to speed the pandemic, I'll use my powers present to get them out of the way."

He said that any teacher or school official whose pay is withheld for doing the right thing, their pay will be 100 percent restored. Biden is also in favor of states requiring all teachers to receive the vaccines.

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