On Friday, a court ruled in favor of Governor DeSantis’s ban on mask mandates in Florida schools and it was reinstated.
Now, the U.S. Department of Education is planning to open an investigation into whether the ban discriminates against students with disabilities.
The Office for Civil Rights will look into the ruling which gives parents the freedom to choose if their child wears a mask to school.
Suzanne Goldberg, the acting assistant secretary for civil rights, sent a letter to Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran announcing the upcoming investigation.
I write to inform you that the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is opening a directed 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 as a result of Florida’s policy that requires public schools and school districts to allow parents or legal guardians to opt their child out of mask mandates designed to reduce the risk to students and others of contracting COVID-19 in school.
Suzanne Goldberg
Goldberg also wrote that the investigation will “focus on whether, in light of this policy, students with disabilities who are at heightened risk for severe illness from COVID-19 are prevented from safely returning to in-person education, in violation of Federal law”.
She claimed that allowing parents to opt out of mask mandates “may be preventing schools in Florida 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”.