Feds probe Florida school mask mandate ban, question disability discrimination
Mask wars continue in Florida, with the federal government applying even more pressure to the state over its ongoing desire to squelch in-school masking requirements.
On Friday, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights notified the Florida Department of Education an investigation had begun into the state’s ban on mask mandates.
The Office for Civil Rights position is that a failure to enforce masking may discriminate against disabled students, violating the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. However, the letter stresses the department is just a “neutral fact finder” in the case.
“In this investigation, particular attention will be given to whether the Florida Department of Education may be preventing schools from making individualized assessments about mask use so that students with disabilities can attend school and participate in school activities in person, consistent with their right to receive a free appropriate public education and to be free from discrimination based on their disability,” reads the letter from Suzanne B. Goldberg, the Acting Secretary of Civil Rights, to Commissioner Richard Corcoran.
Read more: https://floridapolitics.com/archives/456756-feds-probe-florida-school-mask-mandate-ban-question-disability-discrimination/