The U.S. Education Department has announced that it is investigating five states to determine whether or not their mask mandate bans violate civil rights laws that protect students with disabilities.

Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah are the five states at the center of the investigation. According to the Education Department, state education leaders have been notified of the investigation and were told that the Department's Office for Civil Rights would look into whether mask mandates violate the federal law and the protections the law gives to students with disabilities.

The letter was sent by the Office for Civil Rights to state education leaders and explains that mask mandate bans “may be preventing schools 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.”

This latest move makes good on the Biden administration’s promise to intervene through civil rights investigations and legal action if states do not do what’s best for protecting students and communities amid the surge in Covid cases. Currently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all individuals in a school should continue wearing masks whether or not they have been vaccinated. As cases among students are up across the country, children remain some of the most vulnerable individuals in the population as a vaccine is not yet ready for them.

Florida Paves Way for Bans on Mask Mandates

Over the past couple of months, the discussion of mask mandates in schools has been a hot-button issue resulting in chaotic and in some cases violent school board meetings as communities prepare to return to the classroom. Perhaps the most outspoken state on prohibiting mask mandates has been Florida. Over the past couple of weeks, Governor Ron DeSantis has pushed for the prohibition of mask mandates and has even gone as far as threatening to withhold funding from school systems that do not comply.

Last Friday, a Florida court shot down DeSantis’ efforts, ruling that school boards had the authority to create their own safety protocols, including mask mandates, as they best saw fit for their communities, regardless of whether the governor agreed.

Even after this court ruling, DeSantis has moved forward with his threat to withhold funding from school systems that don't comply. On Monday, Florida's education commissioner, Richard Corcoran, announced that it was going to withhold funding from Alachua and Broward Counties "for their continued violation of state law." Corcoran explains, "Simply said, elected officials cannot pick and choose what laws they want to follow."

Because of the ongoing legal battle in Florida, the federal government will not include the state in its investigation. Texas, Arkansas, and Arizona are also not part of the investigation because of ongoing litigation within the state.

States Respond to U.S. Department of Education Investigation

Not all states have been receptive to this investigation. Utah superintendent of Public Instruction, Sydnee Dickson, shared in a statement that the U.S. Department of Education “unfairly defined Utah as a state where mask mandates cannot occur.” Dixon explains that the state law allows local officials to decide whether or not mask mandates are required.

There is also pushback from the investigation in South Carolina. Brian Symmes, the communications director for Gov. Henry McMaster, shared in a statement that the investigation was “another attempt by the Biden administration to force a radical liberal agenda on states and people who disagree with them.” Symms adds, “Under South Carolina law, anybody who wants to wear a mask — in a school setting or elsewhere — is free to do so, but the governor isn’t going to ignore a parent’s fundamental right to make health decisions for their children.”

Both Oklahoma and South Carolina, however, have welcomed the investigation and sounded their support of it. Oklahoma's superintendent of Public Instruction, Joy Hofmeister, shared in a statement her opposition to the state's law banning mask mandates. Hofmeister explained that the law “is preventing schools from fulfilling their legal duty to protect and provide all students the opportunity to learn more safely in person.”

South Carolina’s Department of Education shares a similar sentiment and explains that the state superintendent “has repeatedly implored the legislature to reconsider.”

The US Department of Education acknowledges that the investigation does not mean that a violation has taken place. However, if there are violations to be found, they will typically be remedied through an agreement between both the state and the Department of Education.