The enforcement of the civil rights arm of the US department of education is going to start investigating the Texas Mask Mandate ban for schools. Their objective will be determining if the ban is in the way of school districts meeting or considering the disabled students’ needs.
Texas Mask Mandate Ban Is Causing Problems
On Tuesday, Mike Morath, the Education Commissioner of Texas, received a letter from the Civil Rights office of the Department. The letter talks about the office’s concern regarding the Texas mask mandate ban for schools. They are concerned that this is proving to be an obstacle for Texas schools from carrying out the legal requirement to avoid discrimination in terms of disability. As a result, disabled students are possibly not getting the same educational opportunity, those who face a greater risk of a severe case of COVID-19 due to the Texas Mask Mandate Ban.
However, the letter also explains that this investigation does not imply OCR has seen an OCR-enforced law being violated. Furthermore, they will be functioning as a factfinder without any partiality.
The proceedings scrutinize afresh Greg Abbott’s, the governor, Texas Mask Mandate Ban for schools. Several school districts have already challenged the ban already. Republican Abbott had approved of the Texas Mask Mandate Ban for schools back in May. Even in the face of the US CDC’s recommendation for everyone to wear masks, he had defended the ban.
On Friday, a memo from the Education Agency of Texas underscored once more that staff or students cannot be required to wear masks by school systems. Individuals must have the choice to wear them.
Last month, the Department of Education had started similar investigations in the states of Utah, Tennessee, South Carolina, Oklahoma, and Iowa.
