What is your school doing about mask mandate court ruling? South Florida districts react
Miami-Dade and Broward schools officials vowed to keep their mask mandates for students as a tool to stop the spread of COVID-19 despite Gov. Ron DeSantis’ appellate court victory Friday, which, for now, allows him to punish school districts that require facial coverings.
Both districts said Friday that as the delta variant of the coronavirus continues to stress hospitals and morgues with surging COVID case counts, their policies will continue.
“We will continue to implement our current face covering policy. Our school board will continue to review that policy in an upcoming meeting because the decision is based on the moment of now and what is occurring on boots on the ground, our local community,” Broward Interim Superintendent Vickie Cartwright told reporters during a press conference Friday afternoon. “Therefore, as a result of that, we will have ongoing reviews of the information through a variety of different data sources in order to make a scientifically based decision.”
In an email, Miami-Dade County Public Schools spokeswoman Jacquelyn Calzadilla said the state’s largest district has no immediate plans to abandon its mask protocol.
“We will stay the course and continue assessing conditions on a weekly basis in consultation with our medical health experts,” she said. “The mask mandate remains in place for now.”
Mask ruling by appeals court panel
The decision of a three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal Friday allows DeSantis to reinstate a hold on a Leon County judge’s ruling that his administration could not enforce its ban on mask mandates. The case, led by a group of parents, is one of several circulating throughout state and federal court over the Republican governor’s battle with 13 school districts over their mask mandates.
The Florida Department of Education has already withheld state funding from Broward and Alachua counties’ districts equal to the amount of their school board members’ annual salaries.
The Biden administration, which is sparring with DeSantis and other Republican governors over mask and vaccine mandates, announced on Thursday the creation of a grant designed to cover fines or other funds withheld from school districts over their mask policies.
Feds open an investigation involving students with disabilities
Late Friday, the Biden administration announced the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights launched a federal civil rights investigation to determine whether the state’s ban on a mask mandate in schools discriminates against students with disabilities, who are guaranteed under federal law access to a public school education.
At Friday’s press conference, Cartwright, the Broward interim superintendent, asked DeSantis to release all federal COVID-19 stimulus funds owed to her district, which she says totals more than half a billion dollars. That money is allocated to districts through the Florida Department of Education.
“We are dependent on our state creating a process for us to be able to apply for these funds. We don’t even have a process to ask for these funds,” Cartwright said.
Her comments come two days after Broward sent a letter to DeSantis asking his administration to release the funds.
Department of Education spokesman Jared Ochs called the letter “political grandstanding,” noting that Broward has already received $62 million in federal stimulus money but has not yet used $9 million of it.
Broward School Board Chair Rosalind Osgood said at the press conference that she is disappointed the conversation over masks and school funding has become so political, especially as the pandemic continues after nearly 18 months.
On Friday, Florida reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 17,854 more COVID-19 cases and three deaths, according to Miami Herald calculations of CDC data.
“I think it’s critical during this time we find ourselves living in where we are all struggling with the loss of loved ones, the loss of co-workers, the loss of friends and family, I think it’s so important that we continue to communicate so that we are making decisions using facts, and having conversations that are fact based,” Osgood said.
Tampa Bay Times education reporter Jeffrey Solochek and Miami Herald state government reporter Ana Ceballos contributed to this report.
This story was originally published September 10, 2021 at 7:37 PM.
