As state leaders eliminate mask mandates and move toward a post-COVID-19 world, the parents of kids with disabilities are demanding—and suing—to keep mask requirements for schools
As Schools Drop Mask Mandates, Parents of Kids With Disabilities Prepare to Fighthen Tasha Nelson’s 10-year-old son, Jack, heard on the radio that Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin would end the statewide school mask mandate—a move that“Does that mean I can’t go to school anymore?” he asked.
On Feb. 1, they filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court claiming that Youngkin’s mask-optional executive order is a direct violation of disabled students’ right to access public education. By no longer allowing individual schools to institute mask mandates based on student needs, they argue that the order segregates students with disabilities from their peers and denies them access to an equal education—and therefore violates federal laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act .
The Virginia lawsuit, which explicitly names Gov. Youngkin as a defendant, could fundamentally shape policymakers’ attempts to rescind COVID-19 protection measures as the initial Omicron wave begins to subside.In recent months, parents in Texas, South Carolina and Iowa have filed several lawsuits similar to the Virginia parents’ case. The other groups of parents have also argued that eliminating mask mandates violates the ADA, but judges so far have ruled inconsistently.
In Virginia, Gov. Youngkin and his team expressed a willingness to “use every tool in their toolkit to enforce the mask mandate ban,” Heilman says. Virginia’s Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears hinted in anthat Youngkin may consider withholding funds from school districts that do not comply with his executive order.
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