The U.S. Department of Education is concerned that states banning mask mandates will potentially deny students with disabilities access to in-person education safely and equally.
Congresswoman Michelle Steel has joined a handful of her colleagues in an effort to determine if the federal government's action overreaches its authority.
“These committee members are asking why it wasn’t a denial of services last year during the pandemic and why these jurisdictions, in particular, are being investigated,” said Cathleen Calhoun, an attorney and legal analyst with Wolters Kluwer, an information services company. “They’re trying to get more information from the Education Department.”
Calhoun was responding to a Sept. 1 letter addressed to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education Miguel Cardona that Steel signed along with 21 other lawmakers with whom she sits on the Education and Labor Committee.
“On Monday, the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) sent letters to five states notifying them of the opening of directed investigations under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Title 2 of the Americans with Disabilities Act,” the letter stated. “Using threats to infringe on states authorities, to protect students and ensure access to education is a gross overreach of federal power. So, we are writing to gain a better understanding of the department's position on this topic.”
Steel did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The states under investigation include Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah, all with Republican governors.
OCR did not open investigations in Florida, Texas, Arkansas, or Arizona because the policies there are not being enforced as a result of court orders or other state actions, according to a statement online.
There are currently only 11 states that prohibit state or local governments from imposing a mask mandate, according to Wolters Kluwer data.
"In the past month, from August to September, the number of local jurisdictions with some sort of mask mandate has risen from 18 to 30," Calhoun told the Southern California Record. "These mask mandates have risen due to the Delta variant as the reasoning for the most part."
In a press release, the Department of Education said it had heard from parents from across the country about how state bans on masking are putting their children who have disabilities or underlying medical conditions at risk.
"The Department will fight to protect every student's right to access in-person learning safely and the rights of local educators to put in place policies that allow all students to return to the classroom full-time in-person safely this fall," Cardona said in the statement.