U.S. Dept of Education investigating TEA guidance prohibiting masks

AUSTIN, Texas - The federal government is investigating the Texas Education Agency after deeming that its guidance prohibiting mask mandates in schools last week may be "preventing school districts in the state from considering or meeting the needs of students with disabilities."

The U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights launched the investigation on Tuesday, just days after the TEA quietly updated its public health guidance. On Friday, the state agency said that school districts once again can’t require face coverings, citing that courts are not blocking Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order prohibiting local mask mandates.

The agency did not immediately say how or if it will enforce the order or if every school district in the state has been notified of this change.

In a letter to TEA Commissioner Mike Morath, federal officials said the investigation will focus on whether or not students with disabilities who are at greater risk for severe illness from COVID-19 are prevented from safely returning to in-person education, which would violate federal law, wrote Suzanne B. Goldberg, the acting assistant secretary for civil rights.

Goldberg wrote that her office is worried that Texas’ mask policy does not allow for "an equal educational opportunity to students with disabilities who are at heightened risk of severe illness from COVID-19."

The TEA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The education department has launched similar investigations in Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah. It had not done so in Texas because the TEA was previously not enforcing the governor’s order while there was ongoing litigation.

The TEA’s guidance released Friday is the latest development in an ongoing war over coronavirus precautions that has left school officials and parents with whiplash about what requirements are — or aren’t — in place.

In early August, the agency had said district’s couldn’t mandate masks because of the governor’s order. But as the new school year approached, a surge of coronavirus infections and hospitalizations prompted some local officials to buck Abbott’s prohibition in order to protect teachers and schoolchildren. Coronavirus vaccines still aren’t approved for children younger than 12.

About a month into this school year, the number of reported coronavirus cases among students is approaching the total from the entire 2020-21 school year. State data on school cases is incomplete and likely an undercount. TEA suppresses some districts’ case counts to protect student privacy, and not all districts report student and staff cases to the state, despite agency guidance requiring otherwise.

School districts, cities and counties have fought Abbott’s order in court, and some have won temporary restraining orders allowing them to require face coverings. Meanwhile, Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued several school districts he says have mask mandates, making good on the state’s threat of coming after district's that defied the governor.

Those lawsuits aren’t all yet resolved and some have so far played out in different ways. That’s created even more confusion as a patchwork of differing local rules have popped up throughout the state.

The Texas Tribune reached out to Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin and Round Rock school districts for comment as well as Texas State Teachers Association, Association of Texas Professional Educators and the Texas Association of School Administrators. None immediately responded.

Raise Your Hand Texas, a public school advocacy group, declined to comment.

More updates from The Texas Tribune

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