Financial help is on the way for school districts that refuse to comply with orders banning face masks mandates.
Federal grant funding will become available in the coming weeks for school districts that have been penalized for following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guiltiness, the U.S. Dept. of Education announced Thursday.
While schools across the country – many of which had to implement remote education on and off since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic – prepared to return for the upcoming school year, several states decided to ban mask mandates. However, the CDC recommends universal indoor masking in classrooms.
As of Aug. 10, Arizona, Arkansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Florida, South Carolina, Texas and Utah had enacted laws or issued executive orders prohibiting school districts from requiring students to wear masks, according to Pew Research.
For example, an executive order banning mask mandates in schools issued by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state would have the authority to withhold funds from school districts that did not comply with the order. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a similar order.
Some of the mask orders have been struck down or put on hold, Forbes said Thursday. Both the Florida and Texas bans were on hold pending litigation this week, though CCN reported Friday that a court reinstated the Florida order. Even in some schools with mandates, many students have been granted exemptions, reported BuzzFeed News this week.
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According to the Department of Education, providing federal funds called Project SAFE grants to schools targeted by these bans is “part of President [Joe] Biden's plan to combat COVID-19 and protect the health and safety of students, educators, families, and school communities.”
Funding for the grants will come from within the Department of Education.
A “Notice Inviting Applications” for school districts to apply for the Project SAFE grants will be made available in the coming weeks, said the department. It also said the grant awards should be provided directly to local education agencies as soon as possible and on an ongoing basis.
“Every student across the country deserves the opportunity to return to school in-person safely this fall, and every family should be confident that their school is implementing policies that keep their children safe,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “We should be thanking districts for using proven strategies that will keep schools open and safe, not punishing them. We stand with the dedicated educators doing the right thing to protect their school communities, and this program will allow them to continue that critical work of keeping students safe.”
In addition to the grant program, Biden’s recently announced initiatives for keeping U.S. schools open and safe include: calling on all states to adopt vaccine mandates for all school employees, encouraging schools to use the $122 billion American Rescue Plan funds allotted for school reopening and other federal funds to regularly test students and school staff for COVID-19 and using the Department of Education's full legal authority to protect students' access to in-person instruction.
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