AUSTIN (WBAP/KLIF News) – The battle between the state and school districts over mask mandates ban continues.
A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that Governor Greg Abbott’s mask mandate ban for school districts violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The order comes after a months-long fight between Texas officials, parents and Disability Rights Texas over whether the state violated the 1990 law by not allowing school districts to require masks.
DRT filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of several Texas families back in August, naming the Governor, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mark Morath.
The suit argued that the order and the TEA’s enforcement of it deny disabled kids access to public education because they’re at higher risk of illness and death from COVID-19.
U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel ruled that Abbott’s order impedes children with disabilities from the benefits of public schools’ programs, services and activities to which they are entitled, according to the Associated Press.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Education for Civil Rights is also investigating the TEA over the mask mandate in Texas.
Copyright 2021. WBAP/KLIF News. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
