Pediatricians Recommend Mask Mandates for All Kids This School Year

As a new school year begins, some students will be masked and others won’t. At least 9 states including Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Vermont have enacted legislation that prohibits districts from requiring masks in schools. In South Carolina, Texas and Georgia the governors all signed executive orders taking steps to limit schools’ abilities to implement mask mandates and Governor McMaster was the first to issue an executive order preventing schools from issuing mask mandates.

Utah and Iowa governors signed bills cementing the bans on school mask mandates into law. The Utah bill does however include a provision allowing schools to require masks during outbreaks if the decision is made in collaboration with local health departments. According to Lindsay Wiley the Director of the Health Law and Policy Program at American University, the authority to implement mask mandates “varies from state to state.”