A group of parents of disabled students sued the state of Iowa Friday for banning mask mandates at schools, claiming it infringes on their children’s equal right to education by endangering their health.
The lawsuit comes at a time when COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in Iowa are at their highest level since winter last year.
A mother of twin boys in Iowa filed a lawsuit earlier this week, and a hearing is set for next week for a judge to decide whether or not to file an immediate injunction, blocking the ban.
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The U.S. Department of Education is also looking into the Iowa law and similar ones in other Republican-led states. The department is attempting to determine whether the bans violate the Americans with Disabilities Act, insisting that they discriminate against children with disabilities or health issues. The argument is that these children are excluded from in-person teaching, which would violate the law.
The ACLU’s Disability Rights Program filed a similar lawsuit in South Carolina in August.
“Prohibiting schools from taking reasonable steps to protect the health of their students forces parents to make an impossible choice: their child’s education or their child’s health,” said Susan Mizner, director of the ACLU program, in the suit’s press release.
The parents in the current Iowa case have children with disabilities or health issues ranging from bad asthma to cerebral palsy to a rare organ disorder.
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Named in the case as a defendant is Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, who defended the current law, calling the low hospitalization rates among children “encouraging.” She also recommended that families concerned about their children catching COVID-19 enroll them in an online-only program instead. Schools in Iowa are not allowed to offer hybrid schedules.
The law is in direct opposition to the recommendations made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which suggests universal mask-wearing for both teachers and students in the classroom.
