A judge on Friday dismissed a challenge to Florida’s ban on mask mandates in schools, siding with the state of Florida.
He said the school boards “failed to prove that the emergency rule opt-out provisions facilitate the spread of COVID-19 in schools.”
The judge also said the Florida Department of Health has lawful authority to govern the control of COVID-19 in school settings throughout the state.
The Florida Department of Health in a statement said the ruling is “yet another victory for parent’s rights.”
“At this point, the courts have been entirely clear: All school districts must come into compliance with the law and honor parental rights to make decisions for their children,” the department said in a statement.
State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo said in a statement, “The rights of parents continue to be protected in Florida, as we can see by this tremendous decision. Florida will not make decisions out of fear, but rather out of close analysis of the data.”
Separately, the U.S. Department of Education has filed a request with an administrative judge at the federal level to block Florida from withholding funding from Alachua and Broward counties.
The revised version of the rule said that the only children required to quarantine are those that either test positive for COVID-19 or who are symptomatic. This was not in the Aug. 6 version of the rule. DeSantis’s office said the revised rule will “protect healthy students from forced quarantining.”