NEWS

Bill to ban mask mandates in Ohio schools unlikely to pass

Anna Staver
The Columbus Dispatch
Second-grader Madilyn Armstrong, 7, follows along with her classmates in a lesson on birds Sept. 15 at New Albany Primary School. The New Albany-Plain Local Schools Board of Education is requiring face masks to be worn by children and staff in prekindergarten through sixth grade through Sept. 27. The mask mandate went into effect Sept. 7.

Republican leaders in the Ohio Senate appear to have lost interest in banning schools from issuing mask mandates.

"In general, even though there have been some upset stomachs over it, I think the school districts have done their best individually to manage their own populations," Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, said. 

That's a different perspective from the one he had just a few months ago when he told the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau that getting hearings on a bill to ban mask mandates in public schools was one of his priorities. 

Senate Bill 209 would prohibit public schools from requiring facial coverings for students, staff and visitors. A companion bill, House Bill 400, is still pending in the House.

So, what changed? 

"I think it's changed because there's no one pressing to do that," Huffman said. 

Gov. Mike DeWine has said he won't issue a statewide mask requirement for schools. (Though that's because he thinks state lawmakers would overturn it.) And local school districts created exemptions for students who can't wear masks for medical reasons and for those who choose not to do so. 

Basically, the issue has pretty much sorted itself out. 

"We're relieved by this decision," Ohio Education Association President Scott DiMauro said. "One of the things we've said – and we've said from the beginning – is that the worst thing the legislature could do was take tools away from districts to help them keep kids in school."

Among Ohio's 609 public school districts, 250 require masks for all students – about 56% of students statewide – and 41 require them for some students, according to the Ohio Department of Education.

Anna Staver is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

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