face mask

An appeals court says it has “serious doubts” about a circuit court ruling that says Gov. Ron DeSantis overstepped his authority in an executive order banning school districts from requiring students wear face coverings. The appellate court has put back a stay on a ruling that allowed the districts to keep their mask mandates.

Leon County’s School Board and Superintendent are the latest to take a fight with the state over student masking to court. The district has filed a challenge to a Florida Department of Health rule that says districts have to allow parents to opt out.

Florida school districts with mandatory face mask policies can keep their policies for a while longer. A Leon County judge has lifted a stay on his ruling that initially blocked the state from punishing districts that defy Gov. Ron DeSantis' effort to block such policies.

Leon Circuit Judge John Cooper has filed his ruling, giving a win to parents who sued Governor Ron DeSantis and the Department of Education over an effort to ban mandatory face masks in schools. The ruling is an extension of Cooper’s verbal order, effectively blocking the state from punishing school districts that have mask mandates.

Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran announced Monday that the state Department of Education has withheld funds from the Alachua and Broward county school districts in amounts equal to school board members’ monthly salaries.

Attorneys for Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday began calling witnesses to back the state’s case against allowing school districts to impose student mask mandates, as a hearing continued in a lawsuit challenging a DeSantis executive order.

Leon County School Superintendent Rocky Hanna has reversed course – again – on masks. They're temporarily required for students in Pre-Kindergarten through 8th grade.

Attorneys for a group of parents are pushing back against the state’s attempt to scuttle a lawsuit challenging Gov. Ron DeSantis’ efforts to prevent mask mandates in schools.

The U.S. Department of Education is “deeply concerned” about Gov. Ron DeSantis’ executive order seeking to ban school mask mandates and is ready to help districts directly, the federal agency said in a letter to the governor Friday.

Leon County Superintendent Rocky Hanna says he did not hear back from the governor about his request for local districts to have flexibility regarding mask mandates. So Hanna has announced a decision.