Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
States' School Mask Bans Get Tangled In Budget Plans, Controversy
AP: Arizona High Court Allows School Mask Ban Ruling To Stand
The Arizona Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to immediately reinstate a series of new laws that include measures which block schools from requiring masks and remove the power of local governments to impose COVID-19 restrictions. The high court turned down Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s request that the provisions in three state budget bills and an entire budget bill be allowed to take effect. Instead, the court set a briefing schedule for it to consider Brnovich’s request to bypass the Court of Appeals and hear the case directly. (Christie, 9/29)
Detroit Free Press: Whitmer: Budget Pieces Nixing Local Mask Orders Are Unconstitutional
Michigan lawmakers cannot use the state budget to threaten the funding of local health departments that institute local school mask rules, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a letter to lawmakers Wednesday. The governor considers this pandemic provision in the nearly $70 billion budget unconstitutional and therefore unenforceable. "The legislature cannot unwind the Public Health Code in a budget bill or un-appropriate funds because they take issue with the actions of local health departments," Whitmer wrote in the letter. (Boucher, 9/29)
WLRN 91.3 FM: Feds Cover Broward School Board Salaries That State Withheld Over Mask Policy
The U.S. Department of Education announced Tuesday that it is awarding more than $420,000 to the Broward County School Board to cover state financial penalties targeting school board members’ salaries. The grant is intended to pay for the salaries of eight Broward board members who voted for a student mask mandate that allows exceptions only for medical reasons during the COVID-19 pandemic. (9/29)
Salt Lake Tribune: Here’s Where The Masks That Utah Officials Promised To Schools Have Gone In Salt Lake County
To help keep Utah kids “as safe as possible” from COVID-19, Gov. Spencer Cox promised in August to provide more than 1 million masks for K-12 students, both surgical-style ones and higher quality KN95 masks in small and large sizes. As of Tuesday, 2.2 million masks had been shipped to schools, according Tom Hudachko, spokesperson for Utah Department of Health. Of those, 310,000 were pediatric-sized cloth masks, 700,000 were pediatric-sized three-layer surgical masks, and the rest were KN95s, he said. But low demand for the masks means some Salt Lake County school districts have left them in storage. “I’d say on any given day, average, across the building, I have about a fourth of my kids wearing masks,” John Paul Sorensen, principal at Neil Armstrong Academy in West Valley City, said Tuesday. (Jacobs, 9/29
In updates about quarantines and vaccines —
AP: Louisiana Schools Chief Scraps COVID Quarantine Suggestion
Going against health guidance, Louisiana’s education department announced Wednesday it’s no longer recommending that public school systems quarantine asymptomatic students who have come into close contact with someone who tests positive for COVID-19. Louisiana’s 69 local school districts already had the ability to determine whether they want to send the students home for days because of exposure to the coronavirus illness. But most of the districts had been following the state education department’s recommendation that those students should be quarantined, even if they don’t show symptoms of COVID-19. (Deslatte, 9/29)
The Charlotte Observer: New Union County COVID Quarantine Agreement With Schools
After threats of legal action, Union County’s public school district has agreed to work with the county’s health department to ensure COVID-19 contact tracing steps and quarantine requirements will be followed. The Union County Public Health Department and Union County Public Schools agreed Wednesday on a process for identifying and excluding students and staff who are identified as being a positive case or a close contact of someone who tested positive for COVID-19. (Costa, 9/29)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Illinois Teachers Sue Districts Over Statewide Vaccine Mandate
Ten teachers in the Metro East who refuse to comply with statewide vaccine and mask mandates are suing their school districts over the policies. The lawsuit against Triad, in Troy, and Edwardsville school districts and their superintendents says the mandates were illegally issued. The claim filed in Madison County Circuit Court asks that the teachers be allowed to continue working in their schools. The school districts “don’t have the delegated authority to compel vaccination or testing,” said attorney Thomas DeVore of Greenville. “They could have stood up for their educators … but they don’t want to take on the governor.” (Bernhard, 9/29)
AP: University Of Colorado Faces COVID Religious Exemption Suit
A pediatrician and a medical student at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus are challenging denials of their requests for religious exemptions from the school’s COVID vaccination mandate, arguing in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that administrators are judging the “veracity” of personal religious beliefs in violation of the First Amendment. The U.S. District Court lawsuit filed by the Thomas More Society, a not-for-profit conservative firm based in Chicago, is the latest clash over a growing number of private- and public-sector vaccine mandates nationwide to stem the spread of the coronavirus, which has killed more than 600,000 people in the U.S. (Nieberg, 9/30)
In other school news —
The Washington Post: School Nutrition Programs Face New Crisis As Supply-Chain Disruptions And Labor Shortages Limit Food Deliveries
Square pizza and chicken tenders suddenly get swapped for meatloaf and zucchini coins. American schoolchildren and lunch ladies grimace. And now the federal government is stepping in to help. School districts in Kansas can’t get whole-wheat flour, ranch dressing or Crispitos rolled tacos right now. In Dallas, they can’t put their hands on flatware, plates and napkins. In New York, school districts are unable to find antibiotic-free chicken, condiments or carrots. (Reiley, 9/29)
