TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The state of Florida’s ban on coronavirus mask mandates in schools will stay in effect.

A judge on Friday dismissed a case from several school districts challenging the rule. Administrative Judge Brian A. Newman rejected the case from Miami-Dade, Leon, Duval, Orange, Broward, and Alachua counties.

It found the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis was within its authority to impose the rule.

The ruling comes as part of a quarrel between the districts and the state that has resulted in docked school board salaries and the withholding of district funding.

It also has brought the ire of the U.S. Department of Education.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Education announced Monday that it is opening civil rights investigations in five states to look into whether bans on mask mandates in schools are discriminatory.

The department’s office of civil rights is launching these investigations in Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah.

The probes will explore whether statewide prohibitions on universal indoor masking discriminate against students with disabilities who are at heightened risk for severe illness from COVID-19 by preventing them from safely accessing in-person education.

The department sent letters to the chief school officers in the affected states Monday, outlining how they say stopping universal masking prevents school districts from implementing health and safety policies that they determine are necessary to protect students from exposure to COVID-19, including those with underlying medical conditions related to their disability.

The letter states that the department is concerned that state mask restrictions on schools, “may be preventing schools…from meeting their legal obligations not to discriminate based on disability and from providing an equal educational opportunity to students with disabilities who are at heightened risk of severe illness from COVID-19.”

The investigations will explore each state's compliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504), which is a federal law that protects students with disabilities from discrimination based on their disability.

The probes will also explore whether statewide prohibitions on universal indoor masking violate Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, which prohibits disability discrimination by public entities, including public education systems and institutions.

The department says it has not opened similar investigations in Florida, Texas, Arkansas, or Arizona because those states’ bans on universal indoor masking are not currently being enforced as a result of court orders or other state actions.

"The Department has heard from parents from across the country – particularly parents of students with disabilities and with underlying medical conditions – about how state bans on universal indoor masking are putting their children at risk and preventing them from accessing in-person learning equally," said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona in a statement. "It's simply unacceptable that state leaders are putting politics over the health and education of the students they took an oath to serve. The Department will fight to protect every student's right to access in-person learning safely and the rights of local educators to put in place policies that allow all students to return to the classroom full-time in-person safely this fall."

CINCINNATI — Correction: A previous version of this database pulled outdated data from the Ohio Department of Health for West Clermont Local School District. This has been corrected in the data.

The Ohio Deptarment of Health's COVID-19 Dashboard provides weekly information about COVID-19 cases across Ohio schools for teachers and students.

The interactive database below has been filtered to show schools in Southwest Ohio and has been cross-referenced with additional data from the Ohio Department of Education. Readers can explore student COVID-19 data by county, school district and mask policy.

For more information about cases, hospitalizations and death among children aged 0-17 in Ohio, visit the Ohio Children’s COVID-19 Dashboard.

Open in new window.

Methodology: WCPO visualized weekly data from the Ohio Department of Health showing which schools and counties have the most cumulative student COVID-19 cases. This data has also been combined with Ohio Department of Education headcount data from the 2020-2021 school year and information on local-area school mask policies to show estimates of student COVID-19 cases per capita and by mask policy. These are estimations because headcount and mask policy data is not available for every school. WCPO is displaying the current mask policies for schools; be advised that mask policies may have changed since the beginning of classes.

Ohio Department of Health data as of Aug. 9, 2021. As Local Health Departments and the schools they support transition to the new school year, the data reflected in the dashboard may include a combination of cases from the 2020-2021 academic year and 2021-2022 academic year.

The superintendent of an Austin, Texas-area school district says parents have "physically assaulted" and yelled at teachers in recent days because they were wearing masks.

In a letter to parents shared with KVUE-TV and the Austin American-Statesman, Eanes Independent School District Superintendent Dr. Tom Leonard said that one parent ripped the mask off a teacher's face.

"A parent physically assaulted a teacher by ripping a mask off her face, others yelling at a teacher to take off her mask because they could not understand what the teacher was saying while her face was covered," Leonard's letter read. "This type of behavior will not be tolerated in Eanes ISD."

The American-Statesman reports that no charges were filed in either incident.

Several Austin-area school districts have flip-flopped guidance on mask use in schools amid conflicting orders from the state and county governments.

In July, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order banning local municipalities, health agencies and school districts from instituting mask mandates. According to the American-Statesman, the Eanes School District was planning on starting the year with a mask encouragement in accordance with Abbott's order.

However, on Aug. 11, Travis County, which includes Austin, defied Abbott and ordered masks be worn in schools. Late last week, Eanes ISD said it would comply with the Travis County order until the matter was resolved in court.

In his letter to parents, Leonard clarified that while masks were required, the Tavis County order does not allow the school to punish those who choose not to wear masks.

"We cannot legally apply consequences to a student or staff member who refuses to wear a mask. Even if we were to make masks part of our school dress code, the Travis County Order and particularly the Governor's Order do not permit enforcement," Leonard wrote.

Despite the rough start to the year, Leonard says he hopes tensions simmer in the coming weeks.

"Our staff are on the front lines of this pandemic; let's give them some space and grace. Please, I am asking everyone to be kind...do not fight mask wars in our schools," Leonard wrote.