Federal education officials investigate Vt. COVID masking policies

MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – Federal education officials are investigating Vermont’s Agency of Education over COVID-era masking policies.

The Federal Department of Education is looking into whether Vermont education officials discriminated against medically vulnerable students during the pandemic by preventing some districts from enforcing local mask mandates, potentially infringing on students’ ability to have a safe space for education.

The letter to interim Agency of Education Secretary Heather Bouchey — first reported by VTDigger — outlines the complaint.

In a statement to WCAX, the AOE says their recommendations were not legally binding. “… the Agency issued a clarification to school leaders noting just that, and clarifying that they should consider masking as an accommodation for medically vulnerable students.”

The Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment.

Masking, testing, and vaccination policies in schools changed several times through different waves of the pandemic.

School administrators say it was a challenge to communicate the latest guidance to students and families. “I think districts were doing the best that they could with information that they had that was changing constantly, and then trying to turn around and implement it quickly, and that was hard,” said Washington Central Unified Union School District Superintendent Megan Roy.

After vaccines became available, the Scott administration leaned on voluntary guidance, allowing highly vaccinated schools to lift their mandates. However, in at least one instance, the state asked the WCUUSD to roll back its mask mandate to promote a more normal learning environment.

“The chance to be in school with friends, getting the help they need from teachers — which is best-delivered face-to-face is one of our top priorities,” Gov. Phil Scott said in November 2020.

The Department of Health says their health guidance aimed to strike a balance between keeping kids in school, restoring their social-emotional learning, and protecting the health and safety of students, staff, and teachers.

“We are confident that the documentation we have provided to OCR will establish that AOE complied with the applicable federal law,” the Agency of Education says in a statement. “If OCR disagrees, we would welcome the opportunity to learn and improve our processes going forward.”

No timeline or cost of this investigation is known, and even if the state is at fault, it’s not clear what repercussions or corrective actions would be taken, as all mask mandates in schools and in Vermont are gone.

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