The board that oversees K-12 education in the state, and not the governor, has the authority to adopt COVID-19 safety protocols for the state’s schools, an opinion released last week by the Louisiana attorney general says.
Currently, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) has imposed no health and safety standards related to the coronavirus for the 2021-2022 school year, but Attorney General Jeff Landry’s advisory opinion will be formally received at the board’s Aug. 18 meeting, according to board spokesman Kevin Calbert.
“We anticipate public discussion on the issue at that time,” Calbert said in an email to the Louisiana Record.
BESE deferred to Gov. John Bel Edwards’ COVID-19 orders during the previous school year, he said.
“In May, just prior to the end of last school year, BESE clarified in policy that the board’s minimum COVID-19 health and safety standards for the 2020-21 school year, pertaining to face coverings, would be superseded by any statewide or district-specific mandate issued by the governor,” Calbert said, “and that going forward, face covering requirements were to be determined by local school systems when no mask mandate from the governor is in place.”
Last week, the Louisiana Department of Education revised its recommendations to school districts to reflect the governor’s recent directive that Louisianans should wear masks when outside their personal residences. The order applies to those enrolled in schools, including kindergarteners and older students, as a way to protect them from COVID-19 variants.
Landry’s opinion, however, implies that the governor’s authority for imposing public health orders stops at schoolhouse doors.
“This office is of the opinion that directives as to the safety protocols to be observed by teachers and students present at school facilities during the school day are themselves a vital aspect of education over which BESE holds constitutional and statutory authority to oversee,” Landry’s opinion states.
The BESE’s authority to initiate COVID-19 safety protocols can be applied by considering coronavirus positivity rates in school districts, the physical distance between students in classrooms and other criteria, according to the opinion. BESE can adopt policies on subjects including temperature checks, mask mandates and exceptions to such mandates, Landry wrote.
“No entity other than the legislature may supersede any action of BESE undertaken to supervise and control education in this state,” the opinion states.