Ban on school mask mandates deadlocks
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Mar. 18—CONCORD — As expected, the equally-divided membership on the House Education Committee deadlocked, 10-10, over whether the state should block any local school board from adopting a mask mandate for all students, teachers or staff.
State Rep. Kristin Noble, R-Bedford, had wanted to amend her bill to allow there to be a mask mandate for any special education student with an individualized education plan or other accommodation agreement approved by local officials.
But all 10 Democrats on the panel rejected that change and all 10 Republicans refused to support a move to kill the measure (HB 1093).
The full House will vote on the measure in the coming weeks.
"If there is some public health crisis, that mandate should come from the state, not from our local school districts," Noble said.
"This bill is not misguided; it's taken the school boards off the hook because they aren't qualified to make these decisions."
Barrett Christina, executive director of the New Hampshire School Boards Association, said the legislation would punish local school boards that followed the advice of state public health and education administrators after the outbreak of the pandemic.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Chris Sununu's mask mandates specifically exempted public schools from the requirement, leaving it up to local boards to set their own policies.
In the summer of 2021, state health and education officials issued revised guidance about face coverings in schools.
The advice urged school officials to allow for "flexibility" from the requirement and to consider allowing children at times to take their masks off.
Then in February 2022, Sununu called upon school boards to voluntarily drop their mask mandates.
After the Republican-led Legislature passed a similar bill, Sununu vetoed it in May 2022, branding it a violation of local control.
The House sustained Sununu's veto.
