A bill that will make face masks completely optional in schools regardless of district policy passed by a 56-35 vote in the Kentucky House yesterday.
While the legislative body took a measure in its last session to ban a statewide mask mandate for public schools, promoting the move as a shift to local control for boards of education, the bill now makes masks completely optional, leaving any district mandates essentially useless.
The bill also extends to public colleges and universities, eliminating mask requirements, as well as COVID testing and vaccine requirements.
Most school districts in Kentucky have already lifted any mask mandates, and many college and university campuses have been in the process of relaxing mask policies.
The bill now goes before the Kentucky Senate. Rep. Josh Branscum voted in favor of the bill.
