The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Maricopa County, Arizona (Superior Court); Phoenix Union High School District · Phoenix and Tucson · Arizona
- Level
- Court
- Authority
- A.R.S. 15-341(A)(1) (district authority); Ariz. Const. art. IV, pt. 1, s. 1 (effective date of laws); A.R.S. 15-342.05 (ban, not yet effective)
- Issued
- 2021-08-16 Aug. 16, 2021
- Effective
- Phoenix Union mask mandate in force from the start of the 2021-22 school year (Aug. 2, 2021 motion date) (read as 2021-08-02)
- End
- Mandate continued past Sept. 30, 2021 (ban declared void Sept. 27, 2021) (read as 2021-09-30)
- In force
- Aug. 2, 2021 to Sept. 30, 2021
- Quarters
- 2021 Q3
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Face-covering requirementSchools and child careCourts and public offices
- Addressees
- students, teachers and staff of Phoenix Union High School District
- Functions reached
- WF workforce (parents of students; teachers)
- IN in-person instruction under mask conditions
- SCH schools
- Collection
- Phoenix and Tucson MET-PHX
Operative words
A.R.S. 15-342.05 was enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic to prohibit school districts from requiring students and teachers to wear masks.... But A.R.S. 15-342.05 has not yet become effective. Under Arizona law, new laws are effective 90 days after the legislative session ends, which is September 29 this year.... A retroactivity clause is not an emergency clause, and cannot be used to avoid the two-thirds vote requirement needed to make a statute immediately effective.... Arizona law gives school boards the authority to protect students and ensure the orderly operation of schools, subject to statutory limitations imposed by the Legislature.
Enforcement
Court ruling; district policy enforced by the district
Notes
Phoenix Union was the first Arizona district to defy the ban; at least a dozen (AZ Mirror Aug. 16) and some twenty districts and charters (AZ Mirror Aug. 17) had mandates by mid-August 2021; the State conditioned $163 million of Education Plus-Up grants on compliance with the ban (Aug. 17, 2021).
Retrieval noteCourt document read in full (OCR layer). its existence, date and content are established by the ruling (verified_secondary as to the district instrument).