The bipartisan Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR) voted today to block the re-implementation of Governor JB Pritzker’s mask mandate for K-12 schools in Illinois.
According to State Representative Amy Elik (R-Fosterburg), “As it stands today, the statewide school mask mandate is no longer in place following support from both republican and democrat lawmakers serving on JCAR. Governor Pritzker’s go it alone approach has caused chaos across our state. When a legislative body had the opportunity to decide, they voted to suspend the governor’s school mask mandate.”
Governor Pritzker’s emergency rule on COVID mitigations for Illinois schools expired on Sunday, February 13. Prompting the Pritzker administration to immediately re-file the rule on Monday, putting it back into effect unless JCAR voted affirmatively to block it with a minimum of 8 members on the 12-member committee. Nine members voted to suspend the Governor’s emergency rule, with zero voting to keep it in place and two members voting “Present.”