Four GOP House members Monday called for a bipartisan investigation into the effect of coronavirus-related school closures on children with disabilities, the Washington Times reported.
In a letter, Reps. Steve Scalise, R-La., James Comer, R-Ky., Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., urged Democrat colleagues to prioritize a probe to determine whether schools are complying with federal law.
"Getting all children back to full-time, in-person instruction, especially those with special needs and disabilities, must be a bipartisan priority," the Republican lawmakers wrote, the news outlet reported.
"If states or localities are violating federal civil rights laws to the detriment of students, they must be investigated, and their actions corrected. We call on you to put children over unions and science over politics. We must open an immediate, bipartisan investigation to ensure students' needs are met and federal law is followed."
The lawmakers sent the letter to Reps. James Clyburn, D-S.C., Frank Pallone, D-N.J., Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Bobby Scott, D-Va.
The GOP lawmakers want Democrats to join them in making a requests the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health hand over data on students' experiences at special education schools that have reopened since the COVID-19 shuttered schools around the country.
They also want the Biden administration to provide studies comparing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on U.S. children with disabilities to those abroad.
Two of the four Democrats who got the GOP lawmakers' letter did not respond directly to the call for a probe.
A Pallone spokesman referred to an upcoming examination of the risk children face from increased screen-time, the Washington Times reported.
An aide to Scott told the news outlet said the lawmaker was "equally concerned about the impact the pandemic has had on students with disabilities," and it was why he supported the Biden administration's $1.9 trillion stimulus plan, which he said provides $3 billion in new funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
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