To ensure students’ safe return to in-person learning amid a surge in the Delta variant of the coronavirus, some school districts plan to institute mask mandates.

Yet that move isn’t necessarily straightforward — several of the country’s hardest-hit states have banned such mandates.

We look at how this conflict is playing out in Arkansas. 

Guest: Richard Fausset, a correspondent covering the American South for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas signed a law banning mask mandates early this year. Now, he wants to unravel it, reflecting a dilemma for Republican governors across the South, where the health crisis has deepened.
• School officials in Florida and Arizona say they intend to require students and teachers to wear masks in school, despite statewide bans on such policies.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

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