An appeals court signaled it thinks school officials in Alachua and Duval counties have violated state law by requiring students to wear masks during the COVID-19 pandemic and ordered lower courts to quickly take up the issue.

A three-judge panel of the First District Court of Appeal stopped short of deciding a lawsuit that has sought to force the two school districts to allow parents to opt children out of mask requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic. But in a seven-page order, it said the districts have been "remarkably open in their defiance" of the state.