The Maryland State Board of Education voted Tuesday to rescind the statewide emergency mask mandate for schools. A joint legislative committee will now have a hearing and make the final decision on whether to approve the measure — if it does, local school boards will soon be allowed to adopt their own mask policies.

The motion to drop the statewide mandate received little pushback and ultimately was approved 12-2, though some members raised concerns about the BA.2 COVID-19 variant and said the decision should be held off until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issues further guidance. Those in favor of dropping the mandate, including State Superintendent of Schools Mohammed Choudhury, cited declining case rates and access to vaccines.

The state board’s intended date for ending the mandate is March 1, though that could change depending on when the legislative committee votes.

“I think it is the right time to return it back to local control,” Choudhury said of the mask mandate. “The conditions are better, there’s more testing, there’s more vaccines that are readily available. And like I said, the conditions have kept our schools open.”

Some board members showed up maskless, a reflection of the mask mandate lifting for state government buildings.

During the public comment period, about 20 parents, union leaders, medical professionals, and other community members voiced their support and their disapproval of keeping the mask mandate. Some shared that masks have allowed schools to return to in-person learning safely, while others argued that forcing children to wear masks has restricted their learning and led to mental health issues.

Board member Rachel McCusker said she was concerned that a move away from the mask mandate before the CDC changes its guidance would be premature and lead to staffing issues and increased cases that could trigger a switch back to virtual learning.

“We serve children in all kinds of physical conditions. We have children who are high-risk, we have teachers who are high-risk,” McCusker said. “I just feel like we’re a couple of weeks too early.”

The CDC currently recommends that all students, teachers, staff, and school visitors over age 2 wear masks indoors. As of Tuesday, 78.4% of Maryland residents had been fully vaccinated and 90% had received at least one full dose, per state health data. Children under age 5 aren’t eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

Earlier this month, Gov. Larry Hogan urged the state board to rescind the mask mandate, writing in a letter to the board: “We continue to report substantial declines in all of our key COVID-19 health metrics, including the lowest case rate in the country.”

In a statement, Hogan thanked the board for their decision and called on the General Assembly to “act swiftly” to finalize it.

The original emergency measure in December allowed “research-based off ramps,” permitting kids to go maskless in schools that reached vaccination rates above 80%, or if their counties reached low to moderate levels of community spread.

The General Assembly’s administrative, executive, and legislative review committee — made up of state delegates and senators — will decide in the coming weeks whether schools will be making their own decisions on masking.