California is doing it, Virginia has done it, and New York City is on board also. But D.C. isn’t yet moving to lift its mask mandate for schools.

Speaking on Monday about new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention saying localities can lift the mask mandates in schools if COVID-19 case rates and hospitalizations remain low, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said her administration was reviewing the guidance — but that no immediate changes were expected.

“We are reviewing all of that. D.C. Health has worked through the weekend to adjust to the new metrics the CDC has put in place,” she said. “We haven’t made any further decisions on masks in schools.”

Still, pressure could be building on Bowser, especially since the new metrics unveiled by the CDC show low community COVID-19 levels in the Washington region, including in D.C. The city’s broader mask mandate for indoors lifted Tuesday, and DCPS Chancellor Lewis Ferebee similarly lifted the mask mandate for school outdoor areas.

Next week the Montgomery County Board of Education is expected to review its own mask mandate. Last week the Maryland State Board of Education rescinded the statewide mask mandate for schools, leaving it up to localities to decide whether to continue requiring masks or not.

Masks are now optional in all Virginia schools, following the passage of a bill in Richmond that ended statewide mask mandates.

This week, the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative advocacy group, sent a letter to Bowser asking that she lift the mask mandate for religious schools. That followed a recent decision by the Archdiocese of Washington making masks optional in Catholic schools in Maryland but awaiting any decision by D.C. before taking a similar step in Catholic schools in the city.

“Over the past several months, substantial numbers of people have been vaccinated, including younger children, and our schools in Maryland and the District of Columbia are in one of the most highly vaccinated areas of the country. Case numbers have also been steadily dropping locally over the past month in the wake of the delta and omicron variants,” wrote Kelly Branaman, the schools secretary and superintendent for the archdiocese, in a letter to parents on Feb. 17.

But there could also be pressure for Bowser to stay firm on masks in schools.

In Prince George’s County, schools CEO Monica Goldson wrote last week that she would follow a different metric — the number of people vaccinated — before deciding to relax or lift the mask mandate for schools. And this week a new study found that the COVID-19 vaccine for kids aged 5-11 is less effective in protecting them from infection than the higher-dose vaccine that adults receive.

“I recognize that the mandates are softening around the country. I’m a little hesitant about that. I would be a little more comfortable to see whether the data on incidence continues to diminish,” said D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson in an interview with DCist/WAMU on Monday.

But some lawmakers want the council to jumpstart the conversation about the fate of the mask mandate for schools, because they say they have otherwise been left out of decisions on matters like whether the city should have lifted the vaccine mandate, which Bowser did last month.

“We have discussed how the executive hasn’t always given us warnings on changes in policy. We should be proactive in thinking about these things,” said Councilmember Elissa Silverman (I-At Large) during a council breakfast on Tuesday.

Mendelson said one opportunity to discuss the issue could come this Thursday, when the council has a planned oversight hearing on city schools where senior officials will testify.

“We were blind-sided earlier this month when she announced getting rid of the requirement to be vaccinated to get into a business. Members were ticked off,” he said. “We absolutely want collaboration from the executive, and on these things we don’t get it.”

This post was updated with news that the mask mandate in D.C. Public Schools was lifted for outdoor areas on Tuesday.