In a 12-1 decision, the State Board of Education voted to allow individual school systems to lift mask mandate under certain conditions.

Those conditions are either an individual school has at least 80% of its students and staff fully vaccinated, a school's home county has 80% of residents fully vaccinated, or a school's home county's transmission rate falls to moderate or low for at least 14 days.

There was a passionate plea from state school Superintendent Mohammed Choudhury to board members to sign off on an emergency masking regulation that puts limits on school districts on when they could lift mask mandates.

"I want to keep schools open at the end of the day, and that's very important to me. Vote your conscience. For me, selfishly, it's about keeping schools open," Choudhury said.... Read More: WBAL