The New York State Education Department is telling schools to continue to require masks despite a judge’s ruling overturning the state’s mask mandate. But some school districts already are rushing to drop the requirement. AP photos

FILE — Students wearing masks leave the New Explorations into Science, Technology and Math (NEST+m) school in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan, Dec. 21, 2021, in New York. The New York State Education Department is telling schools to continue to require masks despite a judge’s ruling overturning the state's mask mandate.  But some school districts already are rushing to drop the requirement.  The Education Department said in a statement Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022 that the state was appealing the ruling, which could temporarily halt it, and that schools should follow the mask rule in the meantime. (AP Photo/Brittainy Newman, File)