BUFFALO, N.Y. — Students and teachers had the choice Wednesday in Niagara Falls schools about whether or not to wear a mask.

Superintendent Mark Laurrie said despite the major change to the state's policy, it was a relatively normal day.

"I just wanted to make sure that this was just like the glasses you wear or the appropriate dress that you have in school. It was a personal choice and there should be no judgment made," Laurrie said.

He said his district agreed weeks ago, once the state gave the choice to districts, Niagara Falls would let individual students and families make their own decisions. Laurrie said he began communicating the change Sunday via robocall and YouTube once the state Department of Health gave notice.

"I feel that the communication, the information has been passed along seamlessly," he said. "We were just waiting for the green light from the governor to go ahead and enact our plan."

However, not every district was as clear on its plans.

"It wasn't clear what was going on in Buffalo and we didn't find out until we got an email at 10:20 last night essentially saying we we're going on without the masks," We The Parents co-chair Sam Radford said.

Radford said the late notice was especially difficult for parents with younger children who have been wearing masks for a good portion of their time in school.

"Just to explain to them, well, everybody don't have to have their mask on but you can still wear yours or you don't have to wear yours if you don't want to and you don't have to feel bad about that. You don't have to worry about whether you're going to get in trouble because now the mask is not required to be worn. I just think it just makes more sense to give people as much notice as you can possibly give them," he said.

The state Education Department itself didn't send out its latest guidance until Tuesday evening. Laurrie said it was a little later than he hoped but believes the governor's administration was trying to collect as much input as possible.

"The guidance that came out late, late last night from state ed allowed a great deal of flexibility and a great deal of the word should for the first time rather than must or the word shall and I think that was helpful," he said.

Radford and Laurrie say it appears while many students still wore masks Wednesday, the percentage was larger among the younger children.