Prince George’s County Public Schools will drop its recently reinstated mask mandate on Sept. 6, CEO Monica Goldson announced on Monday after students returned for the first day of school.

Maryland’s second-largest school system previously announced on August 15 that masks would be required for all students and staff, making it one of the only school systems in the region to require a face covering at the start of the school year.

In a newsletter recapping the first day of school, Goldson attributed the decision to declining case counts in the region. As of Aug. 30, the county reported low community transmission according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In an interview with the Washington Post on Monday, Goldson expressed her plan to drop the mask mandate in the near future.

“All staff, students and families are encouraged to support personal decisions on mask-wearing,” Goldson wrote. “PGCPS will continue to make health and safety decisions in consultation with health experts.”

For the past two years of the pandemic, the school system — in one of the region’s counties hardest hit by COVID — has taken a more cautious approach compared to neighboring school systems. PGCPS was the last system to return to in-person learning, and drop its indoor mask mandate.

This school year, systems across the D.C. area have relatively minimal COVID precautions. In D.C. Public Schools, masks are not required, but students needed a negative test in order to attend school on Monday. By January, DCPS students over 12 will be required to have a coronavirus vaccine.