NYC schools will return to in-person classes in the fall with no option for remote learning, mayor says
De Blasio said that the increase in vaccinations, decrease in cases and layering of health measures will make the move possible. New York City has the biggest school district in the nation, with 1.1 million students in over 1,800 schools.
“It’s just amazing the forward motion right now, the recovery that’s happening in New York City,” de Blasio said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “But you can’t have a full recovery without full-strength schools, everyone back sitting in those classrooms, kids learning again.”
To address some hesitancy to go back to in-person learning, parents will be able to visit their student’s classrooms starting in June to see all the measures taken to reduce Covid-19 transmission, such as cleaning and ventilation, de Blasio said.
When asked if schools will be able to maintain Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for school, such as 3 feet of social distancing, de Blasio says schools will be able to do that but that he also expects the agency to make adjustments before school starts in the fall.
“We have proven that we can beat back Covid all over this country and school opens four months from now,” he said. “So I absolutely believe Covid will continue to go down, vaccinations will go up, recovery will be strong.”
NYC schools close, reopen and then close again
New York City’s public schools closed for in-person classes at the start of the pandemic in March 2020 and then reopened in September for in-person classes.
The district stopped in-person classes in November when the city’s seven-day average reached a 3% positive testing threshold.
Schools began reopening in December, starting with elementary schools. The push to reopen school for younger age groups occurred because they had struggled most with online learning and they appeared to have the lowest rate of coronavirus spread.
New York City’s public high schools reopened for in-person learning in March and middle schools reopened in February.
