BY ALEJANDRA O'CONNELLDOMENECH
New York City public middle
and high school students
will not return to schools for
in-person learning until early
next year, Mayor Bill de Blasio
said on Monday, Nov. 30.
“The focus will be over the
next few weeks up until the
Christmas break, getting elementary,
District 75 special
education and Pre-K and 3-K
up and running … then we
are going to come back after
the holidays, we are going to
be able to assess the situation
then,” de Blasio told reporters
at a Nov. 30 press conference.
On Sunday, de Blasio had
announced that students enrolled
for in-person classes at
public schools will begin to
return to recently re-shuttered
school buildings in phases
beginning Dec. 7.
The city’s youngest learners,
3-K and Pre-K students, are the
first group scheduled to return
to buildings with the city District
75 students set to return to
in-person classes on Dec.10.
The mayor issued a systemwide
shutdown of public
schools after the city’s COVID-
19 positivity rate based on a
seven-day average reached 3
percent on Nov. 19, which was
set as a trigger for school closures
in the mayor’s state-approved
school reopening plan
during the summer.
Since the second citywide
public school closure due to
COVID, officials have scrambled
to come up with a new
reopening plan and de Blasio
repeatedly emphasizing the
importance COVID-19 testing
will play in allowing students
to return to buildings.
Now, students will need to
submit signed COVID-19 testing
parental consent forms
online or to their school’s leadership
before being allowed
to re-enter the building. In
addition, school communities
will be tested for COVID-19
more frequently once schools
re-open. Beginning the week
of Dec. 7, 20 percent of all children
and adults in a school
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.4 COM | DEC. 4-DEC. 10, 2020
building are required to be
tested at random for the virus
every week.
The city began requiring
monthly testing of 20 percent
of all adults and children in
school buildings in October.
“We are going to keep building
up our testing,” de Blasio
said Monday. “I want us to
move on to middle and high
school as soon as we can but we
have to do one step at a time.”
The number of families interested
in sending their children
back to public schools to
take part in blended learning
are the minority. Only about
330,000 out of the city’s 1.1 million
public school students are
enrolled in blended, according
to the most recent data from
the Department of Education.
On Monday, de Blasio touted
that most of the students who
will return to school buildings
next month will be able to attend
in-person classes for five
days of the week.
“For the kids who did
choose, for the families that
did choose in-person, we will
be able to move to five days a
week or at least more days a
week in a lot of schools,” said
de Blasio.
Even so, the city has not revealed
how it plans to improve
remote learning, which has
been plagued with challenges
since March.
Instead, de Blasio and
Schools Chancellor Richard
Carranza have repeatedly said
that the city is working on
improving remote learning.
They’ve commended teachers
for stepping up to the plate
during one of the most trying
school years in the city’s history
Photo via Getty Images
and pushed in-person
learning as the best option for
students.
Over the weekend, the mayor
hinted that the next time
the city could potentially offer
another window for families to
enroll their children in blended
learning is when a vaccine for
the virus is readily available.
“We have the real possibility
of bringing back a large
number of kids once the vaccine
gets pretty widely distributed,”
de Blasio said. “Remember,
we are still in November.
There are seven months of the
school year ahead.”
NYC public middle, high schools
won’t reopen doors until 2021
Bill de Blasio
Mayor
Dave A. Chokshi, MD, MSc
Commissioner