Middle, high schools closed til 2021
Announcement comes after schoolwide shutdown of NYC public schools
BY ALEJANDRA
O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
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 fi rst 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 system
wide shutdown of public
schools after the city’s
COVID-19 positivity rate
based on a seven-day average
reached 3% on Nov. 19, which
was set as a trigger for school
closures in the mayor’s stateapproved
school reopening
plan during the summer.
Since the second citywide
public school closure due to
COVID, offi cials 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 reopen.
Beginning the week of
Dec. 7, 20% of all children and
adults in a school building are
required to be tested at random
for the virus every week.
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The city began requiring
monthly testing of 20% 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 fi ve
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 fi ve 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
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.”
File photo
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