8 THE QUEENS COURIER • SEPTEMBER 16, 2021 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
NYC public school students return to classrooms
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELLDOMENECH
adomenech@schnepsmedia.com
@AODNewz
Hoards of masked public school children
returned to classrooms on Monday, Sept.
13, for the fi rst day of school 18 months
aft er Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered a systemwide
shutdown due to the COVID-
19 pandemic, triggering a shift to online
learning.
Th e fi rst day of classes started off rocky
when the New York City Department
of Education’s health screening website
crashed. Under the city’s school health and
safety guidelines, all students and school
staff must fi ll out a COVID-19 health
screen before being allowed into a school
building.
But as children and families made their
way to school buildings, some reported
being unable to fi ll out the document
online sending teachers and school
aids scrambling to pass out paper health
screenings.
Schools Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter
attributed the health screening hiccup to
the department’s website becoming overloaded
as roughly 1 million students tried
to log on around the same time.
“First day of school and a million kids.
Th at’ll overload you,” joked Mayor de
Blasio with Porter outside of P.S. 25 in the
Bronx Monday morning, the fi rst stop in
a marathon of school visits the chancellor
has planned for the fi rst week of classes.
Eventually, the health screening site went
back online. “Our apologies for the short
period it was down this morning,” the
DOE tweeted at 8:45 a.m. “If you are having
issues accessing the online tool, please
use a paper form or inform school staff
verbally.”
Although both offi cials boasted a full
return of over 1 million public school students,
the exact number of children attending
public school classes in person will be
unclear until the DOE release enrollment
numbers later this fall. Last year, enrollment
in public schools dropped by about
4%, or 43,000 students, according to DOE
enrollment data released in January of this
year. Department offi cials faulted the city’s
declining birthrate as well as the pandemic
for the decline.
Some have worried the yearslong trend
of declining public school enrollment will
continue into this school year because
of de Blasio’s refusal to off er students a
remote option. Aft er suggesting in the
spring the city would off er a remote option
this fall, de Blasio surprised school communities
by announcing all students would
Photo by Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Offi ce
Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Porter
welcome students back for the fi rst day of school on
Monday, Sept. 13, 2021.
be required to return to school in person
with only the medically fragile allowed to
take their courses online.
Th e lack of a remote option has prompted
some parents to keep their children
home out of fear the city will fail to make
good on its promise to keep all students
and staff safe from COVID-19’s delta variant
this year.
At P.S. 121 Th roop in the Bronx, elementary
school-aged kids stood three
feet apart and cheered Chancellor
Porter, fi rst lady Chirlane McCray and
Federal Secretary of Education Miguel
Cardona before the trio toured the school’s
classrooms and cafeteria.
Since de Blasio announced all students
would be returning to school buildings,
parents, teachers and school staff have
pressed for clarity on how offi cials plan to
abide by health and safety guidelines, particularly
social distancing recommendations.
Under CDC guidance, school staff
should try to maintain at least three feet
of social distance between children and
adults whenever possible but should not
prevent a full reopening even if social distance
can not be maintained.
In August, the DOE released a short
booklet outlining school health and safety
protocol which very
closely follows recommendations
issued by
the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
Under the guidance, all
adults and children are
required to wear masks and
10% of unvaccinated students
and staff ers will be tested
every two weeks. If a positive
COVID-19 case is detected,
students will be required
to quarantine for 10 days.
S o m e students reported the fi rst day
back was not as academically put together
as they would have imagined and that students
felt shy around one another. Sebastian
Trivino, 16, a junior at Middle College
High School, a public high school located
on the campus of LaGuardia Community
College, told Schneps Media he spent the
day doing ice breaker activities.
Photo by Brendan McDermid/Reuters
A child wears a face mask on the fi rst day of school.
Photo by Brendan McDermid/Reuters
A student crosses the street as New York City
welcomes students back to public schools.
Photo courtesy
of NYC Mayoral
Photography
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