8 MAY 27, 2021 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
No remote option for NYC public school students in
Sept. as mayor vows children will return to classes
BY ALEJANDRA O'CONNELLDOMENECH
ADOMENECH@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@AODNEWZ
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced
on May 24 that New York
City public schools will
reopen on Sept. 13 without a remote
option — backtracking on earlier
commitments to off er families worried
about sending their children
back into classrooms with fully online
classes.
“I am very pleased to announce
that New York City public schools
will fully reopen in September.
Every single child will be back in
classrooms,” de Blasio said. “We are
going to have so many protections in
place as we proved even during the
toughest months of COVID that we
could keep kids and staff safe with
a gold standard of health and safety
measures.”
In March, de Blasio said he planned
on scrapping hybrid learning this fall
and would instead work to bring back
all public school students into schools
for fi ve-day-a-week live instruction
while also off ering a fully remote
option for families that might still
be afraid to send their children back
into school buildings in September.
On May 24, when asked by reporters
why he chose to reimagine his
previous vision on how classes would
look this fall, the mayor cited the effi
cacy of the COVID-19 vaccines and
the CDC relaxing of some health and
safety guidelines as reasons for the
change.
“We got to understand, we are leaving
COVID behind. We can’t live in
the grip of COVID forever,” de Blasio
said. Some health and safety guidelines
rolled out during the pandemic
will be lift ed once students return to
classrooms this fall. Schools will return
to pre-pandemic rules in terms
of student illness.
In a letter sent to families, Schools
Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter assured
parents that masks will still be
required in all school buildings and
those with COVID-19 symptoms will
continue to be asked to stay home. In
addition, this fall, students, teachers
and staff will continue to take daily
health screeners at home and COVID-
19 testing will still take place in school
buildings as long as the CDC sees fi t.
The city’s teacher union, the United
Federation of Teachers, which has
increasingly supported expanding
in-person learning, expressed
concerns over how a full return to
school would impact the city’s small
number of students with severe medical
challenges.
“For that small group of students, a
remote option may still be necessary,”
said UFT President Michael Mulgrew
in a statement.
The issue of whether schools can
accommodate all students while still
abiding by the CDC’s social distancing
requirements came under question
again on May 24. Currently, the
CDC recommends students in K-12
schools sit or stand three feet apart
Photo via Getty Images
regardless of the virus’s transmission
rate in the school’s surrounding
community.
According to de Blasio, city public
schools “have a lot of classrooms” that
could allow for students to maintain
three feet of social distance, and for
those that can’t, the Department of
Education plans on using alternative
space to accommodate students
or make other adjustments.
“But I don’t see that,” de Blasio
added. “So we’ll have a plan A, plan B
as always, but I have no doubt we’ll be
able to accommodate our kids.”
The majority of the city’s 1 million
public students — about 65 percent
— are enrolled in fully remote learning,
which raises questions as to how
comfortable families will feel sending
their children back into schools this
fall. A recent survey showed about 65
percent of families with students enrolled
in fully remote learning would
most likely send their children back
into schools while the remaining 35
percent are unsure.
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