(Photo by Austin Pacheco on Unsplash)
Aug. 10, 2020 By Allie Griffin
Roughly 74 percent of New York City public school students will return to class part-time in September, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced today.
Roughly 736,000 students will attend class in-person for a least part of the week. These students will head to their school building for instruction one to three times a week and participate in remote learning on the other days.
The other 26 percent of students — or 264,000 kids — have opted to attend classes fully online when the new school year begins.
The city sent out notices to parents asking if they wanted their children to stay home full time for remote learning and 26 percent said yes. However, parents can decide to switch their children to full remote learning at any point during the academic year.
De Blasio made the announcement after Gov. Andrew Cuomo gave the green light Friday for all schools in New York to reopen this fall. Each school district plan, however, must still be approved by the New York State Department of Health and the New York State Education Department before in-person classes can resume.
Public school parents and families can expect to find out more about their individual school plans and schedules over the course of the next two weeks.
Starting Monday, Aug. 17, individual schools will announce their plans, including how many days a week each student should expect to come to school in person.
New York City, the largest school district in the country, is one of the few major school districts across the nation that is planning for in-person classes this fall. School districts in other major cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Houston and Washington D.C. have decided to do remote-only learning in the fall.
“We must do it safely, we can do it safely,” he said. “We’ve set very stringent standards… So long as we can meet those standards, we’re going to be ready to serve our kids in September.”
Both students and all school employees must wear face coverings at all times inside school buildings and social distancing will be carefully enforced. School facilities will also undergo frequent and intensive cleanings.
De Blasio said the new school year, which begins on Sept. 10, will be very different
“There’s a lot of things that will change, but what will not change is our fundamental commitment to our children.”
Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza also said about 15 percent of teachers have requested to work from home due to medical conditions that put them at a greater risk of complications should they contract COVID-19. These teachers will solely teach remote classes in the fall.
That leaves about 66,000 teachers who will do in-person instruction at school buildings starting September.
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