NEW YORK (AP) – Classes resumed Monday in the New York metropolitan area, just weeks after schools closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Classes were suspended in the nation’s largest education system last month, but now kindergarten through fifth grade children whose parents chose a hybrid system of online and face-to-face classes are returning to the classroom.
“We have shown that we can achieve it, and that is what parents prefer,” declared the director of the city’s education system, Richard Carranza, in an interview with the NY1 news channel.
Children with special needs will resume activities on Thursday and high school children will continue to receive only online classes until at least the end of the Christmas holidays, announced Mayor Bill de Blasio.
On November 18, the mayor announced that schools had to close as the 3% limit for positive tests for coronavirus had been exceeded.
Currently the percentage is 5% but de Blasio stated that schools can reopen as long as certain sanitation measures are taken, in part because very few infections come from schools.
“Our schools are safer than practically anywhere else in New York City,” the mayor said on WNYC on Friday. “So I think everyone in our educational system can feel safe because a lot of sanitary measures have been taken, to protect everyone.”
Since the school year began in mid-September, more than 1,740 students and 2,240 teachers in the city’s public education system have contracted the disease, according to official figures.
De Blasio announced on November 29 that schools for young children and for those with special needs will reopen, but with more frequent coronavirus tests, that is, every week instead of every month. In addition, it is mandatory to have a mask and maintain physical distance.
Some 190,000 students will be able to return to their campuses starting Monday.
After schools closed in March, New York City was one of the first American cities to reopen in September, but most parents opted for exclusively online classes.
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