NEW YORK (AP) – New York City is resuming face-to-face classes and increasing the number of days per week that many children attend school, despite the surge in coronavirus cases in the city intensifying. Mayor Bill de Blasio reported Sunday.
The announcement represents a radical policy shift in America’s largest school system, less than two weeks after de Blasio announced that schools were suspending face-to-face classes due to a growing number of COVID-19 cases in the city.
Some elementary schools and kindergarten programs will resume classes on Dec. 7, a week from now, the mayor said. Some will take longer to reopen.
School programs that serve students with special needs in all grades will resume face-to-face classes starting December 10, de Blasio reported.
The plan for the reopening of middle and high schools is still under development, the mayor added.
“We feel confident that we can keep schools safe,” he said.
New York City public schools resumed face-to-face classes in September for students whose parents had chosen to send them to institutions. The facilities closed again on Nov. 19 amid the outbreak of infections in the city.
Wearing masks and adhering to social distancing measures were mandatory during the weeks schools were open, and group sizes were a fraction of what it was before the pandemic: 25-30 students.
Around 190,000 students will be able to return to classrooms in the first round of the reopening, just a fraction of the more than one million students in the system. Most parents have preferred that their children take distance classes.
De Blasio said many of those who will return to face-to-face classes will be able to attend five days a week, an increase from the previous limit of one to three days.
Students returning to classrooms will need to undergo frequent coronavirus tests.
–
