Last Updated on: 24th May 2021, 11:41 pm
The public schools in New York and Los Angeles will not reopen until September with classroom teaching, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Monday.
Virtual classes will become a major story in the history books as more than 1 million city students return to the classroom.
“We have to understand that we are leaving COVID behind. We cannot live under the clutches of COVID for the rest of our lives,” said de Blasio in his daily meeting. “It will be like a crisis in our past, like the flu and other things, but it will be manageable.”
An hour after the mayor’s announcement, Governor Andrew Cuomo repeated the same thing, saying that all New York state schools will reopen in September.
Virtual learning has been the preferred option for most of the city’s students since the pandemic broke out in the mid-2020 school year.
In the Fall of September, some versions of the coronavirus protocols implemented during the current school year, including wearing masks, will resume COVID-19 testing.
In April, 51,000 students returned to the classroom after schools closed in March 2020.
The city’s Department of Education estimated a total of 360,000 students would return for the remainder of the 2021 school year. This number was less than 40% of the student population. About 700,000 students stayed away.
Children and staff who were in physical classrooms were randomly tested for COVID-19, and the city has reported very low rates of transmission of the virus in schools.
“You can’t fully recover without full academic achievement,” de Blasio said on MSNBC’s Morning, Joe.
He added that starting in June, parents would be invited to visit their children’s schools in order to personally adapt to the idea of the school.
“Anyone who has questions or concerns comes to your child’s school,” said the mayor. “See what’s going on, get the answers.”
In New York City, health and safety protocols will continue to include mask use and COVID-19 testing.
School Chancellor Miesha Porter said that all students, teachers, and staff must return.
The United Federation of Teachers issued a statement backing the mayor’s decision to return to full face-to-face learning, but also said there must still be a virtual option to help people with serious medical needs.
