Gov. Murphy: NJ Needs All Kids Back In Classrooms Amid COVID

TRENTON, NJ — Gov. Phil Murphy continued his push on Friday for all children to return to their classrooms this year, saying they can't stay away from full in-person instruction for an entire year.

Murphy told FOX5 that 90 percent of New Jersey schools are now either hybrid or fully in-person and "my guess is that that gets close to 100 percent in hybrid or in person this school year, which is great."

"God knows everybody needs that, from the kids to the educators moms and dads," Murphy told FOX5 in what appeared to be a push to get all children back into school by the end of the school year.

As for the fall, Murphy was much more definitive. "I fully expect that we we'll be wide open for business Monday through Friday in the fall," he told FOX5.

His comments appeared to echo what he said during his Wednesday news conference when he said that all children need to get back into school as soon as possible.

"That's not fair to them, their families, their communities, or their futures," Murphy said "We will continue to work with these schools through the Department of Education and alongside local leaders and stakeholders to move this along."

Just five public school districts and 11 charter and special services schools remain on fully remote instruction, representing about 53,000 students, Murphy said. That’s down from 142 schools and districts as of the beginning of March, he said.

"The simple fact remains that we cannot leave (53,000) of our students, as well as thousands of educators and staff, out of their classrooms for an entire year."

The move to in-person classes across the state comes as COVID-19 infection rates continue to drop significantly.

“Over the past eight weeks we’ve seen efforts kick into high gear” to return to in-person instruction, Murphy said.

Of the remaining five districts — Hillside, Irvington, Passaic, Paterson and Pleasantville — two have plans to return to some form of in-person instruction by May 24.

“I applaud the efforts of Hillside and Irvington,” he said, which instruct about 10,000 students.

He said the state is working to get the other three districts back into the buildings.

“We know there are myriad reasons the remaining districts have not taken this step,” Murphy said.

Murphy said state officials are also continuing to work with districts that are hybrid to move them to fully in-person instruction, with the goal of having students back in school for full days.

"Our goal is to get these 16 (fully remote) down to zero, and for these roughly 53,000 students and their educators to be back in their classrooms for in-person instruction," Murphy said.

Click here to get Patch email notifications, or download our app to have breaking news alerts sent right to your phone. Have a news tip? Email karen.wall@patch.com