NYC Schools Shut Down As Coronavirus Spreads, Officials Say

NEW YORK CITY — New York City public schools will close in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, officials announced Sunday.

New York City public schools will be closed Monday and classes will be suspended until after spring vacation, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio.

"There is a real possibility that closing our schools now, we may not have the opportunity to reopen them this school year," de Blasio said. "I have no words how horrible this is."

Remote learning will begin for all grades K through 12 on Monday March 23 and, if possible, schools will reopen on April 20, de Blasio said.

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School locations will be open for grab-and-go breakfasts and lunches on a transitional basis for the next five days but children won't be allowed to stay in the building, de Blasio said. Those meals will be served on the same schedule as during school.

All school personnel will stay home Monday, then teachers and principals will return Tuesday through Thursday for training and guidance on remote learning, added Department of Education Chancellor Richard Carranza.

"I have tremendous faith in the teachers of New York City," Carranza said. "This is a time for us to be together as New Yorkers, not physically, but philosophically."

As many as 300,000 children in New York City's 1.1 million-student public school system may need devices for public learning, Carranza said.

Those students, and those without internet access, might be able to get assistance from the city with help from private partnerships with corporations such as Apple and Google, Carranza said.

Those companies are negotiating the sale of laptops and a significantly lower rate to be handed out to students and more detail on how they'll be distributed will be forthcoming, officials said.

"We're going to do the best we can to help those kids," de Blasio said. "We are dealing with the great unknown."

Details on how students would be graded and when they would be required to do online learning were still being debated, the DOE Chancellor said.

"We're flying the airplane as we're building the airplane," Carranza said. "All the details will become much more clear ... once we have our teachers weigh in with us."

Another serious concern is teenagers gathering in large groups outside of school, which de Blasio admitted he could do nothing to stop.

The city must prepare plans in the next day to provide childcare for essential workers and meals for city kids who need them, the governor tweeted.

"This action is necessary to reduce density and mitigate the spread of #COVID19," he wrote.

Public schools in Long Island and Westchester will also close this week, Cuomo said.

As of 5:45 p.m. Sunday, there were 78 Queens cases, 72 in Manhattan, 53 Brooklyn, 21 in The Bronx and 16 in Staten Island, de Blasio said, adding five people had died.

De Blasio also canceled the Queens Borough President Election and announced police will crack down on bars and restaurants serving crowds in violation of Gov. Cuomo's order limiting capacity.

City Council Speaker Corey Johnson — among a group of elected officials who pressured on the mayor and governor to close schools — celebrated the decision.

The City University of New York and Success Academy, the city's largest charter school network, have both already shut down their campuses and transitioned to online learning.

Numerous New York City private schools and universities — among them NYU and the Juilliard School — have already shuttered their doors.

This is a quick turnaround for the governor and mayor, who both argued fiercely that schools should remain open to provide services to students and childcare for parents needed in the workforce.

De Blasio admitted projections of how the virus will spread finally spurred him to cancel classes.

"The threat was growing so intensely that we had to accept it," de Blasio explained of his change. "It's a sacrifice that has to be done for the greater good."