NYC Marks Last Day Of School Year Under COVID

NEW YORK CITY — Students, teachers and parents marked the end of a New York City public school year defined by the coronavirus.

Many coronavirus measures could go away with the school year that ended Friday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on WNYC's "Brian Lehrer Show."

De Blasio already pledged next school year will be all in-person. He told Lehrer that schools will follow CDC and state guidance on mask wearing, which for now dictates that kids keep them on.

"If the trajectory continues downward with COVID, and we're at the lowest level we've been right now since the crisis began, I'm not going to be surprised at some point in the course of the summer, or right before school, the mask restriction comes off," he said.

Coronavirus safety concerns consumed New York City's public education system this school year.

De Blasio ambitiously sought to restore in-person classes to the city's school system, which is the largest in the country.

But his reopening plan hit several snags, false starts and, eventually, a return to all-remote learning as coronavirus cases in the city surged in the fall.

Through it all, though, COVID-19 levels in schools themselves never rose above 1 percent, according to school data.

De Blasio told Lehrer that more than 1.5 million COVID-19 tests were conducted in schools. He also said schools closed the year with an average 0.03 percent coronavirus positivity.

NEW last day of school news from @NYCMayor on @BrianLehrer: we have administered 1.5M COVID-19 tests in @NYCSchools this year. Throughout our testing program, the positivity rate never rose above 1% in schools. And today the 7-day positivity rate in schools is 0.03%.
— Danielle Filson (@DanielleFilson) June 25, 2021