NYC School Reopening Plan Remains Murky: Here’s What We Know

NEW YORK CITY — A plan to reopen New York City’s now-closed public school buildings will entail even more stringent safety rules, expanded coronavirus testing and a new agreement with state officials, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

But de Blasio has so far declined to elaborate on specifics that tell roughly 300,000 in-person students, their parents and teachers what to expect as the city tries to reopen classrooms.

The plan will be crafted and unveiled in the coming days, de Blasio said.

“We are resetting the equation,” he said. “We need to come to a new agreement with the State, with the people of this city, with parents, with all the folks who work in schools on what's going to work for this new time.”

What de Blasio, Chancellor Richard Carranza and, to a lesser extent, Gov. Andrew Cuomo have made clear is the shutdown that started Thursday likely will extend at least through Thanksgiving.

Carranza emphasized several times that the closures will be temporary and students will be back in person as soon as safely possible.

“We are pivoting to remote instruction rather than the in-person instruction that some of our students have been receiving,” he said Wednesday. “So, school is still in session and students will still continue to learn and be supported by our teachers.”

The shift back to fully-remote learning, even if temporary, still could leave many students behind. About 60,000 still don’t have access to electronic devices. And many working parents have had to scramble to find child care.

Officials will keep the Learning Bridges childcare program open and continue to provide free grab and go meals for families. Parents can also request a device or receive a new one by calling 311.

But for many families those are, at best, temporary solutions. They’ll have a better idea of just how temporary when the city unveils details on the reopening plan.

Returning to classrooms likely will require new testing standards, de Blasio said. He encouraged parents to fill out test consent forms that allow staff to test their children.

“I'm going to emphasize again, if you're someone who says, I really want schools open, the next thing you have to do is file that test consent form immediately,” de Blasio said. “You can do that online. Get that in, so we know your child's ready to be tested because testing is going to be a crucial part of where we go from here to get schools open again.”

Cuomo said it’s likely that New York City schools won’t be able to test every student because of the system’s sheer size.

Testing in schools so far has shown they’re relatively safe — just 0.19 percent of students tested came back positive for coronavirus, according to data.

Outside the schools, the city’s average COVID-19 positivity is 3.01 percent — right above the trigger for automatic closures.

De Blasio defended the 3 percent threshold numerous times over the past week. He acknowledged it’s a conservative measure but said it was decided on as a “gold standard” for safety at a time when reopening schools amid the pandemic seemed foolhardy at best.

There appears to be no movement yet toward adjusting the 3 percent threshold, which is what Cuomo and numerous other officials have suggested.

Cuomo, for his part, noted the statewide rules on school closures allow districts to “test out” of shutdowns. He noted, however, that New York City officials adopted a stricter standard and they’re within their rights to keep it.

De Blasio acknowledged the “obvious question” as to why the city didn’t have a reopening plan crafted, but didn’t quite answer it. He said the city had an “ever-changing situation” that required both action to avoid a shutdown and, after that, a need to reset.

“All the actions in terms of testing, public education, outreach efforts, zones, anything that could help us not get to this point,” he said. “And obviously there's been a lot of other things we had to prepare for as well. So what I have learned sometimes is sometimes it is hard to imagine the next phase until you get there, you do your damnedest to plan ahead, but you can't always do that.”

More information about COVID-19 testing in schools can be found here.