Remote Summer School Will Serve 178K NYC Students, Mayor Says

NEW YORK CITY — Nearly 178,000 New York kids will attend a remote learning summer school this year unlike any other in the city's history, officials announced Tuesday.

"It's been tough on our kids," Mayor Bill de Blasio said of the novel coronavirus crisis. "We're going to have to be creative about supporting them."

The 177,700 special needs and grades 3-12 students will be signed up for six weeks of live or pre-recorded instruction from July through August, said de Blasio and Department of Education Commissioner Richard Carranza.

To keep up to date with coronavirus developments in NYC, sign up for Patch's news alerts and newsletter.

"Our focus is to have as much live learning as possible," said Carranza. "It will be a mixture but it's all focused on making sure students are engaged."

About 67,000 kids in grades 3 through 8 will be signed up for the four days a week program that includes virtual field trips and "social emotional learning," Carranza said.

Roughly 83,000 high schoolers will get a five-days-a-week program in courses they failed in the spring semester with one-on-one check ins with teachers, Carranza said.

And 27,700 special needs students who require 12 months of education programming will also get six five-day weeks of summer learning.

Teachers, principals and parents will decide who needs that additional learning said Carranza, but did not detail what exact criteria educators would rely on to make the decision.

"There's a myriad of reasons why a student would be required or recommended," Carranza said.

"We'll give every child what they need," added de Blasio. "We believe we can attain the goal."

This announcement comes as the city gears up for a reopening process with an end goal of returning kids to brick-and-mortar schools in September.

But recent data on COVID-19's spread and a new toxic shock-like syndrome targeting children show this could be a difficult goal to achieve.

As of Tuesday, 147 New York City kids are suspected to have multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children, which claimed the life of a five-year-old boy, de Blasio said.

And the Mayor's office tracking indicators once again showed stagnating progress with hospitalizations for suspected COVID-19 increasing to 57 on May 16 and ICU patients increasing to 492, but the percentage of positive testing decreasing to 9 percent.

De Blasio remained optimistic that the tracking indicators would show the necessary progress — 10 to 14 days of steady decrease — by mid-June, when the city is slated to meet Gov. Andrew Cuomo's seven reopening benchmarks.

"I believe they're going to link up," de Blasio said. "It's clear to me, looking at both, that the first half of June is the time when it all comes together."

While students in need of more academic assistance will get extra help from the city, de Blasio said children facing economic hardship were unlikely to get additional resources, such as city-run summer jobs.

"Our budget has been profoundly disrupted," de Blasio said. "We're going to make sure that kids who can't get outside have positive engagement."

Cuts to the city's programming have raised concerns across the five boroughs, even reaching the star of de Blasio's favorite new show, "The Wire."

Actor Michael K. Williams took to Twitter Monday, after de Blasio admitted he'd been binging the series, to warn what would happen if New York City teenagers were denied opportunities to bring in extra income.

"The summer's almost here, y'all, and everyone from the hood knows when school lets out, the murder rate goes up," Williams says in his video message.

"With all the city budget cuts gutting all the opportunity for kids in my community, to have something to do or to earn a couple of dollars to take care of themselves and sometimes even their families over the summer, I'm afraid this year might be even worse."

Coronavirus In NYC: Latest Happenings And Guidance

Email PatchNYC@patch.com to reach a Patch reporter or fill out this anonymous form to share your coronavirus stories. All messages are confidential.