All New York Schools To Open In September: Cuomo

LONG ISLAND, NY — With the state's positivity rates continuing to drop, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday that he expects all schools to open for in-person learning come September, with a pivot away from remote learning.

"We have to get back to school," Cuomo said. "Based on the current trajectory we will open schools by September."

Cuomo said unless "something drastic" took place, such as an uptick due to a new variant, there was no reason why schools couldn't open. Remote learning, he said, worked well for some students, while others paid "a heavy price."

Remote learning only worked for students in homes with computers, internet access, and someone to help kids learn. "COVID and remote learning discriminated against poorer households," he said. "It was the best we could do in a bad situation but by no stretch of the imagination is remote learning a substitute for in-class participation or socialization."

When asked if he would mandate vaccinations, Cuomo reminded that as it stands, the vaccinations are being disseminated under emergency use authorization only and would require U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval before the shots could be mandated.

Also, he said, mandatory vaccinations are a "controversial topic" and would require discussion; when measles vaccinations were mandated, some parents never sent their children back to classrooms and opted to home-school.

On Monday morning, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that all New York City schools would return to in-person-only learning in the fall, meaning that students would no longer have the option to learn remotely.