New York City’s public school system will close down again on Thursday, the schools chancellor told principals, in a worrisome signal that a second wave of the coronavirus has arrived. Schools had been open for in-person instruction for just under eight weeks.
“As of this morning, Nov. 18, the city has now reached this threshold of test positivity citywide and, as a result, the D.O.E. will temporarily close down all public school buildings for in-person learning Thursday, Nov. 19,” Chancellor Richard A. Carranza wrote shortly after 2 p.m. on Wednesday. Mayor Bill de Blasio confirmed the news in a tweet.
The shutdown — prompted by the city’s reaching a 3 percent positivity rate over a seven-day rolling average — is perhaps the most significant setback for New York’s recovery since the spring, when the city was an epicenter of the outbreak. It was also a major disappointment for Mr. de Blasio, who was the first big-city mayor in the country to reopen school buildings.
Moving to all-remote instruction will disrupt the education of many of the roughly 300,000 children who have been attending in-person classes and create major child care problems for parents.
Virus transmission in city schools had remained very low since classrooms reopened at the end of September, and the recent increase in cases does not appear to be caused by the reopening of school buildings. Still, city officials opted to end in-person learning — even as indoor dining was allowed to continue and gyms will left open, if at a reduced capacity. And nonessential workers can continue to use public transportation to commute to offices.
Those discrepancies have infuriated parents run ragged by fluctuating school schedules, even as many public health experts push for more in-person instruction.
New York is home to the nation’s largest school system, with 1,800 schools and 1.1 million students. The city’s public school families, the vast majority of whom are low-income and Black or Latino, have endured roughly eight months of confusion about whether and when schools would be open or closed.
Case numbers are rising so quickly in New York that more restrictions appear likely. Mr. de Blasio has said that indoor dining should be reassessed; only Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has the authority to close indoor dining rooms.
At a news conference on Wednesday, the governor said he would do so, and impose other restrictions, if the state’s data showed that the city had reached a 3 percent positivity rate. On Wednesday, the state’s health data showed that the city had an average of 2.5 percent. Over the course of the pandemic, the city’s health department’s numbers have often differed from the state’s.
Statewide, New York reported a seven-day average positivity test rate of 2.95 percent, and 2,202 people were hospitalized.
In other school news around the country.
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Denver’s public school system announced Wednesday that all grades would switch to remote learning as of Nov. 30, because of “dangerously high Covid-19 rates outside of schools in many parts of Denver.” According to a Twitter post from the schools, the plan is for students to return to the classroom in January, after the winter break.
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In the District of Columbia, the teachers’ union rejected an agreement with Washington public schools in the continuing discussion over reopening classrooms. “We cannot move forward with an agreement that could force anyone, regardless of pre-existing conditions or their living situations, back into an in-person classroom,” the union said in a letter. Mayor Muriel Bowser expressed disappointment, saying “the goal posts, unfortunately, continued to move,” according to DCist.
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In Kentucky, all in-person instruction in elementary, middle and high schools will be suspended beginning next week, Gov. Andy Beshear announced on Wednesday, citing a steep rise in infections and hospitalizations in the state. The state will also ban indoor service at bars and restaurants and impose new limits on indoor gatherings,
— Eliza Shapiro and
Source: NY Times
