By Andre Malo
Students are returning to the classroom at 488 New York City high schools as Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a new opt-in window for families to sign up their kids for in-person learning. About 55,000 high schoolers have opted into some in-classroom learning compared to a pre-pandemic high school population of about 326,000.
NY Post reported: Hizzoner elbowed bumped students at the Bronx School for Law, Government and Justice in the borough’s Concourse Village neighborhood as they headed in.
“Really inspiring. Kids are ready to learn again,” de Blasio told reporters.
When asked whether he’s confident that the school buildings will stay open this time, de Blasio replied, “Yes, indeed.”
Families will have another chance to opt into in-person instruction starting this Wednesday through April 7 since the city can increase school capacity given the CDC’s new guidelines that allows desks to stand three feet apart, increased from six feet of separation, CBS 880 reported.
“We’re going to do an opt-in for all grades even though only some of them will be ready to open in the near term,” de Blasio said. “We want to ask parents and kids across all grade levels if they want to come back when the opportunity arises.”
We still have more work to do for middle and high school, we’re still not sure about those timelines, but as I said the opt in will include middle and high school students so we know what their intentions are and then we’ll be able to provide more information as we get more guidance and as we see the overall situation evolve,” de Blasio said.
“We need to open the opt-in window now so that schools can start planning for the opportunity to welcome more students in,” Schools Chancellor Meisha Porter said. “We want every single child who wants to attend school in person to have the opportunity to do so.”
“We are ready to go. We have all the pieces we need to bring high school back and bring it back strong and, of course, to bring it back safely,” de Blasio said in a video message. “Why do we know this? Because we set the gold standard for the nation and our rules became the blueprint.”
There will be social distancing, disinfecting and random testing as students return to school buildings. About half of the city’s public high schools will offer five-day in-person learning.
