NYC Schools Blended Learning Opt-In Deadline Starts Nov. 2
NEW YORK CITY — The window for New York City parents and students to opt back into classrooms is going to open and close soon.
The opt-in period from Nov. 2 to 15 could buoy lower-than-expected attendance numbers for blended learning students. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday that roughly 280,000 students go to in-person classes, with an 82.9 percent attendance rate.
The school system’s total attendance rate is 85.3 percent, he said.
“It’s lower than what we had pre-COVID,” he said.
New York City is the largest school district in the country that reopened amid the coronavirus pandemic. But the city’s troubled, twice-delayed rollout apparently spooked parents away from sending their children back to classrooms.
Roughly 697,000 students were originally slated for blended learning, a rotating schedule of in-person and remote days, officials said. That number only decreased week-by-week as parents chose fully remote schedules, with the understanding they could opt back into blended learning later.
More than half of the city’s students are now in fully remote learning schedules.
Chancellor Richard Carranza said Monday that the upcoming opt-in window for going back into blended learning will be their last chance — a change from school officials’ proclamations over the summer that students can go back to in-person learning at any time.
“This will be the only time to opt in,” he said.
Both Carranza and de Blasio said the attendance numbers are lower than wanted — last year’s rate was 91.6 percent, officials said.
Council Member Mark Treyger, who heads its education committee, tweeted that the city needs to release school-by-school data, especially with reports of technology issues.
“Over 77,000 students still don’t have a device and thousands cannot connect to internet,” he wrote. “We will use every tool to get info.”
We need school by school data. They tried to paint a positive attendance picture for spring until we subpoenaed and received alarming school by school info. Over 77,000 students still don’t have a device and thousands cannot connect to internet. We will use every tool to get info pic.twitter.com/KF6L72WYcg
— Mark Treyger (@MarkTreyger718) October 26, 2020
De Blasio said new rounds of COVID-19 tests in schools provide more evidence that they’re safe. The current positivity rate from those tests is 0.15 percent, he said.
Parents can see the results at schools.nyc.gov/covidresults or schools.nyc.gov/casemap.
This article originally appeared on the New York City Patch
