NYC Schools Reopening: What You Need To Know

NEW YORK CITY — The hallways and classrooms of some New York City schools soon will be filled with the chatter of young students after a weeks-long coronavirus closure.

But the partial reopening announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio in an uncommon Sunday news conference doesn't apply to all students — and Hizzoner left the timing of future steps open.

De Blasio on Tuesday said the reopening template would be used for middle and high school students likely after the holidays. Future citywide closures are unlikely, he said.

"That's how we'll proceed from here, and this plan again, that I laid out yesterday, is what we intend to use for the duration, all the way to the vaccine," he said.

So what's the plan? Patch has assembled a quick guide for curious New York City parents and students.

Who's going back to the school and when?

New York City's public schools went all-virtual about two weeks ago when the city's average coronavirus positivity rate hit 3 percent.

The return plan de Blasio outlined Sunday will bring back K-5 in-person elementary school students, as well as those in 3-K and Pre-K programs, starting Dec. 7.

Students with special needs will return to in-person learning starting Dec. 10.

What about middle and high school students?

De Blasio and school officials didn't give a return date for middle and high school students. The plan for their return is still being hashed out, he said Sunday.

On Monday, de Blasio strongly hinted that their return to in-person classes won't be until after the holidays. School officials first have to get the younger students back and work through any issues, he said.

"I want us to move to middle school and high school as soon as we can, but we have to do one step at a time," he said.

I have an elementary school student who was doing in-person classes. What do they need to do to get back to the classroom?

No students or staff will be allowed back to schools unless they consent to coronavirus testing.

The return plan requires 20 percent of every school's in-person population to be randomly tested for COVID-19 each week.

Parents must fill out a consent form for their children or else they can't return to classes. They can do so by their New York City Schools Account (NYCSA) at mystudent.nyc or they can print and sign the form and bring it to school on their first day back to buildings.

Will schools close again?

Nothing is a guarantee in the coronavirus pandemic, but school officials hope to avoid another disruptive system-wide shut down.

De Blasio did away with the 3 percent trigger for shutting down schools. Schools so far have been much safer than the rest of the city — at last count, about 0.28 percent of students tested positive for COVID-19.

“The idea of the hard number made a lot of sense back in the summer when we had not yet experienced all this,” de Blasio said.

Closures going forward likely will happen on a school-by-school basis, or if buildings fall within a state-mandated coronavirus "zone."

What will classes look like?

School officials anticipate roughly 190,000 students will be eligible to return to classrooms in this first round.

It's likely that many students can return to class five days a week because in-person enrollment is much lower than school officials anticipated. Only about 335,000 of 1 million public school students opted in to in-person classes, officials said.

That means many, perhaps most schools, will be able to accommodate five-day-a-week classes.

Chancellor Richard Carranza said school officials are working with principals to figure out a list of schools that can do five-day arrangements.

"They're doing that analysis right now, and we hope to have a much more detailed information later this week," he said Monday.

My child is all-remote now. Will there be another in-person opt-in?

Nothing is official yet, but de Blasio left the door open a crack.

"When the health situation improves and particularly when we start to see some vaccine distribution on a broader scale, and we think we're in a much better environment, then we'll do an opt-in because we'll be in a position to do an entirely different approach to our schools," he said. "But for now this will be the universe of folks whose kids will be in in-person learning."

This article originally appeared on the New York City Patch