New York high schools will reopen for some students for the first time in months

New York high schools will reopen for some students for the first time in months

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About 62,000 high school students who have opted for face-to-face learning will return that day, said New York Department of Education deputy press secretary Danielle Filson.

Teachers and staff will return the day before, de Blasio said.

New York Department of Education Chancellor Richard Carranza said he was “thrilled” to announce the return. Both the mayor and the chancellor highlighted the effects of the isolation that students and teachers are feeling.

DOE is hiring additional staff to support its situation room, the pandemic planning and response center, said Carranza.

Teams will also be added to conduct weekly Covid-19 tests in high schools, and weekly tests in elementary schools will continue, he said.

Teachers who return to work in person are being prioritized for access to the vaccine in city centers from this Friday until February 21, during the winter break, he said.

The New York City test’s positive rate is about 8 percent, de Blasio told a news conference on Monday. He said that about 5 in every 100,000 people were hospitalized with suspected Covid-19.

When asked about the possibility of a coronavirus outbreak due to new highly contagious variants, the mayor said Covid-19’s fundamental security measures – social detachment, cleanliness, wearing masks and good ventilation – still work.
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“If everyone was doing the things we do in our schools, the whole situation in the city would be different – and better,” said de Blasio.

Chancellor Carranza said that air purifiers have been added in all high schools, and schools will continue to work closely with the health department.

New York City public schools closed for face-to-face learning in November, after the city-wide seven-day test positivity rate for Covid-19 exceeded 3%.

The mayor introduced this limit of 3% at the beginning of the school year. The city decided to abandon it.

In December, elementary school classrooms were reopened for students.

Two key factors boosted the drive to reopen primary schools: younger children have struggled more with online learning, and younger students also appear to have the lowest rate of spread of coronavirus.

New York elementary students are back in school, but high school students will have to wait

It was unclear when high school students could return to classrooms. But de Blasio said he would like them to come back at the end of this school year.

“We are certainly going to look at high schools next,” but more work is needed, he said.

With elementary school students and some high school students returning to classes, New York public schools will have about 250,000 students in classrooms by the end of this month.

New York City’s public schools are the nation’s largest school district, with more than 1.1 million students.

But across New York City, enrollment – both face-to-face and online – dropped 31,000 students in December. The decline in New York City reflected an alarming trend across the country during the Covid-19 pandemic.

CNN’s Holly Yan and Bianna Golodryga contributed to this report.

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