NYC Public Schools Set to Reopen via Purely In-Person Classes

Public schools in New York City will fully open in September by way of in-person classes only, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s announcement last May 24. The NY City mayor made the announcement on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”, in which he stated that the city’s public school system that provides education to almost 1 million students, will be returning to classrooms on September 13. There will no longer be an option for remote learning, saying that in-person learning is the only step forward in fully reopening the largest school district in the country.

New York City now counts as among the first major cities set to remove remote learning as school choice for the next school year. Schools in NYC have been establishing the tone for other school district still struggling in their bid to reopen safely. This is particularly important to communities with students from low-income families and Black and Hispanic families that have been severely affected by the pandemic.

Apparently, the announcements of support for in-person learning coming from the two teachers’ unions, had somehow influenced the city government’s decision of completely stopping remote learning.

The Availability of Vaccines for Children Spurred Decisions for School Opening Movements

Yet the most critical of all factors that bolstered decisions to reopen schools on a purely in-person basis is the availability of vaccines for children between 12-15 years old. So far, the city government under the leadership of Mayor de Blasio has successfully vaccinated 8 million people since vaccination programs rolled out.

According to CDC reports, around 4 million children, aged 17 and below, have had their first dose of vaccine, including 600,000 children aged between 12 to 15 years old.

Mayor de Blasio believes that this is the news that everybody has been wanting to hear and it is simply amazing that the country is now in the process of recovery. The NYC Mayor commented that face-to-face learning in reopening wouldn’t be possible without the full strength being given to schools now that the number of virus cases is already plummeting.