Governor Cuomo has announced that schools can reopen in September and 3/4 of families in New York City want to send in their children for blended learning according to the latest DOE survey. The blended learning model is a combination of in-person school days in groups of maximum 9 students with one teacher and online learning. Most schools will offer 2 to 3 day in-person learning in school buildings. Here are the latest news from the Mayor’s press conference:
- There will likely be a vaccine in the course of next school year that will be administered to students and staff in New York City according to the mayor
- The virus rate in NYC has been under 3% over two months running, hence NYC is planning to reopen schools. If the rate raises to 3+% over a period of seven days, schools will be closed temporarily
- Starting Monday August 17, families will be communicated their kids schedule for the school year
- If a classroom or a whole school building is not fit for safe learning in regards to ventilation, the DOE plans to use an alternate site
- All methodologies for the safety of students and staff will be implemented, including interventions like “if you are sick, stay out of school”, reduce the number of people in the classroom, social distancing 6 feet apart, wearing face coverings, beneficial ventilation and more
- Schools have the opportunity to look into outdoor space for schooling adjacent to their school buildings on an individual level
- Parents will generally not be allowed to physically walk into Pre-K programs this school year
Learning preference survey results:
- Over 700,000 families are planning for blended learning which is 74% of families according to the latest learning preference survey
- 26% of families will begin the year with fully remote learning, they can opt back into blended learning quarterly, the first time in November
- As of now 85% of teachers in the NYC public school system are planning to return to in-person teaching and 15% of teachers have requested to work from home
