For most NYC students, back to school, but not the classroom

New York, September 21

Monday's return to New York City schools won't be the return anyone planned for. For most, it won't be a return at all.

Only pre-kindergarten and some special education students are scheduled to end a six-month absence from school buildings after a last-minute decision to postpone, for the second time, plans to be among the first big districts to resume in-person instruction after the coronavirus forced students and staff home.

Schoolchildren in kindergarten through 12th grade are still starting the new school year on Monday, but fully remotely, the same way students in Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and many of New York's other urban districts have.

After a fidgety spring of online pre-K, Jessica D'Amato's 5-year-old son has been so excited about going back to in-person school that he keeps asking: “When am I going to kindergarten?” First the answer was September 10. Then it was Monday. Now it's September 29, much to the family's frustration. High school students return October 1.

“I think that all the students are really, really at a disservice right now -- because of the uncertainty, because of the lack of in-person instruction,” says D'Amato, 35, a public relations manager who lives in Brooklyn.

She wonders why the city is still grappling with the staffing shortages cited for the latest delay after having months to plan, and how likely it is that the extra days will solve the problem.

“I can't see how they're going to fix the issue in a week, and I'll be very upset if then they push it again,” she said, “because this kid needs to be in school already.” Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the new timeline Thursday alongside leaders of the city's teachers union, who had sounded alarms that schools could not open safely.

De Blasio said Friday he is confident the new dates will stick.

The majority of the more than 1 million public school students will be in the classroom one to three days a week and learning remotely the rest of the time.

Before the latest delay, teacher Chloe Davis had spent last week bracing to welcome her fourth-grade class at PS 536, reassured on one level upon seeing the newly cleaned and painted building but so anxious at times she broke down crying. Chief among her worries is keeping her students from picking up the virus and bringing it home to their families.

“Four or five months ago, thousands of people were dying,” said Davis, who takes the subway to her school in the Bronx, “and the pandemic is still around. The virus is still there and we're still in the midst of a pandemic".

Daniel Leviatin, a fourth-grade teacher and school librarian at PS 59 in the Bronx, sees no reason to push students back into buildings and believes the city squandered the chance to address technology issues and improve distance learning over the summer.

“Every single moment of the planning of this and the way it's been unrolled, is a mess,” Leviatin said.

He and Davis said they know other large districts will be watching to see what happens when the students finally return.

“You know how at hospitals and things, they'll do research and they'll pay the participants?" Davis said. "I feel like I'm like part of that, but I didn't sign up for it.” AP 

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