By Karen Matthews - The Associated Press
All public schools in New York City will teach face-to-face classes beginning in the fall, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday.
"We cannot have a full recovery
without schools at full capacity
, with everyone back, sitting in classrooms, children learning again," de Blasio said on MSNBC.
The one million students who attend the city's public schools
will be in their classrooms with some
prevention
protocols
against COVID-19 that have been implemented in the current academic year, including the use of masks and periodically submitting to the tests of COVID-19, de Blasio said.
"It's about time. It's really time to go back to school fully," he said.
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Following the closure of schools in March 2020, New York was one of the first large cities in the country to
reopen educational institutions in the fall
of last year, but most mothers and fathers chose to keep their children learning at a distance. .
Children and staff who have been in classrooms face-to-face have been randomly tested for COVID-19, and the city has reported very low rates of transmission of the virus in schools.
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Asked the mayor how local officials will manage the fear of parents who have so far opted for online learning only for their children, de Blasio replied: "
A lot of information, a lot of communication
."
He said that parents will be invited to visit their children's schools starting in June to "adjust" to the idea of going back to face-to-face classes: "Anyone with a question or concern,
come to your child's school. son
. See what's going on, get the answers. "
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De Blasio said city schools will be able to accommodate all students under current guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which consider a social distancing of three feet from distance, but said that the rule can be relaxed before the city's public schools open on September 13.
"
I think the CDC is going to change those rules quite a bit
between now and September," De Blasio said, "but now in New York City, we could have every child within three feet, we could make that work if we had to."
