These Forest Hills Schools Have COVID Cases, Closures

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — A couple of public schools in Forest Hills have students, teachers, or staff quarantining this week, but after the city relaxed its quarantine policies last week most of the people missing tested positive for COVID-19.

As of Monday, one public school in Forest Hills closed a classroom due to a coronavirus exposure, but most quarantines were partial, meaning that while some COVID-positive people weren't in class, vaccinated children who were exposed could still be in school. Another two schools had at least one non-classroom staff quarantining, too, according to the interactive map from the Department of Education

All of the closures in Forest Hills began after the city revised its COVID-19 protocols last week to allow unvaccinated children to remain in school after they come in contact with a COVID-positive student. That change coincided with the vaccine mandate for teachers, which took effect Monday, and followed guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Still, a total of 32 classrooms across the city were closed as of Sunday evening, with another 39 under partial quarantines. Since the school year began last month, only one school — P.S. 79 in East Harlem — has had to go temporarily remote due to a virus outbreak.

Here's the rundown of Forest Hills closures:

Classrooms closed

The following school has one or more classrooms closed due to a positive case in a student, teacher or staff member:

• The Lynn Gross Discovery School/P.S. 175: the elementary school closed one classroom for five days starting last Thursday, Sept. 28 and also has three classrooms under partial quarantines — two of which began last week, and one of which went into effect on Monday.

Partial quarantines

These schools were under partial classroom quarantines, in which vaccinated children can stay in school despite being exposed, as long as they do not feel sick:

• The Lynn Gross Discovery School/P.S. 175 (three classrooms)
• P.S. Q233

Non-classroom quarantine

These schools have non-classroom staff quarantining (like a school secretary or parent coordinator), meaning that classrooms don't necessarily have to be closed.

• Queens Metropolitan High School
• Forest Hills High School

Altogether, 1,210 classrooms have been closed due to COVID exposures since the start of school on Sept. 13. That's less than two percent of the 65,000 spaces the city is using as classrooms this year. (The city typically has around 48,000 classrooms, but added other spaces to help with social distancing, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio.)

Under new policies, entire schools will only be closed this year when there is evidence of "widespread transmission," as determined by the Health Department and Department of Education.

Patch Editor Nick Garber contributed to this report.