Here's How Reopened NYC Schools Could Look

NEW YORK, NY — The New York City school system will have to act "with urgency" to ensure facilities are safe for students and educators for a planned September reopening, city Comptroller Scott Stringer announced Tuesday.

Stringer's office released a report Tuesday outlining several policies that the school system can enact to keep people safe during the upcoming school year. Some of these recommendations include: Requiring all students to wear masks or face shields, regular coronavirus testing, classes of 10-12 students and staggered school schedules to mandate social distancing.

New York City schools can't resemble the system that shut down in March, according to Stringer's report.

"If we aren’t smart and prepared for a robust upcoming school year, our students will suffer— especially lower-income students of color who are already facing severe challenges – and our economic recovery will be severely hampered because without school there can be no real return to work for so many of our families. We can’t let down our guard on the quality of our city’s educational system at this moment — and we can’t afford to make mistakes with our children’s futures," Stringer said in a statement.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced this month that city schools are on track to reopen in September. The mayor said that 75 percent of parents who responded to a Department of Education survey wanted their children to return to school in the fall. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo later argued that school reopening is his call to make. Schools shut down in mid-March as the coronavirus outbreak began in New York City.

Stringer's report identified reopening schools as the most "critical operational task" facing New York City as it looks to rebound from its devastating outbreak of the coronavirus. The report is intended to "accelerate" Mayor de Blasio's process on developing a school safety plan and releasing safety information to the public. Stringer's 15 recommended policies are intended to guarantee schools are safe, reopen with as much in-person instruction as possible, improve the quality of remote instruction and promote transparency about testing and virus transmission.

Stringer recommends the following policies:

• Requiring use of masks or face coverings for students and faculty. Students in second grade and older may wear masks. Face shields may be more appropriate for younger students or students with needs that make wearing masks difficult;
• Mandating physical distancing by staggering schedules and limiting in-classroom interaction;
• Establishing small students groups of 10-12 children who meet consistently. Keeping student groups consistent reduces the number of people they come in contact with;
• Universal testing for all students, faculty and staff before the school year, followed up with regular testing throughout the year and a transparent contact tracing system;
• Hiring a full-time nurse for each city school;
• Implementing enhanced and transparent cleaning protocols;
• Repurposing outdoor space for educational uses;
• Hiring a full-time social worker and guidance counselor for each school to deal with coronavirus-related traumas;
• Accommodating students, teachers and staff that belong to high-risk populations for the coronavirus. This includes allowing high-risk people to work remotely and providing exemptions to sick day limits;
• Hiring more teachers and school staff to maintain quality of education. This could be accomplished by creating a hiring pipeline with CUNY, working with educational non-profits and reassigning DOE employees in central offices to schools.
• Establishing schedules that promote the maximum amount of in-person education as opposed to remote learning;
• Supporting the city's child care services by tapping into federal CARES Act funding, reopening child care centers, converting unused space for child care and educational purposes;
• Investing in improvements to remote learning;
• Providing students with free internet-connected devices to ensure all students have access to remote learning;
• Supporting parents by enhancing outreaching programs in multiple languages.

You can read Stringer's full report here.