NYC School Reopening: COVID Quarantine, Testing Rules Unveiled

NEW YORK, NY — Hundreds of thousands of New York City public school families preparing to head back to the classroom next month have new answers about how the city plans to keep students safe from the coronavirus with the return of full-time in-person learning.

A 13-page "Health and Safety" guide released Thursday unveils long-sought-after details about how schools will test, quarantine and close classrooms or buildings during the first fully in-person school year since the coronavirus crisis began.

The policies come as officials promise a relative return to normalcy given high vaccine rates among eligible students and a requirement that staff get the shot.

"Last year proved to us that our public schools were some of the safest places to be during the pandemic, and with the vaccine rates continuing to rise every day we expect far fewer disruptions to learning," Schools Chancellor Meisha Porter said at the press conference Thursday.

The promise for less disruptions includes new rules that will allow fully vaccinated students and staff to remain in school even if a coronavirus case was detected in their classroom, given that they are asymptomatic, according to the guide.

In those classrooms — only in middle and high schools given the age requirement for vaccines — unvaccinated students will quarantine at home and can "test back in" to class with a negative test after the seventh day.

Questions still remain about who will provide remote instruction for the unvaccinated students, given that their teachers will be in the classroom. Officials said Thursday those are among details that will be "ironed out" in the next few days.

"We’re going to be filling in a few more blanks in the next few days because there’s still a couple of issues being worked out," de Blasio said.

In elementary schools, the entire classroom will quarantine should a positive case be detected. The class' teacher will provide remote learning during the 10-day quarantine, officials said.

Entire schools will only be closed when there is evidence of "widespread transmission," as determined by the Health Department and Department of Education. During New York City's summer session, only two buildings out of 800 schools had to be closed, officials said.

The new guide also revealed that an existing program that provides home instruction to "medically fragile" students will be expanded to include those who may be at higher risk for catching COVID-19. A full list of conditions is included in the guide.

Families and elected officials have long-pushed for a remote learning option for immunocompromised students or those who are not old enough for the vaccine.

The guide also included information about masks, how often kids will be tested and social distancing. Here are a few more highlights:

• Vaccination is required for Public Schools Athletic League (PSAL) sports considered high-risk for potential COVID-19 transmission. High-risk sports include football, volleyball, basketball, wrestling, lacrosse, stunt, and rugby.
• Every student and staff member must complete the Health Screening Form (healthscreening.schools.nyc) prior to entering the school building each day.
• As suspected, in some schools it will not be possible to maintain a physical distance of at least 3 feet. In those cases the city will "layer multiple other prevention strategies, such as screening testing."
• Schools will continue to use outdoor spaces, including during meals, to help with distancing.
• Every school will have ten percent of unvaccinated individuals who have submitted consent for testing in their school population tested biweekly.

Check out the full school guide here.