Park Slope School Under Investigation For Multiple COVID Cases

Update: As of Friday, the school was no longer marked as under investigation by the DOE. Seven classrooms were still under partial or full quarantine, according to the city map.

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — A Park Slope elementary school has been put under investigation by education officials after multiple cases of coronavirus were detected this week, according to the Department of Education.

P.S. 118 Maurice Sendak Community School, found on Eighth Street, was marked as under investigation on Wednesday on the DOE's interactive map detailing coronavirus cases across the city.

The investigation comes after at least four classrooms this week were fully closed or put under partial quarantine, meaning only a subset of students in a classroom are required to quarantine while others can keep attending school, according to the map.

The school was also flagged for one non-classroom quarantine — meaning someone tested positive who wouldn't typically work in a classroom — and two cases that required no intervention, according to the map.

Under DOE guidelines, schools are only closed if an investigation reveals that there is widespread transmission in the school.

The new rules have led to only five full school closures so far this year given, far less than the hundreds of extended closures in the 2020-21 school year under previous guidelines. A total of 29 schools have been investigated this year for possible closure, according to the map.

In Park Slope, P.S. 118 was one of seven schools dealing with coronavirus cases in the neighborhood as of Wednesday.

At the other six schools, a single classroom was fully closed or as many as two classrooms were facing partial quarantines, according to the map.

The cases come despite overall vaccination rates in both of Park Slope's ZIP codes that are higher than the borough's average. The school district was also singled out as having one of the highest demands for the first dose of the vaccine for 5 to 11 year olds, who were invited to get vaccinated at public school sites.

P.S. 118 did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the investigation from Patch.