New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says the city’s public school system, the largest in the country, will remain closed for the remainder of the school year as the city fights to slow the spread of coronavirus.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Blasio announced Saturday morning that the schools, which have been closed since March 16, won’t reopen until September. Schools shifted to remote learning on March 23. The public school system serves 1.1 million students.
New York City has been the nation’s epicenter of the Covid-19 epidemic. Overall, 7,844 deaths in New York had been attributed to Covid-19 by Friday, and the total for New York, New Jersey and Connecticut was over 10,000, according to The New York Times.
The mayor laid out a five-point plan to help students, according to CNN:
1. Complete deliveries of internet-enabled digital devices by the end of April. The city distributed about 66,000 devices already, but will need to get 240,000 more devices in the children hands over the next few weeks, the mayor said.
2. Expand parent helpline and tech support hours and staffing.
3. Launch new online activities and programs. This includes free programing to help families get through this, de Blasio said.
4. Graduate seniors. There are about 75,000 students set to graduate. A full plan will be out next week.
5. Be ready to reopen in September and combat learning loss.
