New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says it is unlikely that in-person classes will resume this academic year for the city's more than 1 million public school students.
Chalkbeat New York reports that the mayor's remarks come as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has soared amid an increase in testing. About 16,000 confirmed cases and 114 coronavirus-related deaths have been reported as of Monday morning, according to CNN.
More than a third of the nation’s confirmed coronavirus cases are in New York City, de Blasio has said.
“I do, unfortunately, believe the likelihood right now is that we lose the whole school year, which is really, really, deeply unfortunate," de Blasio says.
New York City, the nation’s largest school system closed March 16. The closure was initially slated to last through at least April 20, but the mayor doubts that buildings will reopen then.
“We’re going to make that judgment as we get closer, but at the trajectory we’re on now, I can’t see it,” de Blasio says.
Even though Monday marked the first day of online instruction for the country’s largest school system, the mayor also acknowledged that the city is still working to get devices into the hands of all students who need them, as well as internet connection. The city has estimated that 300,000 students still need devices. In the meantime schools have provided printed work packets to families.
“This is part of why I was so hesitant to close our schools, because we have hundreds of thousands of kids we can’t even reach with distance learning,” de Blasio says. “But, we’re going to keep getting more kids laptops and the technology they need, and the WiFi connection. It’s just going to have to be an ongoing thing.”
