By Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech
New York City public schools will not physically reopen for all students on Monday, Sept. 21, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Thursday.
Instead, the city will roll out a phased-in approach by grade for students returning to buildings.
Only students in Pre-K, 3-K and district 75 schools, which serve the city’s most disabled students, will return to buildings on Monday to take part in hybrid learning.
Students in K-5 grade schools are now scheduled to return to buildings on Tuesday, Sept. 29. Middle, high school, secondary, transfer and adult education students can expect to go back to their physical classrooms on Oct. 1.
An additional 2, 500 substitute teachers will be ready to help instruct hybrid students by Monday, officials added. For weeks, teachers and principals have expressed concern over staffing shortages caused by blended learning in which students learn in schools and from home.
New substitutes will be Department of Education staffers previously working at the city’s Regional Enrichment Centers which closed earlier this month and a mix of City University of New York adjunct professors, graduate students in history, mathematics and the sciences along with teaching students, officials said.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
