The majority of New York City public schools’ individualized reopening plans have been approved, according to a statement released from the Department of Education on Friday.
As of Thursday, 1,200 out the city’s 1,800 public schools are ready to begin programming students for specific cohort plans with the remainder preparing to submit their plans for state approval by end of day Friday, the DOE said. Starting next Monday, school staff will begin telling parents that opted for blended learning which days of the week their children will be in school for classes with the process to continue on a rolling basis.
Out of the 1,200 schools ready to start education parent on class schedules, 1,067 chose one of the DOE models, 125 schools have requested and been approved for an exception to available DOE plans and 236 exception requests are under review.
Out of the five district models approved on Thursday, 573 schools chose Model 1 which consists of two cohorts of consistent days, two days a week, and one alternating day for five days a week for every two weeks; 279 schools chose Model 2 which allows for three cohorts with one consistent day a week and two alternating days for days a week every three weeks; 151 schools chose Model 3 which calls for three cohorts on a six-day rotation for five days a week every three weeks. The Model 3 plan is only available in middle and high schools. Models 4 and 5 are only available to District 75 schools, which serve students with disabilities, and allow for students to be in school every other week for five days straight with the potential for some groups to be in-person full-time depending on student need.
The DOE submitted it’s district-wide plan for blended learning last week after the New York State Education Department issued a week-long extension on August 7. Over 700,000 New York City public school students are expected to return to school buildings for part of the week when classes start on Sept.10, Mayor de Blasio said on Monday. About 264,000 kids opted for fully-remote learning, according to DOE spokesperson Miranda Barbot.
Those numbers could change though since the DOE will allow parents who previously chose to send their children to school to opt for fully remote learning during “designated time-frames” throughout the fall.
The state education department sent about 90 questions to school districts in regard to in-person class health and safety regulations which the DOE says it answered in its submitted district-wide reopening plan. “For a small subset of questions, there is a need for school-specific information (including room numbers and specific staff names), but for the vast majority of questions the district level answer applies to all schools,” Barbot said in a statement. “Today, all schools are expected to submit and post answers to 10 questions from the SED plan that require school-specific information.”
That information is as follows:
- Person responsible for regular communication with school community on reopening plan
- Person trained on COVID-19 protocols
- Person assessing students who are ill
- Isolation room number
- COVID safety coordinator
- School counselor
- Continuity of learning plan, including their model selection
- Technology coordinator
- Special education coordinator
- Multilingual learner coordinator
“Superintendents have been assisting schools in compiling this information, and they are living documents, so any missing pieces for some schools can be completed in the coming days and updated,” Barbot added. Principals submitting their plans today that need to change the staff member associated with a specific function can do so.
