New York and Los Angeles – The two largest public school districts in the nation announced their plans this week for the resumption of in-person K-12 classes for Fall 2021.
Classes at New York City schools will all be in-person for the start of the 2021-2022 academic year, with no distance learning options, reports ABC7. Mayor Bill de Blasio told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that “We can’t have a full recovery without full-strength schools, everyone back, sitting in those classrooms, kids learning again.”
These are the health and safety measures that will be followed:
- Masks will continue to be a requirement in all of our school buildings
- Individuals with COVID-19 symptoms will continue to be required to stay at home
- Students, teachers and staff will continue to complete the daily health screener at home
- Every school building will continue to have a nurse
- Every classroom will have working ventilation systems
- On-site COVID-19 testing will continue in school buildings as recommended by the latest health guidance
- The Situation Room will continue to support schools with next steps if there are positive cases
Meanwhile on the West Coast, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is taking a slightly different approach. This fall, classrooms will be fully open for in-person classes, five days per week. However, students who can’t or don’t want to attend face-to-face classes can opt for remote learning, reports NBC Los Angeles.
LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner expects most students, teachers and staff members will be back, in-person on campus in August. LAUSD campuses closed in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and have been slowly reopening this spring on a limited or hybrid basis.
On Monday, the district also launched a school-based vaccination program for children ages 12 and up. Mobile vaccination teams will visit each school on a predetermined schedule over the next two weeks to administer doses of the vaccine to students.