Over Half Of Harlem Students Opt Out Of In-Person Classes

HARLEM, NY — The number of Harlem students and families opting out of the city's in-person learning plan continues to grow, now meeting or exceeding 50 percent in the two school districts that cover the neighborhood.

According to the latest data released Monday by the Department of Education, 50 percent of students in District 5, which covers most of Central Harlem and parts of East and West Harlem, have chosen to forgo the city's hybrid plan, which includes a mix of in-person and remote learning, and instead attend school fully remotely.

That amounts to about 4,987 of the district's roughly 9,975 students who are choosing distance learning.

The opt-out rate is higher in neighboring District 4, covering East Harlem: 55 percent of students and families there have opted out, or about 6,518 students out of 11,852 in the district.

The city is allowing families to opt out at any time from its hybrid plan. The latest numbers, which show families' plans as of Friday, show that the number of Harlem families opting out rose by two percentage points in District 4 and four points in District 5 since the previous week.

After multiple delays and protests by teachers and principals, in-person classes finally resumed Sept. 21 for Pre-K, 3-K and District 5 schools, with remote education for all students resuming the same day. On Sept. 29, K-5 and K-8 schools reopened, and middle and high schools reopened two days later.

Since classrooms reopened, over 700 students and staff had tested positive for the coronavirus through Tuesday, according to the state's COVID-19 Report Card. Just under 600 of those cases were among people who had reported to school, while 121 were "off-site," or remote, students and teachers.

The numbers appear to confirm Mayor Bill de Blasio's assertions that public schools aren't major sites of coronavirus infections, despite the recent return to in-person learning and recent coronavirus hotspots.

"We're not seeing any unusual number of students or staff anywhere in the city testing positive," de Blasio said on WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show last week. "What I think is fair is the school environment has been made extremely safe, and I thank you and all educators and everyone in the schools, because with the social distancing, the face mask wearing by everyone, the cleaning, everything has been working in the schools."

A slightly higher infection rate was found among the city's private and charter schools, which account for only 30 percent of student enrollment citywide but had only 65 fewer positive tests than the public schools.

As of Tuesday, there were 711 positive cases reported at all city schools, public and private, according to the data.

Click here to see COVID-19 test data for a specific school or citywide.

Matt Troutman contributed to this report.