700K NYC School Kids Want To Return To The Classroom

NEW YORK CITY — The numbers are in: roughly 700,000 New York City students will be back in a classroom in September.

That's about 74 percent of public school students, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday. He said the remaining 26 percent opted for fully remote learning.

Parents had until Aug. 7 to declare whether their students will go fully remote. The break downs de Blasio outlined come from the sign ups made by that deadline.

"In New York City, over 700,000 kids are planning to come back as soon as school begins," he said.

New York City is the only major school system in the country looking to reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic, de Blasio said.

De Blasio noted the coronavirus is on the rise in other parts of the country.

"But we're not those other places. New York City is different," he said.

The city's overall COVID-19 positive rate that for months has remained below 3 percent — the threshold the city set for keeping school open or closed.

Its overall plan calls for a so-called "blended learning" model in which students rotate between in-school and remote days.

But many parents and teachers have clamored for more details on schedules, safety measures and procedures for closures, among other issues.

Some of those questions were answered Friday evening — the same day parents had to decide whether their children will go fully remote — when the city's Department of Education released the district's reopening plan being submitted to the state.

The plan calls for mask wearing, social distancing measures and random temperature checks. It didn't include, however, details on how those will be carried out school-by-school.

About 264,000 students opted for full remote learning, according to numbers tweeted by schools spokesperson Miranda Barbot.

De Blasio said families starting Aug. 16 will start receiving school schedules.

Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza said about 66,000, or 85 percent, of teachers will be teaching in a blended mode. The remaining teachers have requested to work from home, he said.

"Those who are granted that accommodation will exclusively teach remotely, but will still be engaged and devoted as ever to educating the children of New York City, because that's who they are," he said.