Most NYC Schools Return To Some Form Of 5-Day In-Person Learning

NEW YORK CITY — Nearly all of New York City's public schools now offer some form of five-day in-person learning — a milestone that once was nearly unthinkable as the coronavirus pandemic descended on the city.

Mayor Bill de Blasio trumpeted the achievement during his daily briefing Wednesday. He said 860 of the city's 878 schools offer some form of all-classroom instruction.

And 247 of schools offer five-day-a-week learning to all of their students, he said.

"That means they have effectively gone back to normal for the students who signed up for in-person instruction," he said. "Now, to put that in perspective, that number of schools, that alone, those 247 schools would constitute alone the eighth-largest school district in America."

The city's school reopening had a bumpy rollout and endured a district-wide closure as coronavirus levels spiked in the fall.

Elementary K-5 students, pre-K, 3K and special needs students are the only students currently going to classrooms. De Blasio and school officials said middle school students who opted into in-person learning likely will return this month.

De Blasio also announced on Wednesday that this will be the last year for the city's gifted and talented test. The test is scheduled for April.

"The gifted and talented test is the definition of a high stakes test — a single test that determines so much," he said. "This approach to testing is not something I believe in."

School officials will announce a new gifted and talented entrance standard in September, de Blasio said.