NYC's Largest Charter School Network Stays Fully Remote

NEW YORK CITY — The city's largest charter school network will stay fully remote this school year amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Success Academy students, parents and teachers learned Thursday not only learning will be all digital and from home, but also that school would end early on May 28.

The move will help the coming 2021-22 school start early on Aug. 2, officials said.

“Like everyone else, we desperately want to be back on campus, but we are prioritizing a consistent, productive learning experience by staying remote now,” Eva Moskowitz, founder and CEO of Success Academy, said in a statement. “By opening early, we can take full advantage of the safer summer months to make up for what we believe will be some degree of learning loss, while also giving teachers and families a break.”

The charter school network has 20,000 students in 47 schools in every borough but Staten Island.

Officials said a growing number of coronavirus-related building closures and reopenings — which are often on short notice and cause disruptions for parents and students — prompted their decision.

Many Success Academy schools share buildings with city-run public schools — more than 300 of which are under COVID-19 closures as of Thursday.