Almost 18% of NYC students fail to show up as buildings reopen

About eight out of 10 schoolchildren expected to show up to New York City’s first day of public school on Monday came back to class, according to a preliminary count by the education department.

The 82.4% attendance rate may increase as hundreds of schools in the U.S.’s largest public school system haven’t yet reported their first-day enrollment, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Tuesday. That compares to around 90% in 2019 and 83% in 2020, when many children attended schools remotely during the pandemic, he said. 

"We understand there is a disruptive reality to all the changes we’ve been through. I see this as a very strong number,” de Blasio said during a briefing. "We have some ground to make up, I’m very confident we will.”