As Delta Variant Spreads, N.Y.C. Parents Worry About Coming School Year

So far, there have been very few cases in New York City’s summer school session, but some parents want a remote option for the fall.

Paullette Healy’s daughter, Kira, hadn’t been inside a classroom for more than 15 months when she started the New York City summer school program in July. Kira, 12, came home from her first day full of stories, eager to show off a portrait she’d drawn of herself as a “Covid vaccine warrior” during arts and crafts. But by the second week of the program, at William McKinley Middle School in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, Kira’s excitement turned to worry as she and her mother watched the number of reported cases tick up slightly on the city’s coronavirus dashboard. “It might not seem like a lot, but it’s still scary,” said Ms. Healy. “Watching the dashboard has become something like an obsession for us because it’s the only way we can see how Covid is affecting classrooms across the city.”