New York City’s Schools Will Ramp Up Testing to Limit Classroom Closures
The New York Times
The nation’s largest school district will eliminate its current policy of quarantining classrooms after Covid exposures, in hopes of keeping more children in school during the spring semester.
New York City, home to the nation’s largest school system, will eliminate its current policy of quarantining entire classrooms exposed to Covid, and will instead use a ramped-up testing program to allow students who test negative for the coronavirus and do not have symptoms to remain in school.
The new policy, which Mayor Bill de Blasio referred to as “Stay Safe and Stay Open” during his announcement on Tuesday, will take effect on Jan. 3, when the nearly one million students who attend the city’s public schools are scheduled to return from holiday break. More than 27,000 new virus cases were reported in New York City on Tuesday, and more than 2,300 people were hospitalized with Covid-19, according to the state’s most recent count.
Mr. de Blasio, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor-elect Eric Adams, who takes office on Saturday, appeared together at a news conference to present a united front against school closures, despite an enormous surge in cases driven by the Omicron variant that has only worsened in the days since city schools closed for winter break last week.
