NEW YORK _ Gov. Andrew Cuomo gave the green light to reopen every New York state school district this fall _ if they first earn passing grades from the state Health and Education departments.
"We are probably in the best situation in the country right now," Cuomo said in a Friday conference call with reporters. "If anybody can open schools, we can open schools and that's true for every region in the state."
The gubernatorial go-ahead still requires approval of each district's specific plans from state Health and Education officials before students return to class for the first time since schools were mandated by executive order to close by March 18. The other caveat for the September openings, a positive coronavirus test rate below 5% in their region, was met statewide as of Friday.
While each district will enjoy wide discretion on setting up reopening plans, Cuomo acknowledged he was already "deluged" with calls from anxious parents and teachers skeptical of whether schools can pull off a safe reopening.
"They have to deal with their parents and teachers, which is going to be a more complicated issue than I think many of them appreciate," he said. "There is a significant amount of anxiety and concern."
The city Education Department submitted its 32-page document to state health officials last week, outlining a plan to bring kids to school in shifts to keep in-person numbers down, among other measures.
State health officials will reply to districts on their reopening plans by Monday, Cuomo said. Classes may not be able to resume if a district's plan receives a failing grade, the governor said.
Districts are also required to submit plans to the state Education Department that layout how classes will work at each individual school.
City officials asked for a deadline extension because they remain in the process of planning the schedules for more than 1,800 schools. Those schedules will depend in part on how many families choose to keep their kids at home for remote learning this fall _ a decision city parents were supposed to make by Friday.
"As Governor Cuomo noted, parents and teachers must be confident that schools are safe before they can reopen," said United Federation of Teachers president Michael Mulgrew. "In New York City that is still an open question."
Cuomo said districts will be required to create and publish separate plans on how they will test students and staff for infections, how they will conduct contact tracing, and how remote learning will be structured to reduce inequities.
City officials published a test and trace plan for schools that would trigger an automatic building-wide closure if two or more cases emerge in different classrooms.
But city Education Department officials have yet to specify how testing will work, or the process for mandated coronavirus tests for students or staff. Union officials are pushing for a "rolling testing regimen" to identify asymptomatic kids and adults.
Large districts will be also required to hold at least five town halls with parents before the school year begins. And if virus rates spike before school begins in September, reopening approval from the state could be revoked, Cuomo warned.
Mayor Bill de Blasio has said city schools will not reopen unless the citywide infection rate stays below 3%, and that he won't make a final decision until September.
