De Blasio plans to have NYC public school students return to classroom 2 or 3 days a week

At a press conference, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced public school students would return to classrooms two or three days a week starting in the fall. According to the plan, students will learn remotely on the days they are not physically in schools.

Video Transcript

BILL DE BLASIO: One thing we know for sure, and the math just makes it clear-- when you think about health first, you think about social distancing. When you think about social distancing, you need more space. You're going to have fewer kids in the classroom, fewer kids in a school building. So you're not going to be able-- with certain exceptions, most schools will not be able to have all their kids in school at the same time.

And schools that are historically overcrowded will really particularly struggle because they're only going to be able to use so much space. Remember, 6 feet needed around each child. So when we know that health and safety means social distancing, therefore, we have to use a lot more space for fewer kids. It makes very clear the approach we will use is blended learning.

And blended learning simply means at some points in the week, you're learning in-person in the classroom. At other points in the week, you're learning remotely. And we all know remote learning is not perfect, but we've also seen a lot of kids benefit greatly from it during these last months. And we know we'll be able to do it even better in the months ahead.

Now, to make it really simple for everyday parents-- and I was a public school parent in New York City Public Schools. I know parents want clear, straightforward information. Here's the deal. For the vast majority of kids and the vast majority of schools, you'll be going to school, to the classroom either two days a week or three days a week, depending on the week.

Again, certain other schools will have exceptional dynamics. We can talk about that as well. But for the vast majority of kids, a typical week-- two or three days in the classroom, in the school, the other days, remote learning. Of course we understand some families will choose remote learning as the only option. The chancellor will speak to that, and they have every right to do that, and we'll be ready.

But basically, this blended model, this kind of split-schedule model is what we can do under current conditions. And then let's hope and pray science helps us out with the vaccine, with a cure, treatment, the things that will allow us to go farther.