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"Better Safe Than Sorry": Number Of NYC Public Elementary Schools Closed For COVID-19 Keeps Rising
By
Jessica Gould
Published Jan 20, 2021
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By
Jessica Gould
Published Jan 20, 2021
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The number of New York City public elementary schools temporarily closing because of confirmed COVID-19 cases is steadily climbing across the system, even as random sampling shows positivity rates inside schools remain low.
As of Wednesday, 373 buildings that have been offering in-person instruction were closed because of COVID-19 cases. Of those schools, 92 were slated for 24-hour closures, and 281 were slated for 10-day closures, a reduction from the 14-day closure originally required. Additionally, 803 individual classrooms were closed. Those totals don't include middle and high schools, which have been closed since mid-November.
For families who chose in-person learning, the individual closures add another layer of stress to a chaotic year that has also seen the whole system shut down last fall.
“The mayor might be able to say that our schools are open, but they’re not open,” said parent Mia Eisner-Grynberg whose daughter has attended classes at her elementary school in person for just five days since mid-November. She added that the elementary school’s most recent closure was supposed to be 10 days but has actually been 12 because the city Department of Education didn’t count the weekend as part of the mandatory quarantine.
Eisner-Grynberg, with the group Keep NYC Schools Open, was hopeful when de Blasio agreed to abandon the 3% citywide COVID positivity trigger for shutting all schools last month, and announced plans to reopen early childhood, elementary, and District 75 schools with additional testing. Governor Andrew Cuomo also announced this month he would keep schools open as long as their individual positivity rates were lower than the rates in the surrounding community.
But those changes have not helped as much as some parents hoped, and they’re calling on the DOE to revise the policy that shuts down buildings for as few as two cases.
According to a protocol developed by the city over the summer, a classroom closes when there’s a positive case. When two or more cases in separate classes are detected but don’t appear to be linked, the building closes for an investigation. Depending on the investigation’s findings, buildings can close for just 24 hours or for an “extended” closure, which is 10 days. Shutting schools allows contact tracers time to identify the extent of the spread and isolate infected staff and students.
Eisner-Grynberg called the policy overly broad. For example, she said, two teachers tested positive during their first week back from winter break this month. An investigation found the two cases weren’t linked, triggering a closure. But she said the teachers were actually from separate schools co-located in the building, and no additional cases were found.
“It’s causing schools, such as my daughter's school, to close over and over again, even when we can be essentially certain that the cases that are popping up in the school have not spread throughout the school,” she said.
At a news briefing on Tuesday, de Blasio said he understood that the closures were frustrating for parents but argued they’re necessary to prevent outbreaks.
The positive COVID testing rate in city schools, according to random testing, was less than half a percent.
“We take a better safe than sorry approach here,” de Blasio said. “And that is what has kept our schools the safest in the country and the schools being the safest place to be in New York City. So, from a health and safety perspective, this approach is working.”
He said he expects closures to subside as more school staff get vaccinated.
But some teachers said the crescendo of school closures this month shows that risk remains, and may even increase as a new variant of the virus takes root in New York.
“My feeling is we should close temporarily,” said first grade teacher and public school parent Sarah Allen.
Allen was skeptical of reopening schools in September, but said she was ultimately glad to be teaching in person. She said it was better for her students and her children. But with new daily case counts over 3,000, she thinks in-person learning should go on pause until more teachers can be vaccinated.
“I hate teaching at home, but I feel like it would be the safest decision,” she said.
Tagged
COVID-19
schools reopening
Jessica Gould
Jessica is the education reporter for WNYC and Gothamist. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Jessica reported on the shutdown and reopening of the nation’s largest school system, highlighting the unprecedented impacts on learning, health and mental health for students, staff and families. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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