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Most NJ schools stay open, even as state warns bad air a threat to kids’ health
By
Louis C. Hochman
Published Jun 8, 2023
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New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy via Twitter
By
Louis C. Hochman
Published Jun 8, 2023
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New Jersey officials defended their decision not to close schools statewide on Thursday, even as they described ways children could be particularly susceptible to health impacts from heavy smoke lingering through the region.
Only a handful of New Jersey’s nearly 600 school districts chose to keep schools closed on Thursday; a few more scheduled early dismissals. On Wednesday, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy told WNYC he’d be leaving decisions about whether to keep schools open to individual districts.
Older adults, pregnant women and people with underlying respiratory diseases are considered particularly at risk from the smoke blanketing the Northeast from the ongoing fires in Canada, but air quality index ratings at midday on Thursday continued to put all of New Jersey in the “unhealthy” or “very unhealthy” categories — meaning that anyone could suffer ill effects.
And New Jersey Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said children are especially vulnerable “because they breathe more air relative to their size and are more active than most adults.”
“Children with breathing problems such as asthma are at increased risk. They should be kept indoors until air quality improves,” Persichilli said at a press conference alongside the governor on Thursday morning.
She said children with asthma were even more vulnerable, and should be kept indoors until air quality improves.
At the press conference, state Education Commissioner Angelica McMillan said that local leaders understand their communities’ needs best.
“By providing districts with crucial information and giving them the ability to make decisions based on the advice and guidance of health and environmental experts, we are fostering a culture of responsiveness and adaptability that is crucial to meeting changing circumstances,” she said.
Murphy ordered schools closed statewide in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, with classes first returning only online. Individual districts returned to hybrid and in-person learning at varying paces – prompting fierce debates in many communities over whether schools were safe and how urgent it was to return children to classrooms for their social well-being and academic progress.
That was the only time New Jersey ordered all its schools closed.
“When you only do something once in several hundred years, that tells you it’s not a lever that we lightly pull,” Murphy said. He said a decision to close state offices early Wednesday and open them late Thursday was simpler, because it involved fewer facilities, concentrated in fewer places.
New Jersey requires schools to be open for at least 180 days to receive state aid, and does not allow school days after graduation ceremonies. The requirement can provide a schedule constraint for a district considering unexpected closures late in the school year.
State law also restricts when a district can conduct virtual or remote learning. A district can only count remote days toward the 180-day requirement in health emergencies or during declared states of emergency that shut down buildings for at least three days.
New York City schools were already scheduled to be closed to students on Thursday, on their normal calendar. NYC schools will hold classes remotely on Friday. Philadelphia schools remained open Thursday, but students were kept inside, windows were closed and field trips were canceled.
New Jersey has distributed more than 52,000 HEPA air purifier systems to about 1,800 schools and 450 child care centers since the start of the pandemic, Persichilli said. Those cover about 75% of the aging buildings the state deems high-risk because of poor ventilation.
Murphy said the state doesn’t currently have any plans to order masking, as it did for certain activities in the pandemic. New Jersey officials do not recommend children under the age of 2 wear masks.
Persichilli said masks could help protect older children.
“You know your child best, so you can determine if a mask is appropriate,” she said.
This story has been updated to add that New York City schools will hold remote instruction Friday.
Tagged
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NYC air quality
health
new jersey
Politics
Louis C. Hochman
After about two decades in (mostly) New Jersey-focused commercial print, digital and digital-but-radio-adjacent news, Lou stumbled into member-supported news in early 2021, as the editor and CEO of Montclair Local. There, he (hopes he) expanded enterprise, brought more sophistication to digital storytelling and moved the nonprofit newsroom closer to long-term financial sustainability. He helped lead the Local to its fourth consecutive General Excellence award from the New Jersey Press Association — the NJPA's highest honor with judges noting the paper's work to strip away layers of government opacity, to hold power to account, to make news accessible for more members of the community, to share the stories and concerns of more facets of the community and to tell compelling stories across multiple media. He's excited to continue the same ethic — news as a public service — at NYPR as the New Jersey and suburbs editor, drawing on the extraordinary talents of reporters including Karen Yi and Nancy Solomon. Lou lives in Philly (that commute!) with his partner and their two cats, about whom and about which he speaks incessantly.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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