New York City: How Does a District with More than One Million Students Plan to Reopen?
Leonie Haimson writes here how New York City hopes to reopen its public schools, which enroll more than one million students.
Haimson has chided the city for years about its failure to reduce class sizes, and that long history of neglect is making it even more difficult to find space to reopen with small classes.
DOE officials have determined that to maintain proper social distancing, a range of 9-12 students per classroom will be allowed, varying according to the size of the classroom.
Because class sizes are much larger than this in nearly every school, schools will have to separate their students into two or three or sometimes four groups who will take turns attending school in person, to be provided with remote learning when not in school. Families can also choose full-time remote learning with their children never attending school in person.
As a result of vastly different levels of school and classroom overcrowding across the city, some schools will be able to offer about half of their students in-person instruction each day; while others may only be able to allow each student to attend school one or two days a CONTINUE READING: New York City: How Does a District with More than One Million Students Plan to Reopen? | Diane Ravitch's blog