Cuomo says all New York state schools can reopen fully by September

All New York state schools will reopen for full in-person learning for the 2021-2022 school year beginning in September, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced Monday.

“With the way our COVID numbers are currently trending, there is no reason why our students should not get back to in-person learning as usual and we look forward to welcoming them back. If there is a change in the trajectory of the virus, we will revisit the decision,” the governor said.

For more than a year, life at the state’s 700 public-school districts, with 4,800 schools, has been disrupted with many students forced to learn remotely and many school events like graduations and proms canceled or scaled back.

“Our children lost so much as COVID struck our state. A year of socialization, a year of memories, and even more,” Cuomo said. “While teachers and school administrators did an incredible job pivoting to remote learning with virtually zero notice, there’s no denying the discrimination students who did not have the right equipment faced.”

The governor’s announcement came after New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio said earlier in the day that the city’s schools would be operating fully in-person this fall, with no options for remote learning. The mayor said on the “Morning Joe” TV show on MSNBC that it was time for the city’s 1 million public-school students to all be back in the classroom.