A full return to in-person learning would likely mean that all students and teachers can return to the classroom following a tumultuous school year upended by the COVID-19 pandemic, but it's not clear whether schools would completely eliminate the remote learning option in the fall.
"We are waiting for the state and/or the governor to give us a 'may' or 'must,'" Watervliet City School District Superintendent Lori Caplan said. "If it's a 'must,' we obviously will require all students to be in school. If it's a 'may,' there will be very stringent criteria that will develop, because it's no secret that students need to be in school sooner rather than later."
The 1,271-student Watervliet district has provided fully in-person classes for all grades this year, but about 35 percent of students are currently still taking classes remotely.
The governor's remarks followed New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's announcement Monday that city schools would be fully in-person with no remote option for students in September.
"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."
Capital Region school officials say they are still following state and federal health guidelines that indicate certain mitigation steps must be taken before school buildings can operate at full capacity, including grouping students into "cohorts" and maintaining social distancing throughout the school day.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state Health Department both put out guidance stating that for middle and high school, desks can be separated by 3 feet instead of 6 feet as long as students are cohorted into groups or community infection rates are sufficiently low. Separating high schools into siloed groups is not always possible, so some local districts are expecting to maintain the 6-foot social distancing requirement, which creates space constraints.
Since younger students are less likely to transmit the virus, their desks may be separated by 3 feet. Masks will be required in all schools next year regardless of vaccination status.
Remote learning widened educational disparities since schools first closed in March 2020. Low-income children and students of color were less likely to participate in in-person classes or have consistent access to technology and the internet.
High-needs districts also saw a larger share of students opting for fully remote education learning to reduce their exposure to the deadly virus.
In suburban districts in the Capital Region, roughly 20 percent of families opted for a fully remote option this year while city schools saw more than half of their students selecting a fully remote curriculum during the 2020-2021 school year.
Due to social distancing guidelines, large city schools, including Albany and Schenectady, were unable to provide in-person instruction to most middle and high students for much of the school year.
Requiring all students to return to the classroom would help districts draw remote students back to school buildings in the fall.
"If we are not required to have a remote option, we absolutely believe that all kids should be here learning and catching up," Rensselaer City Schools Superintendent Joe Kardash said. "Of course, we have to wait for written guidance before we do anything."
New York State United Teachers President Andy Pallotta said in a statement that the union supports the state's decision to bring all students back to the classroom.
"Educators know that being in person is the best way for students to learn and for teachers to teach. We support offering full-time in-person instruction five days a week and await formal guidance for the fall on how districts, working with educators and parents, should craft their plans to bring all students back to the classroom."
Cuomo, at a news conference earlier Monday, said the state is moving to require coronavirus vaccinations for students in school settings as was done two years ago for measles vaccine amid an outbreak of that disease. But the state cannot mandate someone be vaccinated unless the vaccine has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which has not formally approved the vaccines being given to millions of U.S. citizens.
The governor noted that the mandate requiring measles vaccinations for children attending schools led to some people pulling their children out of schools.
"It was very controversial," Cuomo said. "We're going to set a statewide policy which will govern all school districts. Now, September is relatively a long way away and we follow the science, we follow the data."
Cuomo said the decision to fully reopen New York schools may be revisited, however, if there is a coronavirus resurgence.
©2021 the Times Union (Albany, N.Y.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
