All schools in New York State, including K-12 schools and colleges, will remain closed through the end of the academic year, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced at his daily press briefing.
“Given the circumstances that we’re in and the precautions that would have to be put in place to come up with a plan to reopen schools with all those new protocols,” Cuomo said, “we don’t think it’s possible to do that in a way that would keep our children and students and educators safe.”
Distance learning programs will continue statewide, he said.
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Schools in New York State were first closed on March 18, when the coronavirus outbreak was beginning to escalate in downstate New York.
Long Island school districts have been closed since March 16, and Riverhead schools have been closed since March 13.
Cuomo first extended his original school closing order through April 15, then through May 15, before extending them today through the academic year, which ends on June 26.
“We must protect our children,” he said.
There are too many complications to reopening school districts while the outbreak continues to fill hospitals in downstate New York, he said.
“How do you operate a school that’s socially distanced, with masks, without gatherings, with a public transportation system that has a lower number of students?” Cuomo said. “How would you get that plan up and running?”
The state will announce a decision on whether schools and colleges can open for summer classes by the end of May.
“Nobody can predict what the situation is going to be three, four weeks from now,” Cuomo said, “so we’re trying to stage decisions at intervals that give us the information, but also enough time for people to make the preparations they need to make.”
New York will need to see a drop or stabilization of infection rates in order to open schools for summer sessions, he said, because “kids are going to be kids.”
Thirty-nine other states have ordered schools closed through the rest of the academic year, and several other states are already discussing school closures in the summer and fall.
New York State will also require schools and colleges to submit plans for reopening their doors, including details on how facilities will implement social distancing guidelines and keep students safe.
“We’re going to be asking businesses to come up with plans that safeguard workers when they reopen,” Cuomo said, “and we need schools to come up with plans also that bring those precautions into the school room.”
New York has made considerable progress in containing its COVID-19 outbreak over the past several weeks. Fatalities from the virus were less than 300 for the first time today, with 289 deaths reported.
Total hospitalization numbers have also been gradually decreasing, but the number of new COVID-19 patients entering hospitals has plateaued just under 1,000 per day this week, with between 950 and 980 new patients reported daily for the past four days.
“That is still too high a number of new cases to have every day,” Cuomo said. “It’s a lot better than where we were for sure, but 1,000 new cases every day is still a burden on the hospital system.”
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