New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio predicted on Monday that public schools in New York will remain closed for the whole year to cope with the CCP virus outbreak.
The city’s administration closed its 1,700 public schools that serve 1.1 million students on March 16 with a notice that they would reopen on April 20, but de Blasio said that will likely not happen.
“But at the trajectory we’re on now, I can’t see it. I do, unfortunately, believe the likelihood right now is that we lose the whole school year, which is really, really deeply unfortunate,” de Blasio said.
The Mayor also expressed concerns about a lack of laptops, tablets, and Wi-Fi connections for children of low-income families, since the classes have moved online.
“This is part of why I was so hesitant to close our schools because we’ve got hundreds of thousands of kids we can’t even reach with distance learning,” said de Blasio.
The Mayor said his administration is trying to reach more students every day and is getting a lot of help from the private sector.
Free Meals for Students
The New York City Department of Education said beginning Monday it'll start providing free breakfast, lunch, and dinner to New York City students through 400 sites.“The New York City Department of Education is committed to making three free meals available daily for all NYC children,” the city administration said on its website.
The department said there’s no dining space available and that parents can pick up three meals for their children at the same time. No registration, ID, or documentation is required.