School for disabled kids shut over COVID concerns
An East Harlem school for students with disabilities is closing for 10 days after officials found evidence of a possible COVID-19 outbreak among staffers.
The school, Public School M079 on E. 120th St., is the first to close for multiple COVID-19 cases since in-person school restarted Monday.
Under the city’s current COVID rules, schools are only temporarily shuttered if health officials find evidence there’s “widespread transmission in the school.”
City Education Department officials didn’t say how many total cases have been confirmed at the school, but said they all are among staff and are linked to a preschool orientation event.
The website for the agency’s Situation Room that tracks positive COVID-19 cases reported seven confirmed cases as of Friday, and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer tweeted Friday that there are 19 cases at the school.
A spokesman for Brewer said her information came from staff members at the school.
Education Department staffers are required to get vaccinated, but the mandate to show proof of at least one dose doesn’t kick in until Sept. 27.
Department officials said they didn’t have information about how many of the infected staffers were vaccinated.
Officials reported 812 positive COVID-19 cases during the first week of classes, with 675 full or partial classroom closures — out of roughly 65,000 classrooms in use citywide. M079, which serves students with significant disabilities in the sixth to 12th grades, is the first entire school building to be temporarily shuttered since school started.
The school will reopen Sept. 28, and will offer to-go meals for students this week.
“We follow stringent guidance from health experts to prevent any further transmission by quarantining close contacts, closing classrooms, and, if necessary, entire buildings,” said Education Department spokesman Nathaniel Styer.
Chrystal Bell, the mother of a student at M079, said she received escalating notices about COVID
cases in the school starting Tuesday. On Friday, she got a letter saying her son was potentially exposed, but she hasn’t gotten a call from Health or Education department officials.
Because Bell’s son — who is blind, deaf, and nonverbal — is vaccinated, he would not have had to quarantine if his classroom shut down.
Bell said she’s not too worried about her son’s safety because he’s vaccinated and is showing no symptoms, but she’s concerned about staying home with him this week because of her own work obligations.
“I’m put in the position of having to try to find someone to take care of my kid to go to work, or stay home,” she said. “We’ve only been in school for a week.”