NYC grade schoolers go back to class
After repeated delays, academic year begins
NEW YORK — Elementary school students went back to classrooms across New York City on Tuesday in a high-stakes test for the nation’s biggest public school system, even as the mayor warned that a recent rise in coronavirus cases is “cause for real concern.”
With children wearing masks and undergoing temperature checks at schoolhouse doors, students and parents who opted for brick-andmortar school greeted the twice-delayed date with enthusiasm, relief and some trepidation.
The elementary school reopening, with middle and high schools set to follow Thursday, comes as officials are concerned about recent spurts in virus cases in some neighborhoods.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday that 3.25 percent of coronavirus tests citywide came back positive Monday, the highest proportion in months. The level had hovered around 1 percent through the summer and into last week.
At the same time, New York City restaurants remain set to reopen their indoor dining areas Wednesday at reduced capacity, a step the state and city had held off because of concern about the virus’ potential to spread indoors.
With over 1 million public school students, New York City initially had a more ambitious timeline than many other big U.S. school systems for bringing children back to schoolhouses this fall.
Families have the option of choosing all-remote learning, and a growing number are doing so: 48 percent as of Friday, up from 30 percent six weeks earlier, according to city Education Department statistics.
The rest will have a virus-altered version of in-person school, learning sometimes in classrooms and sometimes at home.
Meanwhile, alarmed by a spike in coronavirus infections in a few Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods, New York City officials will start issuing fines in those areas to people who refuse to wear masks, de Blasio said Tuesday.
■ The University of North Carolina system reported its first coronavirus-related student death on Tuesday since several campuses reopened with at least partial in-person learning last month. Chad Dorrill, a 19-year student at Appalachian State University who lived off campus in Boone and took all of his classes online, died on Monday due to coronavirus complications, officials said.
■ Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker will quarantine for two weeks after a member of his administration tested positive for the coronavirus. The staff member had attended events with the firstterm Democrat all last week, including in Chicago, Marion and Marseilles. The aide tested positive Monday after feeling symptoms. Pritzker and other administration members tested negative the same day.
■ Businesses in 89 of Tennessee’s 95 counties will no longer have to adhere to social distancing guidelines, Gov. Bill Lee announced Tuesday, even though cases of COVID-19 in the state have been persistently high.
■ Colorado Gov. Jared Polis is encouraging families to register students in online or in-person schools as the state experiences a decline in enrollment during the coronavirus pandemic. Polis said the decline is based on anecdotal evidence, but it is widespread across the state
■ North Dakota officials said a voter ID event scheduled on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation was postponed due to the coronavirus on Tuesday, a day when the state reported 419 new COVID-19 cases and five deaths.