Teachers can WFH thru June

Roughly 20,000 city teachers working remotely through the Education Department’s coronavirus reasonable accommodation program will be able to stay home through the rest of the school year, officials announced Thursday.

The medical accommodations, granted to staffers with underlying health conditions that could put them at additional risk from the coronavirus, and others who live with vulnerable family members, were originally set to expire in December.

In a tweet Thursday afternoon, Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza said those accommodations will now extend through the end of the school year in June.

He added that the extension is “subject to change, based on an evolving health landscape.”

The accommodations are now set to expire June 30, according to a copy of the extension approval reviewed by the Daily News.

Education Department officials say 20,000 teachers and 250 principals are currently working from home through the accommodations.

The remote-working privileges were originally available only to teachers with their own underlying health conditions. But a September agreement between the Education Department and city teachers union extended the accommodations to staffers who live with vulnerable family members, as long as administrators could work out staffing arrangements with those teachers at home.

The thousands of city teachers working remotely was one part of the complicated puzzle city schools faced in staffing the hybrid reopening plan. City public schools are closed indefinitely as of Thursday morning, but officials said they hope to get in-person classes up and running again as soon as possible.

Roughly 300,000 students have attended in-person classes so far, and families who were previously enrolled in remote-only learning had a chance earlier this month to opt into in-person classes. The Education Department hasn’t yet reported how many new families signed up for in-person classes.