BACK TO SCHOOL!

Blas sees the light: In-person classes to resume Dec. 7

Mayor de Blasio, f inally recognizing “how safe schools can be” amid the pandemic, announced yesterday that the city will begin the process of sending kids back to their classrooms next Monday.

The city’s public elementary schools will return to partial inperson learning on Dec. 7, Mayor de Blasio announced on Sunday — just 10 days after sending students home amid rising coronavirus cases.

Middle- and high-school students will remain all-virtual for now, the mayor said.

Kids in grades K-5 and pre-K programs whose parents have already signed them up for hybrid learning will be allowed back to classroom because there “is less concern about the spread” of COVID-19 among younger children, while the demands of allvirtual learning on their families are greatest, de Blasio said.

Special-ed students will be allowed to return to hybrid learning on Dec. 10, he said.

De Blasio shuttered in-school learning on Nov. 19 after the city’s positive-test rate hit a seven-day rolling average of 3 percent.

He came under fire at the time for sticking with the 3 percent threshold even though tests showed lower infection rates in the city’s schools than in their surrounding communities.

In his about-face on Sunday, de Blasio said that while the city’s latest rolling average is 3.9 percent, his administration is still reopening schools because “we have so much proof now of how safe schools can be” amid the pandemic.

“This has come from real-life experience in the biggest school system in America, right here in New York City,” the mayor said.

He did not elaborate on what new data had prompted him to reverse his course on school closures.

In another change, the mayor said the city was pushing for five days a week of in-classroom learning where possible, rather than the existing model where students spend part of the time at school and part at home.

“As we open schools in phases, wherever possible, we will, in schools that have the ability, go to five day a week for instruction,” de Blasio said.

“For any school that does have the space and ability to move to five-day-a-week in-person instruction, for those kids, that will now be the preferred model,” de Blasio said.

De Blasio said the total figure of those students eligible to return to school in early December is around 190,000 — although they must have consent forms for testing signed by their parents before they enter buildings.

The mayor said it was unclear when the older students might return to the classroom.

“We look forward to the day we can reopen [the middle and high] schools. But we’re just not able to do that yet,’’ de Blasio said on a phone call with reporters.

He added that 20 percent of students and staffers involved in in-person learning would now be randomly tested weekly instead of the current monthly.

Some parents said on Sunday that the sudden course reversal was confusing.

“My head is whipping trying to figure out what is what,” said Millie Gondor, 42, who has two children in the school system.

“They don’t make it easy,” she said of city officials.

Betta Buffallomonte, 37, who has a child in public school, said: “De Blasio is not very decisive. Open them, close them — doesn’t give you much faith in that they know what they’re doing.”

The mayor said the planned increase in student and staff testing would help ensure safety.

Last week, de Blasio acknowledged that he had closed down the schools without any reopening plan in place.

“The better situation would have been, clearly, to have that plan all worked through in advance,” de Blasio admitted at the time.

As of now, students who had chosen not to participate in hybrid learning can no longer opt in to in-classroom learning through the end of the school year.

Asked about possibly offering parents another chance to opt in before then, de Blasio said, “When the health situation clearly improves, that is obviously the right time to do another opt-in. But a lot has to be worked out before then.”

Gov. Cuomo on Sunday hailed the city’s move to reopen at least some of its schools.

“I think that’s the right direction,” Cuomo told reporters on a separate conference call.

“We do have new facts and new information on schools,” he said.

“It’s literally safer for the child and teacher to be in the school than in the community.”

Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers union, was also supportive of the change.

“We are supportive of a phased reopening of schools in other neighborhoods as long as stringent testing is in place,” he said in a statement.