Lessons from the NYC’s school-reopening fiasco

New York City (NYC), the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic last spring, and the largest public school district planning to begin at least some in-person instruction, has botched its reopening plans for the fall. Its mistakes are a cautionary tale for school systems across the US that are struggling to balance the
benefits of resuming their educational programs against the risks of spreading Covid-19.
Piecemeal planning and poor communication by the New York City education department prompted pleas from dozens of principals, districts and community councils to push back the opening date, and, finally, provoked the threat of a teachers’ strike. Mayor Bill de Blasio and the United Federation of Teachers eventually agreed to a delayed reopening, buying teachers about a week of planning time for what in most schools will be a mix of in-person and online education.
New York’s size and density make its challenges unusual, but the city’s experience, including a smattering of promising local strategies, remains relevant to districts nationwide. While 73 percent of districts, including Los Angeles and Chicago, are starting the fall semester fully online, the needs of working parents and children — especially the youngest and neediest — are likely to ratchet up pressure to move to in-person instruction. However
careful the planning, the pandemic is likely to make the coming year
a roller-coaster of shifting and costly protocols, Covid scares and quarantines.
If New York is any guide, these realities will require changes in the relationship between district bureaucracies and individual schools.
First, variation among schools, especially among those with
different physical infrastructures (including schools with no classroom windows), means that districts cannot rely on a single approach.
Individual schools will need flexibility to determine what works for them, which means that central administrators should focus on providing support instead of enforcing rules. They’ll need to help close streets and requisition tents for outdoor instruction and offer expertise needed to ensure safe ventilation systems, as well as meals and online technology.
Finally, to succeed during what is both a public health and financial crisis, districts need to foster trust, which is in short supply. New York City lost credibility when it failed to close schools at the start of the pandemic in March or to act decisively and transparently when teachers became sick, contributing to the deaths of 74 staffers.

—Bloomberg