Why Are We Closing Schools?
Keeping kids out of the classroom will make recovering from the pandemic harder in the long term, while not keeping us any safer in the near term.
A quarter of New York City’s 1.1 million public-school students have attended in-person class this academic year. Now they will all be learning from home. New York City schools have closed once again as COVID-19 cases rise in the city. The closures could last for weeks or months, depending on the percentage of positive coronavirus cases.
Keeping students home is unnecessary. Reopening schools doesn’t appear to meaningfully increase the level of risk faced by teachers or students, but closing them causes well-documented damage to students. Evidence from around thesteps to open up classrooms.
