onurdongel/iStockBy AARON KATERSKY and EMILY SHAPIRO, ABC News
(NEW YORK) — Three days before New York City public schools were supposed to open their doors for in-person learning, officials announced Thursday that classrooms will not reopen as scheduled — and now middle school and high school students won’t be back in classrooms until October.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said education labor officials had reached out with “real concerns” about staffing and safety.
Though “real progress had been made,” the mayor said, “more had to be done.”
After a conversation with the unions, the schools’ new timetable “involves several phases,” the mayor said.
The first phase is Monday, Sept. 21, with preschool and special education classrooms opening for in-person learning.
On Tuesday, Sept. 29, kindergarten through fifth-grade schools and kindergarten through eighth-grade schools will open.
On Thursday, Oct. 1, middle school and high schools will start.
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