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 The agreement, which comes as school systems across the country
wrestle with the pandemic and pressure from the Trump administration
to reopen school buildings, would maintain the city's plan for a mix
of in-class and remote learning.
"What we've agreed to is to make sure that the health measures are
in place, to make sure there is time for the appropriate preparation
for our educators," New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a
briefing.
In Los Angeles and Chicago, the country's second and third largest
school systems, students are beginning the academic year solely with
online instruction.
Daily U.S. coronavirus infections have been declining, with 36,263
on Monday, less than half the peak reported in mid-July, according
to a Reuters tally.
But there are still hotspots in the Midwest, led by Iowa and South
Dakota, where new cases spiked last week. U.S. cases since the
pandemic started early this year topped 6 million on Sunday, nearly
one-quarter of the world's total.
The disease has killed more than 184,000 people in the United
States, over one-fifth of the world's total.
New York unions, led by the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), had
expressed concern that the city was rushing into its Sept. 10
scheduled start of the school year without taking adequate steps to
protect teachers, students and staff from infections.
WORST OF BOTH SCENARIOS
UFT President Michael Mulgrew last month threatened a strike -
illegal under state law - unless schools implemented a rigorous
COVID-19 testing plan and other safety measures.
On Tuesday, Mulgrew and union leaders who represent principals,
administrators and other school staff joined de Blasio in hailing
the new agreement.
"Our medical experts have stamped this plan, and we now can say that
the New York City public school system has the most aggressive
policies and greatest safeguards of any school system in America,"
said Mulgrew, whose union represents 133,000 teachers and other
education workers.
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The agreement requires monthly testing of the system's 1.1 million students as
well as teachers and staff, officials said.
Also required are 30-day supplies of masks and other personal protective
equipment in every school, social distancing procedures, functioning ventilation
systems in buildings and safety measures for busing students, they said.
Remote instruction for students is due to start on Sept. 16, even as teachers
and staff continue preparing for the Sept. 21 opening of the system's 1,800
school buildings.
Under the "blended learning" plan de Blasio announced in July, students would be
split up, with half spending two days at school and half learning at home. For
the next three days they would switch locations, and the following week they
would reverse the sequence.
The plan was intended to strike a balance between the safety of online learning
and mitigated risks of face-to-face instruction, which educators have said is
more effective.
Edward Stapleton, a high school English teacher in the city's Brooklyn borough,
expressed concern about the blended learning plan, which he said combines the
worst of both scenarios.
"We still have all the disadvantages of online learning, we still have to do
that at the same time as we're teaching, and they're still bringing students
into school," Stapleton, 39, said in an interview.
New York, the early U.S. epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, has cut its
infection rate to among the lowest in the country. Daily testing in New York
City has yielded positive results of less then 2% and sometimes less than 1% for
several weeks.
(Reporting by Peter Szekely and Maria Caspani in New York, and Barbara Goldberg
in Maplewood, New Jersey; Editing by Richard Chang, Steve Orlofsky and Bill
Berkrot)
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