NEW YORK — The new school year will feature many changes for students as they head back to the classroom full-time.
Despite that there are no full remote or hybrid options this year, students could still occasionally end up using the distance learning model — likely on the days they would rather be building a snowman.
The New York City Department of Education plans to shift students to remote learning instead of canceling classes for severe weather events in the 2021-22 academic year. The announcement was made, along with several other calendar changes for the academic year, back in May.
Schools Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter told PIX on Politics host Dan Mannarino on Sunday that while students are returning to school full time, the DOE will still leverage remote learning as part of its “collective muscle,” not just for snow days but also if a classroom encounters a COVID-19 outbreak.
“If a classroom shuts down, we will shift to remote. We learned a lot last year and so we still have the ability to shift to remote if we need to,” she said. “We also announced — as you know, the first thing that people got upset with me about — our snow days will become remote days.”
The DOE also plans to hold a remote, asynchronous instructional day for all students and a professional development day for teachers on Election Day, which falls on Nov. 2.