Unlike other school districts, New York City is not offering any remote instruction this school year, despite concerns about the highly contagious delta variant's ability to spread. Other states and districts have imposed rules requiring vaccines or weekly tests for the virus. The city's mandate that teachers and staff get vaccinated is relatively rare in the U.S. The union's president Michael Mulgrew called the decision 'ill-considered' because children don't always keep their distance and wear the masks correctly all day long. The United Federation of Teachers, the union representing about 75,000 New York City teachers, commended the mayor's decision to move to weekly testing but disagreed with the decision to limit which students need to quarantine. That day is also the deadline for the city's public school teachers and staff to get at least their first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine under a city-wide schools mandate. One school entirely closed for 10 days after a cluster of cases. The changes come after the first full week of the school year in which nearly 900 classrooms, including those in charter schools, were fully or partially closed in the city's 1,876 schools because of reports positive COVID-19 cases. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and would keep students from missing vital classroom time. The mayor also announced also a change in quarantine rules for schools, no longer requiring unvaccinated students to quarantine at home if they were masked and at least 3 feet away from someone who tested positive for the coronavirus.ĭe Blasio said the changes followed U.S. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio made the announcement Monday, a day after the city's teachers' union sent de Blasio a letter calling for weekly testing instead of biweekly testing in the district with about a million students.

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