New York City did not have their school plan on time, Gov. Cuomo says

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Sunday, August 2, 2020

City misses deadline to submit school reopening plan, Cuomo says

New York City missed the deadline for submitting its plan to reopen schools in the fall to the state despite Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiling the plan on Friday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo s

NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- New York City missed the deadline for submitting its plan to reopen schools in the fall to the state despite Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiling the plan on Friday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday.

Cuomo said the Department of Education submitted its plans for reopening the school district to the state late Friday afternoon, but received a two-week extension from the state for its plan for individual schools.

"I am disappointed that New York City didn't have their plan on time, because that's one of the main districts where there is a lot of discussion and dialogue and until there's a plan people are not going to feel there's an informed dialogue. And to have that whole process, have that discussion, get it done in two weeks, is going to be hard. And if parents are not comfortable and confident - I'm telling you, they're not going to send their child. so you'll open the schools, you'll have partial attendance, which will serve no one."

This is the new metric for NYC schools to stay open

At his daily briefing, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city would be watching the positivity rate for COVID-19 in NYC to determine if schools can reopen and stay open for the 2020-2021 school year.

The reopening plan is just the start of the dialogue between parents and the school district, Cuomo said, not the end.

Cuomo said he is "getting deluged with calls from parents who are concerned."

He said any assumption that parents will send their children to reopened school districts "is not the case."

Mayor Bill de Blasio outlines the plan for reopening NYC public schools in the fall.

About 650 of the 700 districts statewide filed their reopening plans by Friday.

Cuomo said the state will make the "initial decision" on whether to reopen schools across the state in the next week, but will closely watch the infection rate.

He said "schools should plan on reopening" at this point, but Cuomo cautioned "it's not flicking a switch."

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