NEW YORK — For Julie Zuckerman, an elementary school principal in Manhattan, last summer felt like one never-ending day filled with fear and confusion about New York City’s plan to resume in-person teaching. But in the months since classrooms opened in September, something has shifted.
Teachers at the school, Public School 513 in Washington Heights, appear more at ease, and some say they would like to be in their classrooms even when the building closes because of coronavirus cases. Parents, too, seem more confident: About half of the students are in the building most days, up from less than one-third in September.
Zuckerman expects that even more children will return this spring.
Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times
“People have made their peace; they’re not in crisis in the same way,” she said. “I feel there’s a huge night-and-day difference between what was going on last spring and what’s happened this year.”
New York’s push to become the first big school district in the country to reopen classrooms last fall was a high-stakes and risky experiment. It has had its share of miscommunication, logistical stumbles and disruptions — especially when classrooms and school buildings are frequently closed because of virus cases.
But in interviews, parents, teachers, principals and union leaders also provided reasons for optimism at the midpoint of the academic year. In-school transmission of the coronavirus been very low, and there has also been broad agreement that children have benefited from being in classrooms.
“Having the kids here is so much better for them, for everyone,” Zuckerman said.
The strength of the plan will be tested again in the coming weeks, as about 62,000 middle school students are set to return to classrooms for the first time since November. New York also offers the clearest preview in the United States of what other big city districts — most prominently Chicago, where more schools are set to open next month — can expect as they inch closer to reopening classrooms after almost a year of remote learning.
Despite President Joe Biden’s push to reopen more schools this spring, some districts — including Los Angeles, the country’s second-largest system — do not yet have a plan to reopen at all this school year. On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that schools should open as soon as possible, particularly for young children. The CDC found that teacher vaccines are not a precondition for reopening, a finding that has been backed up by New York’s safety record so far.
The guidance came as teachers unions across the country have continued to push back on reopening plans.
Districts that do reopen to students in the coming weeks and months are likely to discover that it is just a first step. New Yorkers have struggled to cope with the frequent interruptions to learning — and parents’ schedules — caused when virus cases are detected among students or staff members and classrooms and entire school buildings are forced into all-remote instruction.
The city requires schools to shutter for up to 10 days if two unrelated positive cases are confirmed in a building. Individual classrooms close when one or more positive cases are detected.
The number of closed classrooms and schools has risen considerably over the last few weeks, as test positivity rates across the city have remained high and weekly in-school testing has increased.
Between Jan. 4 and Feb. 10, 580 of 1,052 open school buildings closed for up to two weeks. Fewer than 400 school buildings have not had a closing of any kind in the new year.
Zuckerman said that her school, for example, has been open for only about 10 in-person days in 2021.
The rule was developed at a moment when it…
Read More: New York Was the 1st Big School District to Reopen. Here’s What Happened.