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With safety protocols in place, Catholic school students return to classroom

By
Updated  September 8, 2021 8:16am EDT
New York City
FOX 5 NY

NYC Catholic schools return to classroom

Students at Catholic schools across New York City return to in-person instruction Wednesday since the pandemic shuttered school buildings.

NEW YORK - Catholic school students in New York City headed back to class Wednesday for in-classroom learning. 

A number of safety protocols were in place: Socially distant classrooms with hand sanitizer stations, mandatory temperature checks, a daily questionnaire for parents to fill out, and masks must be worn for anyone who enters the building.

Even though there is no remote or hybrid learning option, keeping the students and staff safe is the top priority.  

To do that, masked students would be grouped into consistent pods every day, practice three feet of social distancing between themselves, and six feet between the pods. These groups would stay together all day, in the same classroom where they will both learn all their subjects and eat their meals. It’s the teachers who will be rotating between classes, not the students.

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This new learning landscape is a way to reduce students potentially getting exposed to someone infected with COVID-19.

There are also two phases to the school year. The first phase requires these strict safety protocols. 

Ida flooding wreaks havoc on school openings

Teachers across the tri-state area have been looking forward to getting back to full-time in-person learning, but flooding from Hurricane Ida is delaying that return to normalcy in some areas.

But should government guidelines or community health statistics improve, it’s onto phase 2. That means extracurricular activities and programs can resume, individuals who are vaccinated no longer need to mask-up, in person parent/teacher conferences may resume and breakfast can once again be served in the cafeteria.

However, the Catholic schools do have an emergency plan in place if COVID-19 cases continue going up. In that case, they could switch back to remote or hybrid learning. The Superintendent will then make the final call.