New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo gave the go-ahead Friday to schools to prepare for reopening classrooms and bringing back students this fall for in-person instruction.
"By our infection rates, every school district can open," Cuomo said in a conference call with reporters Friday. "Every region in the state is below the threshold we established."
Cuomo previously said schools would be allowed to reopen if a given region is in an approved stage of the state's reopening plan and the 14-day test positivity rate is 5 percent or lower. Schools will be forced to shut again if that rate exceeds 9 percent over a 7-day average.
"We're going to watch the infection rate between now and the day that schools open," Cuomo said. But "for planning purposes, they can reopen."
Key context: New York's much-anticipated announcement means the state considers Covid-19 infections under control enough to allow schools to open for in-person instruction. However, the decision on whether to reopen will be up to each school district. New York City, the state's biggest district, plans to offer in-person instruction but has not finalized its plans on how to do so.
Cuomo said more than 120 of about 700 school districts have yet to submit their reopening plans to the Department of Health and another 50 that were submitted were either incomplete or "deficient."
What's next: The governor also said he is requiring school districts to host a series of information sessions with parents and members of the community. Most districts will be required to hold three forums, but the so-called Big Five — New York City, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers — will be required to hold five meetings in the coming weeks. Cuomo also directed schools to hold a meeting with their teachers to go over their plan at least once.
"The schools should welcome the opportunity to explain the plan," he said. "The more dialogue, the better."