New York City public schools will remain closed for the rest of the academic year

REUTERS/Jeenah Moon

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks during a news conference for the outbreak of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at City Hall in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., March 17, 2020.

• New York City public schools will remain closed for the rest of the school year, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Saturday.
• The city's 1,800 schools have transitioned to remote learning amid the coronavirus outbreak since they first closed on March 16.
• Students will continue remote learning through June 26, when the school year ends - meaning students will have spent a third of the 2019-20 school year at home.
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New York City school buildings will remain closed through the end of the school year, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Saturday.

Students at the roughly 1,800 schools across the city, which is the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak and consists of over 1.1 million students, will continue remote learning from home through June 26, when the school year ends.

"It's not an easy decision," de Blasio said in an announcement. "But it is the right decision, and it's a decision made a little clearer by the fact that distance learning is working."

By June 26, NYC students will have spent about a third of the 2019-20 school year learning from home, according to Chalkbeat New York.

Schools across the city abruptly transitioned to remote learning on March 16 in order to slow the spread of COVID-19, which has sickened 200,000 people and claimed over 7,000 lives across New York State.

However, many students have struggled to keep up with online learning because they lack the resources to access classes online. One Queens mom told Business Insider she was unsure how her son would be able to participate in remote learning because she can't afford WiFi and isn't eligible for free internet offers made by providers.

In March, De Blasio reportedly grappled with whether to close schools for weeks, making the decision after other large, urban school districts like Los Angeles. He finally closed schools after the city's top doctor threatened to resign if they remained open, according to The New York Times.

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