School reopening involves putting in place policies, procedures and financing to enable safe school operations, recover learning losses and ensure the right to education for all children and adolescents. It requires a multifaceted approach with the involvement of government, civil society, business and academia. This brief provides a case study of school reopening in the nation’s largest district, New York City.

Prior to reopening, families completed a learning preference survey that allowed them to choose in-person instruction or remote learning. Families can shift between in-person and remote learning at any time using the same survey portal.

A key element of NYC’s strategy is a rigorous contact-tracing program. The department’s Test & Trace Corps contacts students, teachers and staff to identify instances of student-to-student or teacher-to-teacher transmissions. The results are communicated to department officials and, if necessary, schools can be placed under short-term classroom quarantine for up to 10 days, or closed if a link between two cases cannot be established.

New York City also has a program that places students in hotels in the event of mandatory isolation, which has helped to mitigate the impact of isolation on vulnerable students. This is particularly important for students living in fragile housing, who will struggle to access remote learning without a private space to focus in. Research shows that students in these circumstances have lower academic achievement levels and are more likely to drop out of high school. To address these issues, advocates are calling for a policy to prioritize in-person teaching for students from families who live in unstable housing.