Governor Andrew Cuomo says New York's schools will remain closed for the rest of the 2020 school year because of the coronavirus outbreak, with a decision on summer school coming by the end of May.
The governor says distance learning plans will continue, as will school meal offerings and daycare programs for children of essential workers.
Whether schools open in the fall depends on falling infection rates, but the governor says New York's 700 school districts as well as private schools should begin planning now for the difficult task of reopening. He says they'll need to plan for keeping students and employees safe, how they'll work around social distancing, and how they'll make children comply with the rules when "kids will be kids." Couomo says each district is responsible for developing its own plan and each plan will be approved by the state. The same will apply to the state's colleges and universities. Cuomo would not say if schools will definitely open in the fall.
Meanwhile, Governor Cuomo says the number of new COVID-19 cases per day statewide is now hovering in the high 900's, down from a thousand or more. He says an effort with the state's hospitals is being launched to gather more on who those new cases are and how they're being infected, with an eye to substantially cutting into those numbers. Cuomo says it's primarily downstate and the Buffalo area that are the majority sources of these new cases.
Cuomo also called on New Yorkers to take advantage of the state's mental health and domestic violence hotlines and programs. He said drug an alcohol use are up substantially, and Domestic Violence cases rose by 30 percent in April.
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