Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Friday that all schools in New York State must remain closed for an additional two weeks until April 15 to ensure consistency and uniformity across the state in instructional time for this extraordinary school year. Schools will be required to continue childcare, meal and distance learning programs. The state will extend the 180-day waiver to April 15.
Some school districts in the Southern Tier had already planned to stay closed until the end of the spring break after county executives declared states of emergency two weeks ago. Cuomo’s mandate puts all schools in the state on the same schedule.
Cuomo said: “Public education is very important. It’s important to all of us on the other side of the balance beam is public health. I decided to close the public schools because I believed it was safer to close the schools and reduce the spread. We did that on March 18. We said we would do it for two weeks and then we would reassess the situation at the end of two weeks.”
