NY Gov. Cuomo says he won’t use kids as ‘guinea pigs,’ outlines school reopening rules

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday outlined the criteria to reopen school districts closed this fall, stressing that he wants to keep kids safe: “We’re not going to use our children as guinea pigs.”

School reopenings will be dictated by the state’s regional reopening plan, Cuomo said. Schools in regions that are in phase four of New York’s reopening plan are eligible to hold in-person classes this fall, but the area has to maintain a daily infection rate below 5{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f}, based on a 14-day average, he said. All regions of New York are currently in phase four of reopening except for New York City, which remains in phase three, according to the state.

“We test more, we have more data than any state, look at the data. If you have the virus under control: reopen,” he said at a news briefing. “If you don’t have the virus under control then you can’t reopen, right? We’re not going to use our children as a litmus test and we’re not going to put our children in a place where their health is endangered, it’s that simple.”

Decisions will be made on school reopenings in the first week of August, Cuomo said. He added that if the regional infection rate rises above 9{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f}, based on a 7-day average, after the first week of August, schools will not be allowed to reopen. 

For schools that do reopen, modifications to the classroom will be determined by local school districts, though the state Department of Education will be publishing guidance for local officials Monday, Cuomo said. Across the state, masks or face coverings will be required in schools when social distancing is not possible, he said.

Cuomo said the state will also provide guidance on “cohort structures” to group students in order to reduce exposure across the student body as well as other strategies to curb infection in schools.

“Every child and person entering will be screened,” he said. “Tracing has to work in the schools. Cleaning and closure procedures. That’s all in the guidelines.”

With the start of the school year rapidly approaching as the country’s coronavirus outbreak continues to expand, school reopenings have taken a central role in the national debate. President Donald Trump last week vowed to pressure governors into allowing schools to reopen for in-person learning, even threatening to cut funding to school districts that don’t reopen. Cuomo pushed back at the time, saying that the decision was not up to him nor the federal government. 

“Everybody wants to reopen the schools. It’s not do we reopen or not, you reopen if it’s safe to reopen. How do you know if it’s safe? You look at the data,” Cuomo said Monday. “You don’t hold your finger up and feel the wind, you don’t have an inspiration, you don’t have a dream, you don’t have an emotion. Look at the data.”

Proponents of aggressively reopening schools point to the social and economic cost of keeping schools closed and to data that indicates children are much less likely to become severely sick and die from Covid-19. However, kids have died of Covid-19 in the past and health officials have warned of possible long-term health complications in kids who recover from the virus. 

“We’re not going to use our children as a litmus test and we’re not going to put our children in a place where their health is endangered,” Cuomo said. “It’s that simple.”