New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says public schools will be all in person this fall

• New York City schools will be all in person this fall with no remote options, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
• After closing schools in March 2020, New York City was one of the first large U.S. cities to reopen school buildings in the fall of that year, but the majority of parents chose online-only learning for their children.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, greets Pedro Garcia on his first day of pre-school, New York City pre-school students began in-person school following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the Queens borough of New York City, U.S., September 21, 2020.

Brendan McDermid | Reuters

New York City schools will be all in person this fall with no remote options, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday.

"We can't have a full recovery without full-strength schools, everyone back, sitting in those classrooms, kids learning again," de Blasio said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

The roughly 1 million students who attend traditional public schools will be in their classrooms with some version of the coronavirus protocols that have been in place in the current academic year, including mask-wearing and Covid-19 testing, de Blasio said.

"It's time. It's really time to go full strength now," he said.

After closing schools in March 2020, New York City was one of the first large U.S. cities to reopen school buildings in the fall of that year, but the majority of parents chose online-only learning for their children.