#NYC elementary schools to reopen for in-person learning Dec. 7

New York City’s public elementary schools will return to partial in-person learning Dec. 7 — while middle- and high-schools students will have to wait, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday.

Kids in grades K-5 and in pre-K centers will head back because there “is less concern about spread” of the virus among them, while the demands of all-virtual learning on their parents are greatest, the mayor said.

Special-ed students will be allowed to return to hybrid learning Dec. 10.

But the mayor said it is unclear when the older students will return to hybrid learning.

“We look forward to the day we can reopen [the middle and high] schools. But we’re just not able to do that yet,’’ de Blasio said on a phone call with reporters.

He added that testing is being ramped up, with 20 percent of students and staffers involved in in-person learning to now be randomly tested weekly instead of the current monthly.

The city’s public schools opened to a mix of online and in-class learning in October, only for their buildings to be shut down, leaving the kids with virtual-only instruction, Nov. 19 after a local spike in COVID-19.

Last week, the mayor took it on the chin for acknowledging he closed down the schools without any reopening plan in place.

“The better situation would have been, clearly, to have that plan all worked through in advance,” de Blasio admitted to reporters at the time.