Mayor Mamdani announced New York City’s public schools will reopen Tuesday, even as a blizzard continued dumping snow throughout the region.
“School will be in person tomorrow,” Mamdani said at a press conference Monday. “You can still pelt me with snow balls when you see me.”
Public school families had seen their midwinter break extended unexpectedly due to the blizzard. While many kids cheered the return to a traditional snow day Monday without remote learning, many parents said they were ready to send the kids back to school.
Monday’s old-fashioned snow day was the first of its kind since 2019, before the pivot to remote learning during the pandemic. The rise of remote learning, combined with a school calendar increasingly packed with holidays, threatened to end traditional snow days forever.
Parents and students have consistently complained about the hassles of remote learning, and lobbied for genuine, old-school days off.
Mamdani said the state granted a waiver from the required 180 days of learning to allow for the traditional snow day on Monday. He cited the logistical challenges tied to the midwinter break, which was last week.
The break made it harder to ensure all kids had their devices for remote learning. Some students and teachers were also still stuck in transit from their vacations after hundreds of flights were canceled due to the storm.
