School started Monday for about a million New York City public school students in the nation’s largest experiment of in-person learning during the coronavirus pandemic.
The first day of school coincided with several milestones in the city’s pandemic recovery that hinge on vaccine mandates.
Nearly all of the city’s 300,000 employees were required to be back in their workplaces, in person, Monday as the city ended remote work. Most will either need to be vaccinated, or undergo weekly Covid-19 testing to remain in their jobs.
There will also be a vaccine mandate — with no test-out option — for teachers, though they have been given until Sept.27 to get their first shot.
Unlike some school districts across the country that are still offering online instruction to families that prefer it, New York City officials provided no remote option despite the persistence of the highly transmissible delta variant of Covid-19.
