Oct. 15, 2020 By Allie Griffin
Less than half of public school students in New York City are enrolled in blended learning, in which they combine in-person and remote learning.
More and more students and their parents are opting out of the blended model in favor of fully remote learning, according to data released by the Department of Education (DOE) last week.
Just 48 percent of the city’s 1.1 million public school students are still enrolled in the hybrid model, as of Friday, Oct. 9.
Back in August, about 70 percent of students were enrolled to begin blended learning model on the first day of school.
Many parents and educators have complained of the continuous confusion and changes they’ve had to face, such as the first day of school being pushed back and schools closing last week in cluster zones after they had already been open.
More than 525,500 students have opted out of the blended model to have all their classes online, according to the DOE.
In Queens, the number of families who have moved their children to remote learning varies by school district.
In School District 26, 66 percent of students are enrolled in remote-only learning. School Districts 25 and 28 each have 60 percent of their students doing online classes full time, while School District 24 has just 44 percent of students only doing remote learning.
Families can enroll in remote-only learning at any time, however they can only decide to switch back to blended learning on a quarterly basis. The window to enroll back into the blended model has not yet opened — and the numbers of students in each model could change when it does.