For most NYC students, back to school, but not the classroom

Monday’s return to New York City schools won’t be the return anyone planned for. Only pre-kindergarten and some special education students are scheduled to end a six-month absence from school buildings after a last-minute decision to postpone, for the second time, plans to be among the first big districts to resume in-person instruction after the coronavirus forced students and staff home. Schoolchildren in kindergarten through 12th grade are still starting the new school year Monday, but fully remotely, the same way students in Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and many of New York's other urban districts have.