When we are able to start in-person instruction, it needs to meet the measures we outline below. We have been working with the NYC DOE to ensure our buildings meet the necessary requirements to guarantee our students and staff are safe. Students who opt into in-person instruction in October, will experience two or more days of in-person instruction a week with the remaining days consisting of live and prerecorded virtual classes. When in the school building, classes will have no more than 12 students who will spend the vast majority of the day together. Below, we outline the ways in which our reopening plan takes into consideration all the key elements outlined in the State’s, DOH’s, Board of Regents’, and SUNY’s guidance.

In general, the three key changes to our in-person instruction for health and safety include: limiting capacity to 1 person per 50 square feet, ensuring 6 feet of distance between people inside the building, and mandating masks or face coverings are worn at all times.

Building Capacity

All Explore Schools are in NYC DOE buildings. The NYC DOE Office of School Planning provided us with social distance guidelines aligned to the number and size of classrooms each of our schools occupies. We have utilized that information to design our approach to re-entry into our buildings and will follow the 1 person to 50 square feet guidance we were provided. While this means only a portion of our students can attend in-person classes at a time, we know it will help keep all our students and staff safe.

Social Distancing

All schoolwide procedures and classrooms will include social distancing of 6 feet whenever possible. We have revised all schoolwide procedures with social distancing in mind. Schools will have barriers (such as Desk Dividers) for use in main offices, high traffic areas, as well as for staff to use for 1 on 1 student support and/or conferencing. Please see below for additional information (see operational activity).

PPE and Face Coverings

As a network, we will require all members of our community wear masks at all times. Our school will provide cloth masks for all staff and students, with disposable masks on hand when needed. Arrival procedures will require that masks are worn before entering school buildings. We know that mask wearing can be uncomfortable, especially for our little ones. We will ask for family support in helping to encourage mask wearing and how to do so properly, covering both the nose and mouth. We will also have a supply of face shields and KN95 masks (if we can secure them) at each school for use when needed. Students without their own mask will be provided one when they arrive at school. Should a student refuse to wear a mask, they will be referred to the culture team and we will work with families to find a solution that meets our health and safety standards.

Schoolwide Procedures

Most, if not all, schoolwide procedures will feel different and are being updated to accommodate important health and hygiene practices, including social distancing. Anticipating the changes, we are planning on how to best build a positive, welcoming environment to prevent these changes from feeling overwhelming and intimidating. Below, we’ve outlined some of the significant adjustments we are making to our procedures.

• Cohorts: To accommodate social-distancing guidelines, students will be assigned to groups of approximately 12 students with one teacher. There will be a total of 4 cohorts per grade. Groups will spend most of the time in one classroom with teachers rotating in and out.

• Staggered Schedule: Daily schedules will be staggered to reduce crowding at arrival and dismissal. This will help speed up the screening processes at arrival and help us adhere to social distancing measures during transitions. Staggered schedules for student groups will be shared with families prior to the launch of in-person school.

• Arrival & Dismissal: During arrival and dismissal our priority will be to ensure a safe and orderly environment for students to come to/from school. We have staggered schedules and created groups that will minimize congestion during these periods. We ask all families and students to adhere to the following during arrival and dismissal:

1. Wear a mask and maintain social distancing of 6 feet.

2. At arrival, stay with your child until they have completed their health screen and entered the building.

3. Students must be dropped off and picked up at the assigned thresholds outside. Families may not enter the building for classroom drop off. If you need to enter the building, please refer to our visitor policy.

4. Students taking yellow bus or van service will be escorted to their drivers. We require all drivers to wear masks and follow our visitor policies if needing to enter the building.

• Late Arrival/Pick-Up: If your child is late for school, please follow the visitor policy to receive a health screening and late pass. Similarly, please follow the visitor policy to enter the building for late pick up. Families that are consistently late for arrival or pick-up will be asked to meet with a school administrator.

• Use of Space: We are converting offices and other spaces into classrooms to add instructional spaces without crowding classrooms. Each full-sized classroom will be limited to just 12 students with one teacher.

• Shared Spaces: We’re working with our co-located schools to best determine how our shared spaces, like auditoriums and gyms, can be used. Check in with your school administrators for more information on this.

• Transitions: Scheduled transitions throughout the building are staggered to minimize congestion and ensure students can move safely and freely. We’ve also added the following guidelines for transitions:

  • Community members will be asked to wear their masks and distance during all transition periods. Physical visuals and markers will be installed to support with safety reminders.

  • Stairwells and hallways will be staggered and designated one way when possible to manage volume and allow adequate space to be maintained.

  • Single file routes will be created throughout the building to ensure less dense hallways during transitions.

  • Student elevator usage must be coordinated, and elevator capacity limits must be adhered to.

  • All transitions should be monitored to ensure safety protocols are being met

Preparing School Buildings

In the weeks and months leading up to the launch of in-person instruction, we will prepare and evaluate the buildings to ensure the NYCDOE custodial services and the NYC Division of School Facilities (DSF) has performed all the necessary preparations to keep our students and staff safe while at school. In addition to thoroughly cleaning and disinfecting the buildings, the DOE has pledged to complete the following in advance of opening:

• To support additional handwashing, they are maximizing the number of sinks available for use. This includes repairing all school restroom sinks, toilets, and urinals before the first day of school.

• To improve air circulation, the DOE is making improvements to central HVAC systems, repairing air conditioners, and replacing regular air filters with higher efficiency types.

• The custodial staff is planning to conduct increased cleanings throughout the school day with special attention to high-touch areas and will have a log to document cleaning cycles.

• Lastly, they will be conducting lead testing to clear rooms and water for use.

To ensure the HVAC upgrades are completed prior to our return to the building, we will conduct a review with an external partner to determine air circulation and filtration quality. And finally, we are planning a deliberate return to the building, bringing in cohorts of students in a phased approach in order to ensure a smooth re-entry to our buildings.

We will be ensuring that our spaces are cleared and ready for instruction. This includes:

• Setting up furniture so that distancing is in place

• Adding wellness barriers for any high traffic areas or for activities that require closer contact

• Installing hand sanitizer stations throughout the building and making it available in all rooms

• Determining which other spaces (offices and outside areas) can be used for instruction and preparing those spaces

• Creating a supply of disposable passes and name tags

• Designating spaces away from students for personal care (e.g. blowing nose, coughing, sneezing), as needed

• Adding floor markers and signage to designate how students will move around to ensure social distancing and traffic flow while in the classroom

Hygiene, Cleaning, & Disinfecting

Schools will be providing increased opportunities for students and staff to wash hands or use hand sanitizer throughout the day, including scheduled time to teach and practice good hygiene. Hand sanitizer and/or soap and water access will be available in every room and throughout communal spaces and hallways (including near elevators, gyms, building entrances.) All students can easily sanitize hands anytime. We have adjusted the capacity of all restrooms to align with our revised social distancing guidelines. At a minimum, hand washing or hand sanitizing will be part of arrival, dismissal, before and after meals, and before/after touching communal items. Students will be encouraged to hand wash with soap and water for 20 seconds. Please review the CDC hand washing guidelines so you can re-enforce the guidelines at home. Our staff will be taking time to clean school supplies, manipulatives, libraries, etc. daily and all staff will receive training in advance of returning on all safety and hygiene protocols they will need to follow during the school year. Additionally, the following considerations will be taken with physical materials:

• Limiting sharing whenever possible (seats, desks, tech)

• Providing students Individual supplies whenever possible (glue sticks, scissors, math manipulatives)

• Limiting use of areas that don’t allow distancing (e.g. classroom closets, carpet time)

• We will ask that students bring in/take home personal belongings daily with student items stored at their seats

Meals & Snacks

All meals and snacks at school will take place in classrooms to reduce transitions and maintain social distancing. We will rely on NYCDOE School Foods to ensure that service personnel follow all appropriate guidelines for safety as recommended by the NYCDOH. The school will train school staff as needed to reinforce the protocols adopted by food service and custodial personnel to ensure healthy, safe meals and the least disruption to the instructional day. Free grab-and-go meals will be provided for all students, regardless of which instructional model they’ve chosen. Please help us by reminding your child it is not safe to share food.

• Grab-and-go meals will be available for breakfast and lunch daily.

• Students will also be permitted to bring their own lunch or snack to school, however, please keep in mind that they will not have access to a refrigerator or microwave.

• All food will be distributed using gloves.

• Masks will be removed only for eating and must be put on immediately after eating.

• All mealtimes will incorporate handwashing/sanitizing.

• All snacks given to students will be individually packaged.

• We are looking into how we can offer students water during the school day safely. Please reach out to your school administration for more on this.

Transportation

If possible, we encourage families to plan for alternative modes of transportation for their children that minimizes COVID-19 transmission risk, such as walking, biking, or driving to school. We understand that this may not be feasible for all families and we will continue to provide Metrocards to students that qualify and need one. Below, please find additional transportation information currently available. We anticipate receiving additional details on DOE Yellow School Bus transportation soon.

Yellow School Bus: Yellow school bussing will be provided to all students who qualify. We rely on NYCDOE Pupil Transportation to ensure that school bus companies and personnel follow all appropriate guidelines for safety. Families that rely on NYC public transportation will be provided with full information and guidance for using public buses, subways, and taxis according to NYCDOH rules.

MTA Metrocards: Metrocards will be distributed at the beginning of our in-person start date and again mid-year for students that qualify. If you’d like to request a Metrocard for your child, please reach out to the school’s Main Office.

Private Van Services: Explore Schools does not provide or endorse any private van service. If families choose to use private van services, we ask that they are vetted and agree to baseline safety measures, including:

• Requiring all passengers to wear a mask

• Seating arrangements that allow for distancing

• Windows down whenever weather permits

• Response procedures in the event of a possible transmission

Recess

Recess will be built into all schedules so that students have an opportunity to socialize and relax. To maximize safety during this time, we will be implementing the following:

• Recess will take place in small groups outdoors whenever possible.

• When recess must be indoors, the number of students in each group will be further limited to ensure social distancing.

• Capacity on playground equipment and play gyms will be limited to ensure social distancing.

• Wearing masks and distancing will are required during recess time.

• Recess activities and games will be limited to non-contact activities.

• Equipment used during recess will be cleaned regularly.

• Staff recess monitors will have safety materials including extra masks and hand sanitizer.

• Hand sanitizing and hand washing will be included into the recess routine.

Group Gatherings/Assemblies/Community Circle

Gatherings (assemblies, community circle, etc.) will be drastically altered to ensure the health and safety of our students and staff. The below guidance will be adopted for all in-person gatherings. The school will not be hosting large in-person assemblies and will continue to use online platforms for large gatherings. In-person celebrations, including birthdays will be avoided.

• We will no longer have any large in-person group assemblies and congregate events

• There will be no in-person celebrations. The school staff will work to find alternative virtual gatherings or other socially distanced activities for celebrations.

  • No birthday in-person parties will be allowed on school grounds

  • No sharing food or other personal items (e.g. treat bags)

Visitor Policy

For safety purposes, all visitors need to sign in and report to the main office (or designated area) for screening. When signing in, visitors must include contact information and spaces they will visit in the event that contact tracing is necessary. All visitors must adhere to our safety and hygiene policies, including participation in a health screening, wearing a mask, and social distancing. To protect our capacity guidance, non-essential visitors will not be allowed.

We are encouraging all school family meetings to take place virtually. If an in-person visit is absolutely necessary, it must be scheduled 48 hours in advance by calling the school’s Main Office. If it is deemed that contact tracing is needed, see the section below on responding to a confirmed COVID-19 case.

Vulnerable Populations

Our reopening plan is designed to provide families flexibility—where families will be able to opt into either a hybrid or fully-remote option. We believe family choice is essential, understanding that some students have underlying conditions that will warrant them to remain home and some parents will feel safer if their children stay in a remote setting. Given our plan is to provide both remote and in-person instruction to our families, this will require a significant portion of our staff to be on-site to offer in-person instruction and to operate school buildings. To determine who will be able to remain remote, we are asking all staff to complete an accommodation survey where they can indicate if they have an underlying health condition, live with someone who does, or have other reasons that would prevent them from returning to the building. Through this process, staff are also able to request additional PPE that would help them feel safer returning to the buildings.

Mental Health, Behavioral, and Emotional Support Services & Programs

With everything our staff and families have gone through, it’s incredibly important to us that mental health play a critical role in our health and safety plan. We recognize that the communities our schools serve have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. In terms of mental and emotional needs, we are engaging in a partnership with Crime Victims Treatment Center to train our staff on how to identify trauma and how to employ trauma informed practices in their daily instruction. This training is occurring both during the summer and into the school year. Our schedules will provide the time for all students to process issues relating to race, trauma, and health together. This training includes how to identify and support students who may be struggling with the return to in-person instruction or instruction in general while still being remote. Additionally, we are also providing counseling services to staff—services that will be provided on-site or virtually. We have compiled resources for families that include mental health referral information as well as engagement activities for families while continuing to shelter in place. These resources and more can be found at our website, here. Finally, we have a COVID-19 Emergency Relief fund that families can access by completing this form if they have any needs that aren't currently being met.