New York City schools will remain closed through the remainder of the week in the days following the passage of Superstorm Sandy through the country's most populous city.
Classes are canceled for students Thursday and Friday, with hopes of reopening to the city's 1.1 million students by Monday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said during a press conference Wednesday afternoon. Teachers and administrators will return for the workday Friday.
The city is slowly restoring public transportation and rectifying power outages as businesses gradually reopen for regular operations.
Hurricane, then Superstorm Sandy swept across the Eastern Seaboard this week, killing 50 so far across the devastated states -- 27 in New York.
The storm closed thousands of schools along the east coast, leaving millions of students without class. Many of those districts -- including D.C. public schools and districts in Pennsylvania and New Jersey -- reopened for classes Wednesday.
Scotch Plains-Fanwood schools in New Jersey and Long Island schools, however, remain closed.
News of the full week without school in New York City might not be the most welcome for many. While sparse weather-related school closings have a substantially smaller impact on student learning than learning loss generally experienced during summer breaks, students will still have to make up for lost time, cutting into scheduled vacations.
Missing just a few days from the regular school year means falling behind on preparations for state standardized exams -- tests that often factor into a student's eligibility to be promoted, a teacher's evaluation, a school's overall score and funding it can receive from the state.
Just a series of delayed openings and early dismissals from a snow storm last January led to midterm exam cancellations in Monroe, Conn. The tests became optional for those who wanted the scores to be factored into their final grades.
Weather make-up days or modifying school days to account for lost hours also tend to affect family schedules and arrangements as well as school sports and after-school activities.
For more information on school closings in New York City, visit the district website. And here's how to help victims of the storm.
