Assemblymember Rebecca Seawright is urging City Hall to adopt a comprehensive COVID-19 testing program and other public health precautions to ensure the health and safety of the children, their families, teachers, and staff before schools open September 21.

“Numerous parents in our Assembly district have expressed concern that they want the NYC schools equipped with every possible safeguard,” the Assemblymember. “This must happen before any school opens. To do otherwise is to invite catastrophe and ignite another deadly round of contagious infection that will wipe away the progress made during this recovery period.”

The Assemblymember supports an action plan with more than 50 requirements proposed by the United Federation of Teachers, representing more than 80,000 teachers and staff.

The coronavirus pandemic forced schools to close in March and transfer classes to online platforms. The City of New York is forging ahead with a combination of online and in-classroom learning. The plan calls for most students to attend in person one to three days a week and to learn at home for the remainder.

“We must protect our educators and our students in every possible way. Our teachers are rightly worried that the city must do more if our school buildings are to open safely,” said Seawright.

The highest priority is the mandatory testing of all students and teachers before returning to in-classroom instruction. “Too many lives are at stake for the city to rush this. Our highest priority must be safety,” said Seawright, a former Parent Teacher Association activist whose children attended public schools.

Elements of the UFT safety plan include:

• An expanded and comprehensive safety review that guarantees adequate supplies of respirators and other PPE, strict guidelines and rules for nurses, adequate ventilation, expanded sanitary, and social distancing requirements.

• Each school must have a COVID-19 building response team in place. This team is responsible for implementing all the procedures to keep that school safe. The team is responsible, first, for stopping COVID-19 from getting into the building, but if it does, for isolating the virus and dealing with it quickly.