The reason that so many parents in NYC are angry about the rollercoaster with schools is that we have been lied to and gaslit so many times. Since March, we have been told that schools could reopen if we just had....1/

Containment (this goes without saying), testing, tracing, sanitation protocols, masks, distancing and small cohorts. So now we have every single one of these things. We were told that schools would close if the *citywide* rate reached 3%+ (still lower than state rate). 2/

NYC has one of the most robust testing programs in the world. Family in the UK are having trouble finding a test when they are symptomatic, and we in NYC can be tested for free, any time, no questions asked. 3/

We invested heavily in contact tracing. We have tracers borderline harassing families when they don't answer the call. We now have an app. 4/

We have layered multiple protections in our classrooms - ventilation (windows), small cohorts, social distancing, masks, hand sanitizing, no sharing of materials, no mixing of cohorts. This is literally the most stringent set of protocols of any municipality. 5/

Now our neighborhood schools are closed, despite the fact that our ENTIRE ZIP CODE has had 30 cases in the last 7 days out of a population of 75k people. Why does the goalpost keep moving? We will never reach 0 cases in this city, nor on this globe. 6/

Many countries in Western Europe are in a second wave, where cases are up but fatalities remain fairly low. Despite this, countries are keeping schools open, and many are not requiring masks for young students. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/coronavirus-outbreaks-schools-europe/2020/09/27/0dd19bf6-ff48-11ea-b0e4-350e4e60cc91_story.html 7/

We deserve a consistent bar that does not continue to be raised each time we manage to reach it. Our children are safe in school, and this is where they belong.