In-person learning creates dilemma for New York's poorest families

As the first day of school approaches, New York's poorest - often uninsured families - face a risky choice: send kids to school where they could contract coronavirus, or keep them home for online classes, potentially compromising their academic progress and preventing parents from working.

New York, the largest school district in the United States with 1.1 million students, is the only major city nationwide to offer in-person classes.

Maria - a Mexican domestic worker who lives in Queens, who asked for her last name not be used as she is undocumented - decided to send her children aged seven and 14 to class, despite much uncertainty over protocol.

"Are schools equipped to safely welcome children? What days will they go? They talk about classes outdoors - what happens when it rains?" asked the 35-year-old mother during a weekly free food distribution in the borough's Corona neighborhood.

The city's poorest families, generally black or of immigrant origin, cannot afford to hire tutors to support their online learning, as many children of wealthier families are doing. | A man receives a package during a food distribution in Queens.

And, like Maria, most parents of modest means must leave the home to work - if they did not lose their jobs to the pandemic, that is.

Many cities, such as Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Miami, opted instead for the virtual model. New York is the only major city to offer a hybrid option, as long as the infection rate stays below three percent.

Currently it is hovering at 0.9 percent, far lower than the national average. But after a dispute with a prominent teachers' union - which called for more safety measures and threatened a strike - in-person classes were delayed from September 10 to September 21.

Many low-income New York parents - who were disproportionately hard-hit by coronavirus, suffer more from chronic diseases and often lack health insurance - do not want to send their children to school.

More than 365,000 public school students, or 37 percent, opted to take classes solely online, according to the city's government.

Both the mayor and education experts have urged children from low-income families to attend school in person, to avoid falling behind their wealthier peers.