NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio says NYC Schools will reopen elementary schools next week from Monday, December 7. Mayor Bill de Blasio said New York City schools will begin the process of reopening on Dec. 7, despite the 3% positive test rate for Covid-19 he had set for closing the schools. He said the reopening would begin with pre-kindergarten classes through elementary school. Special education would begin three days later. He said the city “is just not ready” to begin opening middle and high schools. “There’s less concern about the spread when it comes to younger kids,” de Blasio said in a news conference. “And I feel for all our parents who are feeling so many challenges now.” He shut the schools on Nov. 19 after the city positive test rate rose above 3%, the level set earlier this year for shuttering schools again.