The decision looms this week over whether children and teachers will be heading back to the classroom and school officials say they are better prepared this time for handling the uncertainties of a global pandemic.  

But what if schools have to close their doors again, forcing students back home and creating yet another cycle of learning from a distance? It's a question schools are dealing with now as they prepapre to open their doors for the first time since March.

What You Need To Know

  • School districts are prepared to reopen for September, a decision that looms this week.

  • But what happens if schools must close their doors again if a second wave of the virus hits the state?

  • Schools would have no choice but to return everyone to the distance learning model.

  • The expectation is that would be disruptive once again.

"It will be terribly disruptive," said Robert Lowry of the New York State Council of School Superintendents. "But we learned something from having to go through this last spring. We have more time to prepare this year."

Schools would not close unless a region spikes to a 9 percent positive rate out of those tested over a rolling seven-day average. And if they do, New York State PTA President Kyle Belokopitsky says parents should expect to go back to distance learning. 

The difference this time: Schools have gotten better at it.

"What we do know is that remote this time will look different from remote last time," she said. "School districts in March and April were really scrambling to try and figure out what a remote instruction looks like. Now they've had many months to try and figure that out."

Schools have been tasked with developing a model that mixes distance learning with in-classroom instruction, building in that schedule now that could be a full time one for students if infection rates increase again. 

New York's infection rates have leveled off to about 1 percent out of the tens of thousands of people who are tested each day. But the concern is New York could experience a resurgence of the virus in the fall, just as flu season is beginning.

But as Bob Schneider of the School Boards Association says, the challenge will be to make sure students across the state and across diverse geographies will have the equipment needed to learn online. Ultimately, that's going to be a question answered by more money.

"That's a big hurdle," he said. "We want to make sure all students in urban, suburban and rural school districts have the same ability to learn." 

Ultimately whether a student goes back to a physical classroom will be up to parents and guardians, many of whom need to get back to their own jobs. And that decision, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Monday, is built on emotion. 

"Just because I say the infection rate is low," he said, "that's not going to cause a parent to send a child back to school."