Diana O’Brien says her normally shy daughter Lily flourished in kindergarten until her public school shut down because of the coronavirus, and remote learning began.

“There were a lot of tears and a lot of fighting between us and then having my son trying to jump off the window at the same time, you know. It was juggling everything as every mom was,” O'Brien says.

What You Need To Know

  • Mayor de Blasio announced Thursday that in-person learning would not resume for most students until September 29

  • That decision caused some parents to explore private and parochial school options, where in-person classes have already begun

  • The Archdiocese of Brooklyn, which has 66 schools in Brooklyn and Queens, says enrollment for k - 8 grades has increased by 35 percent

  • Principals report even more inquiries and expect enrollment to increase

Still, O’Brien planned to send her five-year-old back to P.S. 30 for first grade. But this summer, she started to worry. 

O'Brien likes the school, but there were few details about how it planned to reopen, and she learned that because of a teacher shortage, Lily would be taught by a gym teacher and an art teacher rather than a regular first-grade teacher. And Lilly would be able to attend in person just one day a week.

“I wanted her in a place that was structured. I wanted her in a place that had a plan. I wanted a place that had procedures of safety, and it was in place and it was working,” she says.

So O’Brien is now one of many parents citywide who have pulled their children from the public schools out of frustration with the reopening plans.

The Education Department could not provide enrollment numbers, but the Diocese of Brooklyn, which operates 66 Catholic schools in Queens and Brooklyn, says about a third of them report increases in their K-8 enrollment. The Archdiocese of New York, which runs Catholic schools in Manhattan, Staten Island and the Bronx, said it could not provide similar figures.

O'Brien says the mayor’s last-minute decision Thursday to once again delay the start of in-person learning confirmed to her that she made the right decision, even though she's struggling to pay tuition, and Lily is only in class two or three days a week."

"We’re sacrificing,. 'Alright, I’ll go without extra shoes or whatever. whatever I need to do to cut corners to pay for it,' and she’s happy" she says. "We’re only in three days this week, and the difference in her just being around peers, a teacher, learning using her brain again, you can’t beat it.”

Leaving the DOE doesn’t come without its risks. If there is a second wave of the coronavirus and things shut down again, parents face the possibility of paying for a fully remote education. 

Still, they say it’s a chance they’re willing to take.