NY CUPERTINO, CA—In the wake of a massive shutdown, New York schools across the state closed Friday for the second day in a row.
New York State Education Department spokesperson Stephanie Houghton confirmed to Ars that the state had shut down all schools across New York for the day.
She said in a statement, “In light of the new school year, all schools are closed for the duration of the school year.
No exceptions.”
Houghtons spokesperson also said that the schools closed on Friday were not closed during the shutdown, but only after schools had been closed by the previous day.
The state of New York said it had closed all schools for the remainder of the month of December.
The closure of the schools was first announced Friday evening by the New York Governor’s office, with HoughTON clarifying that the closure was a voluntary effort.
It has been reported that the governor had announced the closure of all New York public schools on Friday night, but that was not confirmed.
New Yorkers are now eligible to register for classes on January 15, with the deadline for registering being Tuesday.
Hough said that there are some classes that have been open since October that will reopen on Monday.
She also said she could not say whether any classes have been closed because of the shutdown.
“I’m not going to tell you what schools will be closed, because I want to keep it very simple,” Hough told Ars.
“The fact that I can’t tell you exactly what schools are closing is not because I don’t want to tell people, because they’re not the students.
They’re not getting their classes, they’re going to school.”
The state closed schools for nearly four days in the first week of December, and the state’s Board of Education has been investigating whether schools were mismanaged, underperforming, and in need of special attention.
A special session of the New Jersey Legislature is set to begin on January 20, and some of the lawmakers who have signed onto the legislation have said they believe the closures were necessary.
The New York Times reported on Friday that the governors office in New York would announce an interim plan for closing schools, with some schools already closing in the city and others expected to close in the coming days.
“We’re going into this week with the idea that we’re going for some kind of temporary closure of some schools,” New York Gov.
Andrew Cuomo said in an interview on WCBS, the CBS affiliate in New Orleans.
Cuomo has said that New York state will continue to close schools during the first three months of the year, with no plans to close them again until after the New Year.