Beginning the week of January 11, the district will begin its final four-day per week phase-in for grades nine, 10 and 11 at William Floyd High School. Below is the timeline.

• 9^th and 11^th grades will return to four days per week beginning on Monday, January 11;
• 10^th grade will return to four days the following week on Tuesday, January 19, after the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
• Wednesdays will continue to remain an all virtual day.
• The all-virtual learning option will continue to be available to students.

According to New York State and Suffolk County health and government officials, schools continue to be the safest places in the community for students as a result of multiple precautions in place including desk shields, masks, the use of filters with increased MERV or Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value ratings, social distancing, thorough cleansing and sanitizing efforts along with aggressive contract tracing and strict quarantine standards. Grades K-8 and seniors, have been attending four days per week since the onset of Stage II in early November.

“With the success of K-8 and 12^th grade attending four days per week, along with data from the health department stating that schools are the safest places to be, now is the time to get our remaining two-day hybrid high school students back in school four days per week,” said Kevin M. Coster, Superintendent of Schools, William Floyd School District. “Students learn best in person and this is the next step in our ultimate goal of getting our students back to in-person school five days per week.”

As previously stated, the all-virtual option will continue to be available to students and their families (see below for details), and this change will not affect any students in self-contained classes, who will continue to attend school five days per week.

Please see below for some additional questions and answers:

Q: If I am not comfortable sending my child in four days per week under this scenario, can I switch from in-person to virtual?
A: Yes. Students and their families will be able to switch if they are not comfortable. Please contact your child’s school counselor to make the request.

Q: What if my child is currently on the all-virtual option and we would like to re-enter in-person learning?
A: Switching from the full-virtual option to in-person learning is allowable. Please contact your child's guidance counselor to request the switch. For 9th and 11th graders, please notify your child's counselor by Monday, January 11. For 10th graders, please notify your child's school counselor by Tuesday, January 19.

Q: Won’t having more students in school result in more cases of COVID?
A: It is possible that cases may increase as they have increased in the community over the last two months, but our state and county health experts continue to state clearly that schools are NOT spreading COVID-19 due to the multiple measures in place as outlined above. Additionally, the Department of Health data* has shown that schools are the safest place to be for students. When the district learns of a case from a parent, it acts swiftly with contact tracing, quarantining and cleaning to ensure - to the best of its ability - that it does not spread. (*Newsday: Health Officials: As COVID-19 surges, LI schools remain safe for children)

Q: Should we expect more closures at the high school as a result of this change?
A: Possibly. With an increased number of students attending more days per week, contact tracing will, in some instances, take more time than it has. As a result, we may be forced to close the high school more often in a precautionary manner to complete contact tracing. As has been the normal procedure throughout this school year, we will post updates to the district website and only make a districtwide phone call in the event of a school closure.

Q: Why four days and not five days? Why is Wednesday still an all-virtual learning day?
A: Coming off of a full shutdown caused by the pandemic, getting all of our hybrid students back to four days successfully is the next step toward a full re-opening of five days per week in the future. Additionally, Wednesdays are still needed for educators to record lessons for students participating in the all-virtual option.