Upper West Side COVID: 30 Schools Dealing With Cases

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — The Upper West Side had its most schools dealing with positive COVID-19 cases this week since the start of the academic year.

An eye-catching 30 public schools in the neighborhood had either closed a classroom or imposed a partial quarantine due to a coronavirus exposure, according to the interactive map from the Department of Education. Here's the breakdown.

Full breakdown:

Partial quarantines

• P.S. 165 Robert E. Simon (234 West 109th Street)
• Mott Hall II (234 West 109th Street)
• P.S. 145 The Bloomingdale School (150 West 105th Street)
• West Prep Academy (150 West 105th Street)
• P.S. 163 Alfred E. Smith School (163 West 97th Street)
• P.S. 75 Emily Dickinson Scool (735 West End Avenue)
• M.S. 250 West Side Collaborative Middle School (735 West End Avenue)
• P.S. 333 Manhattan School for Children (154 West 93rd Street)
• Community Action School (154 West 93rd Street)
• P.S. 84 Lillian Weber (132 West 92nd Street)
• P.S. 166 The Richard Rodgers School (132 West 89th Street)
• P.S. M811 Mickey Mantle School (466 West End Avenue)
• M.S. 243 Center School (100 West 84th Street)
• P.S. 9 Sarah Anderson School (100 West 84th Street)
• P.S. 87 William Sherman (160 West 78th Street)
• Dual Language Middle School (100 West 77th Street)
• The Computer School (100 West 77th Street)
• The Anderson School (100 West 77th Street)
• Hunter Science High School (122 Amsterdam Avenue)
• Urban Assembly School for Media Studies (122 Amsterdam Avenue)
• High School for Law, Advocacy and Community Justice (122 Amsterdam Avenue)
• High School of Arts and Technology (122 Amsterdam Avenue)
• Fiorello LaGuardia High School of Music & Performing Arts (100 Amsterdam Avenue)
• P.S. 452 (210 West 61st Street)
• The Riverside School for Makers and Artists (300 West 61st Street)

Classrooms closed

• The Child Center of New York (169 West 87th Street)
• Innovation Diploma Plus (145 West 84th Street)
• The Urban Assembly School for Green Careers (145 West 84th Street)
• Frank McCourt High School (145 West 84th Street)
• The Global Learning Collaborative (145 West 84th Street)

A noticeable and understandable trend is that almost all the schools with COVID cases are in the same buildings as other schools with positives.

Once a common headache for parents, full school closures have become far less common this year thanks to a revised policy by the DOE.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has vowed to keep schools open despite the ongoing omicron surge. On Tuesday, he announced that in-school testing would double in the new year, while pledging to allow asymptomatic students who test negative at home to return to school the next day.

Two million at-home test kits will be sent starting Jan. 2 to students who had contact with the virus.

"These test kits are going to help us fight back yet another wave of COVID," de Blasio said. "This guarantees more consistency in their education."

But both the City Council's Education Committee chair and union officials contended Tuesday the amped-up testing policy didn't come soon enough or address an underlying problem of parents not giving consent to test their kids in school.

While overall hospitalizations are still well below their all-time highs in the city, admissions among children have surged in recent weeks, according to the Health Department.

Patch reporter Nick Garber contributed to this report.