You are reading

Catholic School Students in Queens and Brooklyn Offered Online Learning Option

Online learning (Photo by Giovanni Gagliardi on Unsplash)

Sept. 14, 2021 By Allie Griffin

Catholic school students in Queens and Brooklyn have the option to learn fully online, the Diocese said Monday — the same day public school students returned to school with no remote option at all.

Elementary and middle school students at Catholic academies across Queens and Brooklyn can attend school remotely through St. Thomas Aquinas Online Catholic Academy. The school offers fully online classes for students in Kindergarten through eighth grade.

“The Diocese of Brooklyn has worked hard to provide this opportunity to continue online learning for the students and families who wanted it to continue,” said Dr. Thomas Chadzutko, Superintendent of the Schools.

Catholic schools in Queens and Brooklyn opened for in person classes last Wednesday.

Meanwhile, students at public schools across the city are required to attend class in person with no option to switch to remote learning.

Elected officials and parents have called on the mayor and the Department of Education to offer a remote option for the 2021-2022 school year. They cite the highly contagious delta variant and the inability to vaccinate students under age 12 as reasons to have a remote option.

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards; Assembly Members Catalina Cruz, Nily Rozic, Catherine Nolan, Brian Barnwell, Daniel Rosenthal and Jessica González-Rojas; and State Senators Joseph Addabbo and John Liu have all demanded that the city offer a remote option.

“Placing our children in environments where community spread is certain… is the wrong decision that overrides the innate instinct of parents to protect their children,” Cruz wrote in a letter last week to the schools chancellor, which was signed by several state legislators.

Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter have remained committed to full in-person instruction for the city’s more than one million public school students. They have dismissed requests for a remote option.

The Catholic Diocese, on the other hand, is offering remote learning in response to the demands of parents.

“We know there are people who remain uncomfortable with returning to in-person learning and want to continue learning online,” Chadzutko said. “They should have this option and St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Online Academy provides just that.”

More than 150 students are currently enrolled in the online program and registration remains open.

email the author: news@queenspost.com
No comments yet

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Jamaica man indicted in 2018 cold-case murder of Brooklyn rapper at a Woodhaven bar: DA

A Queens grand jury indicted a Jamaica man for the fatal drive-by shooting of a rapper outside a Woodhaven pub in 2018.

Johnathan Rice, 43, of 178th Street, was arraigned on Friday on an indictment charging him with murder in the second degree for allegedly gunning down 35-year-old Frank Synder, a Brooklyn hip hop performer and party promoter known as “Hollywood Play,” outside the Tavern Lounge in Woodhaven, where he was hosting an event for a friend’s birthday.

Richmond Hill man sentenced for killing two South Ozone Park neighbors in drunk driving collision last year: DA

A Richmond Hill man was sentenced Monday to seven to 21 years in prison for a drunk driving collision that killed two neighbors from South Ozone Park in June 2023.

Tamir Khan, 23, of 117th Street, pleaded guilty in Queens Supreme Court in July to aggravated vehicular homicide and DWI charges for speeding through a Richmond Hill intersection and slamming into a vehicle driven by Inderdeo John, who was driving Charles Harris to his job as a custodian at a nearby public school.

South Richmond Hill senior killed after fire breaks out in his illegal basement apartment on Thursday afternoon

A 72-year-old man was killed after a fire engulfed his illegal basement apartment in South Richmond Hill on Thursday afternoon.

The FDNY received a call just after 5 p.m. of a house fire at 94-14 132nd St. Firefighters confirmed the blaze broke out in the basement. The FDNY dispatched 12 units and 60 firefighters and EMS personnel to the scene. Paramedics rescued the 72-year-old victim, and EMS rushed him to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition. He succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead a short while later.