This is our daily update following the reopening of NYC schools for Saturday, October 3rd, 2020.

Here's the latest:

As New York City's public schools begin in-person instruction, officials are encouraging educators to emphasize mental health. The city Department of Education has recommended that all school-based adults, including administrators, teachers, office staff, counselors and custodians, take part in trainings on trauma to help students cope.

Meanwhile, schools are holding talking circles and teaching breathing techniques to students, whether they’re learning in-person or online.

“The whole concept around social-emotional learning is to help children be able to identify their emotions, to put words to their feelings,” First Lady Chirlane McCray told WNYC/Gothamist in a visit to P.S. 130 in Windsor Terrace Friday. “Once we’re able to do that, we’re able to say what kind of constructive behavior, healthy behavior can be used to express that emotion.”

Last year, the city rolled out a new social-emotional learning curriculum to all elementary schools and restorative justice training for middle and high schools. This year’s emphasis on trauma-informed care builds on that initiative.

“When children come in now after months of being in all kinds of conditions … teachers can interact with these children in a way that helps them bring those emotions out,” she said. “It’s so important, because otherwise they can’t learn.”

On Friday, McCray and Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza joined P.S. 130 second graders in mixing together red, yellow, white and black paint to match the color of their skin. The students -- wearing masks and sitting at desks six feet apart -- then made handprints that would double as discussion prompts on identity.

Carranza said children returning to school are dealing with multiple crises at once -- the pandemic, the economic crisis and a reckoning on racial injustice. He said addressing mental health is a necessary precursor to academic success.

“In other parts of the country people would look at this as not real education. It’s soft. Get to the three R’s -- reading, writing and arithmetic -- and get on with it. But in New York City we’ve really embraced the notion that children won’t want to learn if they don’t know you care,” Carranza said.

PS 811K in Sheepshead Bay

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Two More School Buildings Close Because Of COVID-19 Cases

12:45 p.m. The city has closed two more school buildings in Brooklyn because of COVID-19 cases, according to the map run by the city Department of Education.

P.S. 811K, the Connie Lekas School at 2525 Haring Street for special education students in Sheepshead Bay, was closed Friday and will reopen October 16th.

"Two or more members of our school community tested positive for COVID-19 within seven days of each other. After investigating, finding a link between the cases, and quarantining those identified as close contacts, the building was reopened. Today, however, an additional member of our staff tested positive," said principal Antoinette Rose in a letter Thursday to the school community. "Based on the preliminary investigation and tracing, there is reason to believe this case is linked to previous cases."

"I ask that every member of the staff be prepared to speak with the NYC health investigator in the coming days," Rose added. "We continue to take all appropriate action and following rigorous protocols developed by the NYC Health, and the New York City Department of Education (DOE)."

P.S. 112 Lefferts Park at 7301 15th Avenue in Bensonhurst had a classroom closed October 1st to reopen October 8th, and the entire building will be closed for Monday October 5th for the day.

While P.S. 112 does not fall in a neighborhood that is seeing alarmingly high rates of COVID-19 in recent weeks, P.S. 811K does fall within a hot spot ZIP code of 11235. United Federation of Teachers president Michael Mulgrew has been calling on the city to close 80 schools falling within the now 12 ZIP codes in the city seeing high rates.

These two closures come after an Elmhurst special education high school was shut on September 29th to reopen October 14th. The closures follow the Department of Education’s protocols for containing COVID-19 cases in school communities.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, in remarks at Reverend Al Sharpton’s birthday rally at the National Action Network in Harlem on Saturday, celebrated the staggered reopening of the city’s 1,600 public schools for in-person learning over the past two weeks. “We were told we could not reopen our public schools, but guess what happened on Thursday everybody? Every single public school in New York City was open for our children,” de Blasio said.

He did not mention the three school closures.

The Williamsburg High School for Architecture and Design

Williamsburg HS A&D / Twitter

Williamsburg School Designated As National Blue Ribbon School

12 p.m. A Brooklyn public high school has been recognized for being an outstanding institution by the U.S. Department of Education -- an exceptional achievement especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza said.

Last month, the Williamsburg High School for Architecture and Design was named a 2020 National Blue Ribbon School for being an “Exemplary High Performing School,” one of the state's highest performing schools as measured by state assessments or nationally normed tests, according to the New York City Department of Education. Recipients of the Blue Ribbon are “based on their overall academic excellence or their progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups," according to the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program website.

The school focuses on architectural drafting, design, historic preservation, and is open enrollment with approximately 500 students. The school has a 98% graduation rate, with 96% of the students completing college prep classes. The student body is 91% students of color, according to the DOE.

“I am so proud that our school, without screens or a special application for student acceptance, is being recognized both in our city and nationally for academic excellence,” said WHSAD Principal Gill Cornell in a statement from the DOE. “It goes to show that the lives of students can be deeply impacted when a school is dedicated to providing every single child with an excellent education that meets their unique needs. Our staff works so hard to provide our students with the high-quality education they deserve, and this award is recognition of that work.”

“This award is always significant, but it has added weight during this pandemic,” Carranza said in a statement. “Educators are doing such incredible work to provide an excellent education to their students and this award recognizes that heroic work.”