The mayor is receiving backlash for an announcement he made regarding the rest of the school year, and how children will receive their education.

Beginning Monday, parents will have about two weeks to decide if they want to opt in to the blended learning program or continue with remote learning for the rest of the year.

Mayor Bill de Blasio says numbers show that schools are safe. He says they’ve had 280,000 students who’ve attended school in-person, but believes more could be attending in-person. He says the attendance averages around 85%, and says they want that number to go up.

The mayor added that parents have seen how the school operates, and now they want to give parents a chance to opt-in. However, the time frame is only a two-week time period.

A subset of the United Federation of Teachers is calling it a pressure tactic to increase numbers.

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said in a statement, “This puts families in a difficult position of having to make a long-term assessment based on an ever-changing reality, with little information or transparency. The city itself has failed in that regard, and it fails now.”

Councilmember Mark Treyger also spoke out on after the announcement was made.

"The mayor is going to see a lot of backlash from this decision. I've spoken to parents and families throughout the day, I just spoke to another family right before this interview, they're very upset,” says Treyger. “They don't have enough information about the spread of the virus or not, they need more time they need more information. It really is unacceptable to force families to make such an important decision when they're literally in the dark."

The mayor says parents have about two weeks to decide. If the switch isn’t made to blended learning in this time period, students will be fully remote for the entire school year.