Pa. leaders tell schools to be consistent but flexible in reopening plans, teaching methods

As schools prepare to resume teaching, the leaders of Pennsylvania’s health and education departments on Monday said districts should be consistent in approach but flexible in how they educate students.

A spike in covid-19 cases in a county may require districts to change how they plan to teach students, said Health Secretary Rachel Levine. The health department will track covid-19 data and inform schools if there is a serious outbreak that will require adjusting, she said.

Local school officials received guidance Monday for teaching students — in the classroom or online — that are based on tracking standard public health metrics for community transmissions that use a county’s covid-19 incidence rate and the percent of diagnostic tests that come back positive. Tracking, which could be done over a two-week period, will use county statistics, not numbers of community infections.

“It’s another tool in their toolbox” for determining how students should be educated, Levine said.

Using those metrics, which are available for every county on the health department’s covid-19 Early Warning Monitoring System Dashboard, the state has set metrics for low, moderate and substantial levels of covid-19 transmission. As of now, 25 counties are in the low level that will allow full-time, in-class instruction.

Allegheny and Westmoreland are among 41 counties recommended for a hybrid form of in-class and online instruction.

Union County is alone in the substantial phase because of the federal prison near Lewisburg, Levine said. Fewer than 10 new cases over a seven-day period for a county will move it to the low level.

Universal masking for students and staff in schools is required when social distancing is not possible unless someone has a medical condition preventing them from wearing a mask.

The recommendations to local school administrators and school boards are not mandates, Education Secretary Pedro Rivera pointed out. Only the state General Assembly can mandate schools to follow directives, Rivera said.

If there are changes in how students are being instructed, whether it be from a combination of in-class and virtual learning to fully in-school or completely online, Levine said she realizes it can be disruptive to students and families. She suggested that school districts deliver instruction to students in the same manner for an entire grading period.

“Most school district will not bounce on a dime,” she said.

The Pennsylvania School Boards Association said the new guidance was issued after districts have worked to develop reopening plans over the summer, with many districts having already presented reopening plans to their school boards for approval and for families to review.

“School leaders may find challenges in assessing these latest recommendations and incorporating them into reopening plans already formulated and announced,” said Nathan Mains, PSBA chief executive officer.

Statewide directives for maintaining 6 feet of social distance and when a school must close if someone tests positive for covid-19 must be clear and enforceable, said Rich Askey, president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association.

“State government still needs to answer some questions that school districts can’t answer themselves,” Askey said.