Pa. officials still leave covid restrictions up to school districts

A day after Gov. Tom Wolf announced a suspension of all school sports and extracurricular activities, Pennsylvania’s Acting Secretary of Education Noe Ortega and Deputy Secretary Matt Stem doubled down on the state’s approach of leaving the ultimate reopening decisions up to individual school districts.

“We recognize there is no one-size-fits-all policy for the commonwealth,” Ortega said. “That’s why our efforts to mitigate the transmission of covid-19 have often been segmented. They’ve been targeted at times, and they’ve been adjusted to account for emerging research and findings as these continue to come our way.”

“(Due to) the recent resurgence that we’ve seen throughout the past couple of months, we’ve once again had to adjust, pivot and ensure that we can continue to put recommendations and efforts out there that allow our schools to remain safe for learning,” he added.

Ortega reiterated that Wolf’s most recent order is only temporary – in place starting Saturday until 8 a.m. Jan. 4 – in order to curb “unprecedented levels” of transmission. Still, he noted that the Department of Health and governor’s office always have discretion for more aggressive mitigation strategies.

State officials are monitoring global studies assessing the risk of transmission in schools, which still appears relatively low compared to some other public places.

Though Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine has recently commented on the rapidly increasing rate of infection in school-aged children, contact tracing shows menial spread of the virus in classrooms. More often, state and local health officials say, infections are linked to sports and gatherings outside of class.

“At the moment,” Ortega said, “we’ve been able to stay the course with regards of allowing more schools at the local level to make the decision on whether or not they would follow the recommendations.”

More than half of schools in the state are already operating under fully-remote instruction, Stem said – in addition to a number of others that have temporarily closed due to individual covid cases. 100% of districts in counties with substantial spread – 66 of Pennsylvania’s 67 – have submitted “attestation forms” to continue in-person instruction, he said.

District leaders are still facing “competing demands” of keeping schools safe and ensuring quality learning. Ortega said the Department of Education continues to struggle with ensuring equity to districts that don’t have the revenue sources to effectively update facilities. There are still students across the state who struggle accessing the internet from home, making digital learning more of a challenge.

Ortega said the department is still working with state and federal legislators in attempts to secure stimulus funds for these purposes.

“We did everything we could, as a department, to figure out how we might be able to provide additional resources to some of our programs, knowing we were never going to be able to ensure that every single school had the resources needed for the pivot,” Ortega said. “While covid has exacerbated some of the inequities, these are things the department has been working to address historically.”