State changes guidance on classes
Some in-person classes urged even in high spread counties
Pennsylvania officials have changed their recommendation on whether schools should hold inperson classes in counties with a substantial risk of community spread of COVID-19.
Since the beginning of the school year, the state Department of Education and Department of Health have said school districts in counties with a substantial risk of community spread of COVID-19 — the highest of three risk categories — should not hold in-person classes.
At a press conference Thursday, Acting Secretary of Education Noe Ortega announced that guidance has been changed for the state’s youngest learners.
Starting Jan. 25, which Ortega said represents the typical start of schools’ second semester, districts are encouraged to provide in-person classes for elementary school students — at least partially.
The department is not calling for a return to full in-person learning, but for the use of a hybrid system with students learning partially inperson and partially virtually.
The guidance also applies to target groups that benefit greatly from in-person instruction such as disabled students or English language learners, Ortega said.
How school districts in Berks County are handling education for elementary students is mixed. Some are providing fully virtual instruction, some are full in-person and some are using a hybrid system.
Ortega said the change in guidance is based on the acknowledgement that students learning in person has significant benefits. That is especially true, he said, for young learners.
State Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine echoed that sentiment, calling the educational benefits of inperson learning very clear and saying that they likely outweigh any risk associated with attending classes in person.
“While it is impossible to eliminate the risk of disease transmission entirely within a school setting where community spread is present, recent studies have shown that when mitigation efforts, such as universal masking, physical distancing and hand hygiene are followed, it may be safer for younger children, particularly elementary grade students, to return to in-person instruction,” she said.
Levine said research has also shown that people under the age of 18 have a lower risk of developing severe symptoms from a COVID-19 infections, and that children younger than 14 have a lower chance of infection than adults.
Or tega stressed the state’s guidance is not a mandate, and that the best people to make decisions about how school operate continue to be local school officials.
Ortega said he has been proud of the way school leaders and local communities have responded to the challenges COVID-19 have thrown at schools, but warned real challenges could still lay ahead.
Levine said it is incumbent on a ll Pennsylvanians to do their part to help in the continued fight against the infectious disease. How schools operate, she said, depends heavily on how much COVID-19 is spreading in local communities.
“We all play a part in stopping the spread of COVID-19 in our communities,” she said.
The new guideline will impact schools in every corner of the state. For the past four weeks, all of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties have fallen into the substantial risk of community category.
Community spread means people have been infected with the virus in an area, including some who are not sure how or where they became infected.
The state has been using an online community spread risk assessment tool that looks at countylevel COVID-19 data on incidence rates and the percent positivity of diagnostic testing to group counties into one of three categories of risk of community spread: low, moderate or substantial. A county-by-county list of ratings is released each Monday.
The COVID-19 incident rate is how many people out of 100,000 have tested positive for the disease over the past seven days. The percent positivity is the percentage of people tested over a seven-day span that test positive.
The following are metrics for each of state’s risk categories:
• Low: An incident rate of less than 10 per 100,000 residents over the past seven days and a seven-day positivity rate less than 5%.
• Moderate: An incident rate of 10 to 100 per 100,000 residents over the past seven days or a sevenday positivity rate between 5% and 10%.
• Substantial: An incident rate of greater than 100 per 100,000 residents over the past seven days or a seven-day positivity rate greater than 10%.
After started the year in the moderate category, Berks moved to the substantial category in midOctober and has remained there since. the the
State teachers union pushes back
Rich Askey, president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association teachers union, said he supported the idea of in-person education, but not at the cost of the health and safety of students and staff.
“There is nothing Pennsylvania educators want more than to be back in the classroom with their students,” he said Thursday. “But rushing students back at the height of a pandemic with no clear plan to enforce health and safety guidelines will set back our efforts to achieve that goal.
“We have serious concerns about any plan to allow more students to attend school in-person without ensuring that all schools are following the state’s COVID-19 health and safety guidance.”
Askey said the state is facing near-record levels of COVID-19 cases, as well as the recent introduction of a more contagious strain that was announced earlier Thursday.
“This is no time to encourage schools to bring more students and staff in contact with one another in areas with high rates of community spread,” he said.
Askey said that before the state encourages students to return to classrooms, it most ensure that schools are properly following health and safety guidelines and protocols.
The plan the Wolf administration announced Thursday must be adjusted immediately to ensure that every school in Pennsylvania is following the state’s health and safety guidelines before we bring more students and staff members back into school buildings.
“Scientists and health care professionals have warned for weeks that the next two months could be among the worst — if not the worst — of this pandemic,” he said. “Now is the time to exercise the most extreme caution and compliance so that we can beat this virus and get our schools back open for inperson instruction once and for all.”