All Pennsylvania schools closed for 10 days
All Pennsylvania schools, K-12 will be closed for 10 business days effective Monday, Gov. Tom Wolf announced today.
At the end of that two-week period, Wolf said officials would reevaluate and decide if continued closure is needed.
“We understand that these are trying times and recognize the impact of the coronavirus on our students and communities,” Wolf said. “First and foremost, my top priority as governor – and that of our education leaders – must be to ensure the health and safety of our students and school communities.”
He said no school district would be penalized if it failed to meet the 180-day or school hours requirement.
The announcement noted the state Department of Education would work with intermediate units and other stakeholders to support school districts with any continuity of learning plans they may be pursuing. The U.S. Department of Agriculture provided the state with a waiver for eligible schools to continue to serve meals to low income students during the closure.
Wolf said administrators would work with schools to help with those plans.
The announcement came after some local schools had already made the decision to close Monday and Tuesday, giving their administrators time to decide how to move forward as the number of COVID-19 virus cases continue to increase in Pennsylvania.
Before Wolf’s announcement, the Uniontown Area School District announced Friday that all schools in the district will be shut down until March 30 due to health concerns from COVID-19.
Also on Friday, the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education announced its 14 universities would not have in-person instruction March 16-29. Officials encouraged students, faculty and staff with their specific schools for information as to how each is handling the change.
Some state schools, like California University of Pennsylvania, had already made adjustments to classes.