Category: State Government Actions

Wolf Administration and Rite Aid Partner to Ease COVID-19 Vaccine Scheduling for People with Intellectual Disabilities and Autism (May 4,2021)

On May 4, 2021, Governor Tom Wolf announced a partnership with Pennsylvania-based Rite Aid Pharmacy to ease access to COVID-19 vaccinations for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

“All Pennsylvanians are now eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccines, but we know that there still may be people need additional help scheduling or getting to a vaccine appointment. This partnership will help us ease potential barriers and ensure that people with intellectual disabilities and autism as well as their caregivers are able to get this life-saving vaccine,” said Governor Tom Wolf. “I want to thank Rite Aid for their leadership through this process and their willingness to help us vaccinate all Pennsylvanians, and I strongly encourage anyone with an intellectual disability or their caregivers to use this resource to help get your vaccine and keep yourself safe from COVID-19.”

People with an intellectual or developmental disability and their caregivers can call the Department of Human Services’ (DHS) Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) Vaccination Call Center at 1-800-424-4345 to request a COVID-19 vaccine appointment for themselves and/or their caregivers. This hotline is staffed from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday.

From there, ODP will give Rite Aid names and locations of individuals who need to be vaccinated. Rite Aid staff will assign local pharmacies to reach out to callers to schedule vaccinations at a Rite Aid location near to the caller. This effort will also be able to help coordinate special accommodations for individuals who need assistance with transportation or on-site aid, among other needs.

Anyone age 16 or older with an intellectual or developmental disability and their caregivers can request a vaccine appointment through this effort, regardless of whether they are currently enrolled in a service and support program through ODP. ODP oversees services and supports for approximately 57,000 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities across Pennsylvania but estimates that this only covers about 25 percent of Pennsylvanians who may qualify as having an intellectual or developmental disability. ODP is working with Pennsylvania’s Developmental Disabilities Council, Temple University’s Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, the Special Olympics of Pennsylvania, the Arc of Pennsylvania, and Aging and Disability Resource Centers to help people with disabilities and their caregivers know about this option and assist with accommodations.

“As we continue to work to ensure that all Pennsylvanians who want a vaccine are able to get one, this collaborative approach between ODP and Rite Aid will allow us to ease this process for people with intellectual disabilities and autism and help us keep them and their caregivers safe moving forward,” said DHS Acting Secretary Meg Snead. “Rite Aid has been an incredible partner in helping us reach vulnerable people in our licensed facilities and community settings, and I am incredibly grateful for their continued work to ensure that we are getting these life-saving vaccines out efficiently and equitably.”

Since December 2020, more than 8.6 million Pennsylvanians have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. More than 3.5 million Pennsylvanians are fully vaccinated. For more information on COVID-19 vaccinations and vaccine providers in your community, visit the Department of Health’s website.   

More information about vaccines administered to DHS-licensed facilities through the work with Rite Aid and other vaccine providers is available here.

Wolf Administration Receives $224 Million in Food Assistance for Pennsylvania Families with Young Children (April 27, 2021)

The Wolf Administration has received approval from the Food and Nutrition Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to extend Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) benefit eligibility to families of Pennsylvania SNAP eligible children who are child care aged. This federally-funded program helps families cover the cost of breakfasts and lunches for their children and is designed to bridge the gap left by child care centers closing and to help families who may have strained resources due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic downturn has stretched thousands of families to a breaking point, so we are incredibly grateful that the USDA will allow us to provide some relief and offer more food security to SNAP families with children who are child care aged,” said DHS Acting Secretary Meg Snead. “Going without essential needs like food can jeopardize children’s health and development in both the short and long-term, so P-EBT will help families make ends meet. We are committed to rolling out this P-EBT program as quickly as possible.”
Children are eligible for benefits under P-EBT’s child care component if:

  • The child is a member of a household that received SNAP benefits at any time since October 1, 2020,
  • The child is age five (5) or younger, and
  • At least one school in the county where the family resides or any contiguous county is determined to be operating on either a virtual schedule, where children complete all learning through online learning, or a blended schedule, where the students attend some days in person and some days virtually.

Benefits will be available to cover eligible children in SNAP during the period of October 1, 2020, through May 31, 2021. Pennsylvania will distribute more than $30 million per month to the families of about 223,000 children – for a total distribution of about $224 million. The benefit level will vary depending upon county of residence. Children residing in counties or neighboring a county where schools are operating 100 percent virtually will receive 100 percent of the benefit, while children in counties that are operating in a hybrid format will receive 65 percent of the benefit level. These levels will be re-evaluated throughout the summer. Full P-EBT benefits are equal to $6.82 per day that the child is eligible for P-EBT — $2.26 for breakfast, $0.96 for a snack and $3.60 for lunch.
Pennsylvania will distribute benefits to eligible families in three phases, as follows:

  • The first round of benefits will be distributed two weeks following the distribution of P-EBT for K-12 students, in late May.
  • The second round of benefits will be distributed in late June.
  • The third round of benefits will be distributed in early August.

No application is necessary to receive the benefit, and the benefit will be received on the household’s regular EBT card. All eligible families will also receive a letter directly from DHS. If a child qualifies under both the P-EBT for School Children process and the P-EBT for Child Care Age Children process, the child will only receive the benefit determined under the P-EBT for School Children.

Applications for SNAP and other public assistance programs can be requested and submitted online at www.compass.state.pa.us or over the phone by calling 1-866-550-4355. Those who prefer to submit a paper application can print from the website, pick one up at a County Assistance Office (CAO), or request an application by phone at 1-800-692-7462 and mail it to their local CAO or place it in a CAO’s secure drop box, if available. You do not need to know your own eligibility in order to apply. While CAOs remain closed, work processing applications, determining eligibility, and issuing benefits continues. Clients should use COMPASS or the MyCOMPASS PA mobile app to submit necessary updates to their case files while CAOs are closed to the public.

For more information about food assistance resources for people around Pennsylvania impacted by COVID-19 and the accompanying economic insecurity, visit the Department of Agriculture’s food security guide.

For more information on public assistance programs, visit www.dhs.pa.gov.

PDH Dashboard to Highlight Race and Ethnicity Data by County (April 24, 2021)

On Friday, April 23, 2021, PA Department of Health (PDH) Acting Secretary Alison Beam announced the latest update to the COVID-19 Vaccine Dashboard that provides demographic data such as race, ethnicity, gender and age of individuals who have been vaccinated by county, across the commonwealth.
“As the number of Pennsylvanians getting vaccinated increases, we want to easily depict this information for counties to see their progress in equitable distribution, including areas where they are doing well and areas where vaccination efforts need improvement,” Acting Secretary Beam said. “This updated data will assist the department as we work to determine where we may need to focus some of our work, to ensure we are reaching all populations equally. We are committed to making the vaccine available to all Pennsylvanians to reduce the likelihood of individuals being hospitalized and dying from COVID-19.”
This latest update to the dashboard can be found on the second page of the COVID-19 vaccine dashboard. The update displays a county=specific view of demographics vaccinated by race, ethnicity, gender and age. The updated data also includes a county ranking of the percent of residents in a given county that has received at least one dose of a vaccine.
“This information will help identify any equity gaps so that we can work in partnership with Federal Retail Pharmacy Partners, who have stores in many locations, to assist in vaccinating all Pennsylvanians,” Beam said. “The department is also working closely with trusted partners and stakeholders on creating and sharing information for those who may be hesitant about receiving the vaccine. It is important that we all remember that the vaccines are safe and effective and are the best path to prevent becoming seriously ill from the virus.”
For more information on the Department of Health’s efforts to promote justice, mitigate health inequities and promote transparency during the COVID-19 pandemic, please visit the “Health Equity and COVID-19” page here.

Dear Colleague Letter from Deputy Sec. Stem Advises PA Educators on Federally-Required Assessments for SY 2020-21 (April 22, 2021)

On April 21,2021, PDE Deputy Secretary Matthew Stem issued a “Dear Colleague” letter featuring three of the most common questions raised regarding a number of decisions recently made by the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) in response to individual state requests to relax certain requirements from federally required school year 2020-21 assessments.

To read the letter from Deputy Stem, click here.

PDE Launches Program to Help Schools Address Learning Loss Due to the Pandemic (April 21, 2021)

The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) launched the next phase of an initiative that helps school leaders and educators address students’ learning loss caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The new toolkit and professional learning series, “Accelerated Learning through an Integrated System of Support”, provides a voluntary process and research for school leaders to consider in preparing for the upcoming school year that addresses academic and emotional well-being of students.

“Our school communities have experienced and continue to experience many challenges during the pandemic, and learning loss is a significant issue students are facing in Pennsylvania and across the nation,” said Acting Secretary of Education Noe Ortega. “We collectively still have a long way to go to understand the long-term impacts and effects of COVID-19 on education. However, through this Accelerated Learning series, we are providing additional supports to schools and educators to better inform their practices and address educational challenges now and in the future.”

The department partnered with the state’s Intermediate Units (IU) and the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PaTTAN) to develop the new program that helps schools prepare for the 2021-22 school year and focus on accelerated learning. The new series provides a systematic process, including a toolkit, planning templates and a series of webinars from April through June, to help schools make strategic decisions with the flexibility to adjust to the needs of their students.

The new series builds on the Roadmap for Educational Leaders, a collection of research, tools, resources, and professional learning opportunities that PDE launched last fall to help schools manage school policy and procedures during COVID-19 response.

“We at PDE understand the impact the global pandemic has had on learning and are doing as much as possible to help mitigate learning gaps and offer social and emotional supports where necessary,” said Deputy Secretary of the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education Matthew Stem. “I am thankful to everyone who helped develop the Accelerated Learning through an Integrated System of Support and look forward to hearing from our school communities about the progress made throughout this upcoming school year.”

Concepts addressed in Accelerated Learning, with a focus on equity for all students, include:
-Identifying and planning for a reset of school operations systems including health and safety, instructional models (in-person, virtual) teaching and learning; 
-Building a welcoming, safe and supportive community for students and teachers in all learning settings;
-Identifying where students are entering school academically;
-Aligning assessments, curriculum, and instruction to help each student progress; and
-Developing teachers to support all students, particularly those most vulnerable.

PDE recently announced nearly $1 million in federal grant money from the Institute for Education Sciences (IES) to study the impact of COVID-19 on K-12 students. The two-year grant will include research to determine inequities in education across Pennsylvania and recommend educational strategies to help students and schools move forward.

PDE is focused on understanding the needs of schools concerning student learning gaps and targeting efforts and resources to fit those specific needs. One option for supplemental support schools can consider is an extended school year. Other options are partnerships with community organizations, libraries, and postsecondary institutions to help support students through summer camps and after-school programs, as well as tutoring programs.

Pennsylvania recently announced close to $5 billion in federal aid to support K-12 education through the American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ARP ESSER) Fund. Under this round of funding, states must reserve 7%, roughly $350 million, for interventions that address learning loss, support summer enrichment programs, comprehensive after-school programs, and more pandemic-related educational needs. More specific uses will be identified when the U.S. Department of Education releases guidance to states.

Throughout the global pandemic, Pennsylvania has demonstrated a commitment to documenting the educational and other harms experienced by students, educators, and families. The ability to examine inequities in education will help create responsive teaching and learning opportunities in future years.

For more information on the Pennsylvania Department of Education, please visit the PDE website.