On July 27, 2020, PDE’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education released a Penn*Link message to LEAs from Carole L. Clancy, Director of the Bureau of Special Education. The message announced that the Bureau of Special Education (BSE) Spring 2020 Bulletin can now be found on the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PaTTAN) website at this link: https://www.pattan.net/Publications/BSE-Bulletin-Spring-2020.

It also introduces a unique Twitter hashtag (#SpecialEducationInPA) to further highlight the positive, collaborative work happening in special education throughout the commonwealth. LEAs are asked to share the link with families, educators, administrators, schools, agencies, and other stakeholders to promote success for all students with disabilities, ensuring achievement through access to quality and meaningful education. 

The PA Department of Education and the PA Department of Health jointly released public health guidance to assist Pre-K to 12 schools in developing and implementing Health and Safety Plans for safely returning to in-person instruction for the 2020-21 school year amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.  The guidance provides public health standards to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 for social distancing, face coverings, hand hygiene, and cleaning and disinfecting in Pre-K to 12 school settings. It also reflects currently endorsed public health best practices from DOH and is in response to requests from school leaders for state-level health guidance. The guidance serves as minimum standards for practices across all Pre-K to 12 schools with the understanding that more rigorous measures may be required in certain areas depending on community transmission of COVID-19.

According to PDE, the science and public health conditions surrounding COVID-19 are continually evolving and the guidance will be updated as necessary when new information becomes available. DOH will continue to monitor community transmission rates and other surveillance metrics and may, in close coordination with PDE, issue guidance related to targeted school closure as part of a wider public health mitigation strategy.

To view the guidance document on the PDE website, click here.

Earlier this week, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) released an Emergency Instructional Time Template for schools using alternate pathways to meet instructional time requirements during the 2020-21 school year. The template supplements guidance disseminated by PDE earlier this month (click here to view) that maintains that the PA School Code authorizes school boards to implement temporary operations during times of certain emergency in order to meet the 180-day, 900-hour or 990-hour requirements.

The Emergency Instructional Time Template addresses the school’s legal requirements and provides a review and approval process. Completed templates may be submitted to PDE either as its own document or as an addendum to a school’s Health and Safety Plan.

To access the Emergency Instructional Time Template, click here.

According to the Associated Press, as PA’s schools look at ways to safely transport students to school, one plan being considered was to install plastic barriers around school bus drivers. However the PA Department of Transportation (PennDOT) rejected that idea claiming there is no evidence that such a measure would make anyone safer, despite it’s being proposed to protect drivers.