PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Masks will be mandatory for all, but vaccinations will not be when the Philadelphia school year begins in-person on August 31.
Schools Superintendent William Hite said the district has looked into making vaccines mandatory for school staff.
“We keep investigating our ability to do that, and just don’t feel that it’s something that we can do now,” Hite said Friday during a back-to-school news conference at Benjamin Franklin High School.
“We know that there are many private institutions that are going that route. But we have not gone that route yet under advice of counsel.”
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Only the state can require students to be vaccinated, Hite said.
School staff will be subject to weekly COVID-19 testing. Students will be tested if they show COVID-19 symptoms.
Students who play high-risk sports or participate in band or choir will be tested once or twice a week, although vaccinated students may opt-out of testing. All classrooms will be outfitted with air purifiers, Hite said.
Dr. Susan Coffin, an infections disease physician from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said masking, vaccinations and frequent cleaning will help to prevent the highly contagious delta variant from spreading in schools.
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“Those critical mitigation factors that kept us safe last year, as we brought children back into the schools in the spring, will keep us safe against this variant," said Dr. Coffin.
There will be no hybrid classes this year, Hite said, but the district is offering completely virtual instruction for those who choose it.
“We also know that for some families with extenuating circumstances, a return to in-person learning could pose a significant personal challenge,” said District Chief of Schools Evelyn Nunez.
A two-week registration period for the Philadelphia Virtual Academy opens on Monday, August 2.
Nearly 500 students have chosen to take advantage of a recent law allowing them to repeat their grade from the just-ended school year, Hite said.
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The scheduled first day of school, August 31, is also the day the district’s district contract with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers expires.
“We’re engaged with talks on a regular basis with the PFT. Our team and the team from the PFT are in active negotiations,” Hite said.
“I’m a naturally optimistic person, and so we hope that we would have something by the 31st.”
“We are just so excited about the opportunity to return to in-person learning five days a week,” said Alisa Shields, whose daughter Skylar will enter first grade at E.M. Stanton Elementary School in the city’s Graduate Hospital neighborhood.
“This last year was certainly a challenge and not anything that any of us expected,” Shields said.
With in-person classes resuming, the district is also phasing out its grab-and-go meal program. Distribution will end at 56 school-based sites on August 6, and the last meals will be given out at the remaining 41 schools on August 20.