PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Pennsylvania schools are devising their plans for reopening this fall. And Philadelphia administrators say keeping students socially distant to and from school will be complex and expensive.
The school district transports not only its own students, but state law requires the district to transport students to 123 charter and 440 nonpublic schools within 10 miles of the city.
The COVID reopening plans of many of those schools may include staggered schedules and fewer students on buses for social distancing. And that creates a logistical and financial mountain for Philadelphia, said the district's chief of schools, Evelyn Nunez.
She told the state House Education Committee that to maintain the status quo, the district would have to triple its capacity.
"It will be challenging, if not impossible, to comply with state-mandated transportation requirements," Nunez said.
She said the district is proposing a tiered transportation schedule, but that would require the cooperation of the other schools.
She called on the legislature to either provide more transportation aid, or to relax the requirement that districts transport students up to 10 miles outside of their boundaries.
