Student instruction will continue despite coronavirus school closures, Pennsylvania’s secretary of education said during an April 9 media telebriefing.

Secretary of Education Pedro Rivera said he has set “really strong and high expectations” that Pennsylvania schools provide continuing education and instruction to homebound students during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The briefing came on the heels of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s order on that same day to extend school closures for the rest of the 2019-20 academic year due to COVID-19.

“As we were making these decisions, we had to be responsible around social distancing and what the implications of our decision to go back to school would mean for the greater community and the students we serve each and every day,” Rivera said.

Rivera said the growing number of coronavirus cases and limited time remaining in the current academic year made it unfeasible for students to safely return.

“The amount of time it would take for us to bring students back and to have the available resources for them, there’s no way schools would be able to prepare to accept students this academic year,” Rivera said, adding schools are using the remaining time to focus on other support programs.

However, despite the closures, Rivera emphasized his department was still at work to ensure students are prepared to enter the next academic year once the pandemic passes and students return to school.

“As we deal and work through this pandemic, we have a moral responsibility to provide educational support and educational resources to the students we serve every day,” Rivera said. “Schools are still operating, although they don’t look the same as they looked a month or two ago.

“I think it is important to realize schools all across the commonwealth are working on providing continuity of education to their students in a new fashion.”

He said districts are building online learning infrastructure, providing meals to students, serving community members and providing different types of mental and social support for students.

Rivera said he expects schools to provide new material instruction to students, instead of solely focusing on review and enrichment, and has legally required districts to submit continuity of education plans to the Department of Education and post the plans online for community members to review.

To ensure districts have the resources available to continue their education plans, Rivera said $5 million in equity grant funding has been made available for schools to make ends meet, with the potential for additional federal funding, and online learning platforms have been made available for use free of charge.

He also noted some districts have connectivity issues or a lack of Internet or cell access, and a possible expanding of the achievement gap between groups of students is a major concern.

Rivera said the department is also looking at getting paper and pencil options for students and, through a partnership with PBS, is offering television lessons “at different grade levels for the students to tune in and learn and engage.”

As of April 9, he said more than 300 districts have submitted education plans, and more than 200 have signed up for the free online learning platforms.

Additionally, as a part of continuing instruction, the department has advised school districts, intermediate units and other facilities to provide different types of learning opportunities and make reasonable, appropriate accommodations and support efforts for students with special needs.

“There’s going to be ongoing conversation around how we can best meet their needs,” Rivera said. “We’ve been focused on not just compliance but meeting the academic needs of students in as many differentiating manners as possible, so we’ve been focused on kids first.”

To hold schools accountable for their education plans, Rivera said the responsibility is shared between the Department of Education, which receives the plans, reviews the content and provides feedback on concerns, and the district’s parents, communities and leaders who can access their district’s posted plans and know the content of their children’s education.

“There’s no better influence than a parent or local leader looking at your plan online and asking, ‘Why are you doing x’ or ‘Why are you not doing y,’” Rivera said. “So that accountability is both through the influence and the relationship with the department but more importantly, the relationship and expectations of the local community.”

To evaluate students’ learning and mastery of concepts and how students will be moved into the next grade, Rivera said districts are working on a local level to identify performance, such as looking at third-quarter grades, collecting portfolios or receiving feedback from teacher-student engagements.

He emphasized that while the department is not setting exact guidelines for performance evaluation, the standing condition is that the coronavirus pandemic “should not and will not be the factor in making that decision.”

Rivera also noted student attendance will be monitored and enforced on a local level but noted intermediate units can serve as good resources because they have access to multiple districts and can provide best practice advice on monitoring attendance in struggling districts. He again stressed the important role of the local community in holding schools accountable.

Looking at the remaining school year and senior graduation, Rivera said the department and intermediate units were providing guidance on how to meet graduation expectations and said graduating seniors “should not fear being held back” because of COVID-19.

He also said school districts could consider planning drive-in commencement celebrations or alternative graduation ceremonies through a “multitude of platforms” so long as they adhere to Department of Health guidance on social distancing.

Rivera was asked about summer school.

He said if the social distancing and stay-at-home orders are lifted, “schools will be able to provide summer instruction and enrichment, and we will be looking at supporting them. If the order is lifted, everything will be back to normal.”

However, he said if the pandemic orders are not lifted, the Department of Education will continue to adhere to Department of Health guidance.

Finally, he was asked about coronavirus-related job losses.

Rivera said, by law, “there should be no job loss in school districts as a result of COVID-19. That has been the legislative mandate,” although he specified the pandemic does not impact job loss decisions made for a multitude of other reasons.

Looking at plans in place to address the ongoing pandemic and actions being undertaken by school districts, the governor’s office and the state legislature to cover future crises, Rivera said he believes the result will be a lasting change to the state education system.

“Know that in these times, the infrastructure we are putting in place for schools today isn’t going to end after COVID-19,” he said. “This is going to change the educational landscape in Pennsylvania for generations to come. While we’re looking to focus and address this pandemic, we’re also evolving as an education system to better serve our kids.”