School District Of Philadelphia Plans To Resume In-Person Learning Tuesday Despite COVID Surge
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Schools around the area have made various different decisions about how to return after the holiday break. The School District of Philadelphia plans to resume full in-person learning on Tuesday despite the current COVID surge.
The school district says it has been consulting with the Philadelphia Department of Public Health and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and they all agree students will be better off in school.
The district says a prolonged pause of in-person learning has serious consequences for children and families.
Given the current surge, officials don't believe a two-week pause would have an impact.
They add school settings are structured and make it easier to have children remain masked.
They say only a small fraction of cases they've seen so far this school year resulted from in-school spread.
"We've had our testing sites open all week so that people know what their status is. And that if they do turn out to be positive they will do the necessary steps to keep themselves and their loved ones safe. We've very confident that we can have our students and staff return to in-person learning on Tuesday," school district spokesperson Monica Lewis said.
On the college level, Temple University announced that students cannot move back into dorms until Jan. 22, two weeks later than planned.
