Plymouth Meeting, PA, December 21, 2020—On behalf of its 36,000 members and 61 locals, AFT Pennsylvania on Monday released a webform for educators, staff, students, parents, and community members to report non-compliance with the Pennsylvania Secretary of Health’s November 24, 2020 Order Directing Public School Entities in Counties with Substantial Community Transmission to Attest to Health and Safety Protocols.
“While Pennsylvania’s largest school districts have responsibly moved to a fully remote instruction model, it is imperative that districts continuing in-person learning do so in a way that is safe and complies with CDC and Pennsylvania Department of Health guidelines,” said Arthur G. Steinberg, President of AFT Pennsylvania. “When school districts or administrations don’t follow the rules put in place to keep educators, staff, students, parents, and communities safe, they need to be held accountable. This reporting form is a critical first step in ensuring those who have witnessed non-compliance with Department of Health orders have their concerns heard.”
On November 24th, the Pennsylvania Secretary of Health issued an order affecting every public school entity that elected to continue in-person instruction for students in counties exhibiting “Substantial” transmission of COVID-19 and/or a positivity rate of 10 percent or greater. At the time of the order, 59 of 67 counties met one or more of these criteria.
The order required school entity’s governing board and the chief school administrator of any public school entity fitting the above description and continuing in-person instruction to attest to two specific criteria: 1) That the school entity is complying and will continue to comply with and enforce Universal Face Covering requirements; and 2) the school entity agrees to follow PDE’s Recommendations for Pre-K to 12 Schools Following Identification of a Case(s) of COVID-19.
In the intervening weeks, educators, parents, community members and others have observed potential non-compliance with this order. Therefore, AFT Pennsylvania has launched a webform to capture complaints by county, school district, and school building.
For more information or to report non-compliance, visit http://pa.aft.org/report-non-comply
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