Pennsylvania Department of Education Announces Over 99 Percent of Schools Have Completed Attestation Form

| December 2, 2020

Screenshot at Dec 01 22-19-36HARRISBURG, Pa. – The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) announced that over 99 percent of public school entities have submitted their attestation form to the department.

PDE has contacted the remaining Local Educational Agencies (LEA) and all are anticipated to comply.

PDE created the attestation form to ensure school communities are implementing mandated health, safety, and mitigation strategies when offering in-person instruction in a county with substantial levels of community transmission for two consecutive weeks. As of today, 66 of 67 counties have substantial levels of community transmission.

“While 2020 has been unlike any other year in the history of education, our school communities continue to show tremendous flexibility, grit, and resilience,” said Acting Secretary of Education Noe Ortega. “I am proud of our schools for their unwavering commitment to protecting their communities from an unpredictable virus while ensuring students continue to have access to a safe, quality education.

“As we continue to honor local control, we recognize that communities need to know that their schools are committed to critical mitigation strategies when offering in-person instruction,” he added. “The Attestation Form provides public school entities with an additional way to renew their commitment to following health and safety orders and recommendations as they continue to provide in-person instruction.”

Public school entities in counties in the substantial range are required to sign an attestation form affirming that if they are providing any type of in-person instruction that they are following the recently revised DOH face covering order and DOH guidance on how to handle confirmed cases in buildings. These entities are required to publicly post their attestation form on their website. While PDE recommends fully remote learning for school entities in substantial, the attestation form creates a path for those that want to continue to provide any in-person instruction. PDE has a space on its website that provides a list of public-school entities that have submitted an attestation form.

LEAs that do not return the form must provide fully remote instruction and suspend extra-curricular activities until the form is provided to PDE.

PDE and the state Department of Health (DOH) yesterday issued their weekly COVID-19 community transmission report for Pre-K to 12 schools. The report helps schools determine if students should receive instruction fully in-person, through a blended model, or fully remote.

For more information about Pennsylvania’s education policies and programs please visit the Department of Education’s website or follow PDE on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.


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