As you may be well aware, Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia will be open in a few weeks for full-time, in-person learning. While elementary schools will be open, parents also have the option to continue distance education virtually. Those staying home and learning virtually, however, must be dressed in their uniform and ready to go at the same time as their classmates are at school. 

The Office For Catholic Education has worked tirelessly this summer designing and implementing this plan to safely reopen schools, and prepare for any situation that could arise. 

Andrew McLaughlin discussed the school closure in March and how it further guided the reopening plan with Gina Christian on Inside CatholicPhilly.com, stating: 

“When we shut down last year, originally we were looking at for two weeks, but we used to meet weekly with our principals and we would get feedback from our parents. We surveyed them a couple times, and learned what they felt was working and not working.

One of the things that we learned was, they wanted that day to look as much like a regular school day as possible, so it wasn’t enough … Initially we might have just sent out a couple lessons and did a couple instructions on the video. By the end of it, we had people attending the whole school day. They would log on for religion class, do an activity, then log back on for math class, do an activity, log on for English language arts and do a writing activity, do a reading activity. It kind of morphed as we got into this.

So that’s what we’re looking to do this year as well. We expect the children to get in their uniforms. We want them to approach this as if it’s school. We have standards for behavior for when they’re virtually attending class, and we have systems for them to exchange information between the teacher and home.” 

Listen here to hear more details and find more information on a Catholic elementary school in your neighborhood!