HARRISBURG, Pa. — The school year may be in full swing, but the delta variant has been a threat to classrooms nationwide.
On Thursday, the Wolf Administration, along with the Departments of Health and Transportation, spoke for nearly two hours to address ways school districts can continue in-person learning.
“Our schools and students are more resilient, and under the extraordinary circumstances created by the pandemic, this has been good start to the school year,” Education Secretary Noe Ortega said in a statement.
The group discussed topics regarding the need to hire more bus drivers, vaccination plans for kids under 12-years-old and the K-12 testing program.
The Wolf administration said they have started a 100-percent federally funded initiative to provide, “safer in-person environments for students, teachers and staff.” However, only 400 schools in the state have opted-in.
“I think any reluctance on the part of the school may be that we need to continue to educate them on the availability of it,” said Allison Beam, Acting Secretary for the Department of Health.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, 21.9 percent of children ages 12-15 are fully vaccinated and 42.6 percent of children between the ages of 15-19 are fully vaccinated.
“The vaccination numbers continue to increase,” Beam added.
As the nation deals with a shortage of bus drivers, Pennsylvania isn’t exempt from that challenge either. Across the state, there only are 42,000 bus drivers.
Kurt Myers with The Department of Transportation said it's "the lowest number of CDL bus drivers the commonwealth has had in 5 years."
In hopes to increase the number of bus drivers, PennDOT is reaching out to 375,000 drivers with a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) in the state. The department is also expanding its days of operation for 23 locations where they offer CDL skills testing.
The administration noted the bus driver shortage is a nationwide problem and it's not one that "can be fixed overnight."