{"id":197195,"date":"2026-05-19T23:06:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T23:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/197195\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T23:06:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T23:06:07","slug":"philadelphia-schools-go-virtual-due-to-heat-wave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/197195\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia schools go virtual due to heat wave"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? <a href=\"#Section1\">Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>Dozens of Philadelphia public schools announced virtual learning Wednesday as an early-season heatwave bakes the region.\n<\/p>\n<p>Temperatures in Philadelphia <a href=\"https:\/\/www.weather.gov\/wrh\/timeseries?site=kphl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">soared to 99 degrees Fahrenheit<\/a> Tuesday, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NWS_MountHolly\/status\/2056851844840792329?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">breaking a record set in 1962<\/a>. Wednesday\u2019s high temperature is forecast to hit 95 degrees.\n<\/p>\n<p>Many schools in Philadelphia lack sufficient air conditioning, and schools <a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/articles\/climate-change-philly-schools\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">frequently close at the start and end of the school year<\/a>. The School District of Philadelphia has been <a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/articles\/philadelphia-schools-air-conditioning-jalen-hurts\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">working to upgrade air conditioning, but 52 buildings<\/a> still lack sufficient cooling, according to the district.\n  <\/p>\n<p>Under district <a href=\"https:\/\/www.philasd.org\/inclement-weather-policy\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">policy<\/a>, schools dismiss early when outside temperatures are forecast to reach 85\u00a0 degrees by 12 p.m., or shift to remote learning when temperatures are forecast to reach 85 degrees by 9 a.m.\n<\/p>\n<p>Early childhood centers at affected schools will also go virtual. Officials are also canceling in-person after-school activities at those schools.\n<\/p>\n<p>Oz Hill, deputy superintendent of operations, said the district will communicate with families when the schools will return to in-person instruction.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile the School District of Philadelphia acknowledges that in-person learning is the best option for students, the safety and well-being of our students, staff, and families remains our top priority,\u201d Hill said in a written statement.\n        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[87568,223,69,71,70,23941],"class_list":["post-197195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-heat-waves","tag-pennsylvania-education","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-philadelphia-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}