{"id":210939,"date":"2026-06-04T21:47:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T21:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/210939\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T21:47:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T21:47:11","slug":"52-philadelphia-schools-will-go-virtual-friday-due-to-high-temperatures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/210939\/","title":{"rendered":"52 Philadelphia schools will go virtual Friday due to high temperatures"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 egVxCn body-paragraph\">Sign up for <a href=\"https:\/\/chalkbeat.org\/philadelphia\/newsletters\/subscribe\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chalkbeat Philadelphia\u2019s free newsletter<\/a> to keep up with the city\u2019s public school system.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 egVxCn body-paragraph\">The Philadelphia school district will close 52 schools Friday and move to virtual learning due to high temperatures, district officials announced Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 egVxCn body-paragraph\">Early childhood programs located at those schools will also be virtual, and all in person after-school programs in those buildings will be canceled.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 egVxCn body-paragraph\">The transition to virtual learning will hit around one-quarter of the district\u2019s schools. Schools not on the list will continue to operate as normal. Students may also still participate in field trips.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 egVxCn body-paragraph\">In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.philasd.org\/blog\/2026\/05\/19\/virtualmay20\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a letter announcing the change<\/a>, Deputy Superintendent Oz Hill said the district recognizes \u201cthat unexpected shifts to virtual learning can create challenges for families.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 egVxCn body-paragraph\">\u201cWhile we know that in-person learning is the best environment for students, the safety and well-being of our students, staff, and families remains our top priority,\u201d Hill said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 egVxCn body-paragraph\">Temperatures are expected to hit 90 degrees on Friday in Philadelphia. <a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/articles\/philadelphia-schools-air-conditioning-jalen-hurts\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Many schools lack air conditioning in all rooms<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re here to help.<\/p>\n<p>Every day, Chalkbeat Philadelphia reporters are answering your questions, following the money, and digging into what&#8217;s happening in the city&#8217;s public schools. Keep up with our free newsletter, delivered every Wednesday and Friday morning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 egVxCn body-paragraph\">The district also moved dozens of schools to virtual learning <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chalkbeat.org\/philadelphia\/2026\/05\/19\/57-schools-will-be-remote-wednesday\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">on May 20<\/a> due to high heat. That move came after the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers urged the district to keep students and staff safe amid soaring temperatures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 egVxCn body-paragraph\">The 52 schools that will operate virtually on Friday are:<\/p>\n<p>AMY NorthwestBache-Martin*Blaine, James*Building 21Catharine, Joseph*Comegys, B.Comly, WatsonCooke, J.Crossan, KennedyDisston, HamiltonDunbar, PaulEmlen, Eleanor*Fell, D NewlinFox ChaseFranklin, Ben HSGirard, StephenHarding, WarrenHenry, CharlesHill-FreedmanHopkinson, FrancisHouston, HenryHowe, JuliaJenks, AbramJenks, John SLamberton*Lingelbach, AnnaLoesche*Ludlow, JamesMcCloskey, JohnMcClure, A.*McMichael, M.*Mitchell, WeirMoore, J. HamptonMYAOlney ElementaryOverbrook ESParkway WestPatterson, John*Rhawnhurst*Rowen, WilliamRoxborough HSSayre, WilliamSharswood, George*Sheppard, IssacSouth Phila. HS*Spring GardenSpruance, Gilbert*Sullivan, JamesTilden, WilliamThe U SchoolWagner, Gen. LouisWashington, Martha<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 egVxCn body-paragraph\">An asterisk indicates the school has prekindergarten or Head Start on site.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 egVxCn body-paragraph\">Rebecca Redelmeier is a reporter at Chalkbeat Philadelphia. She writes about public schools, early childhood education, and issues that affect students, families, and educators across Philadelphia. Contact Rebecca at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chalkbeat.org\/philadelphia\/2026\/06\/04\/52-philly-schools-will-go-virtual-friday-due-to-heat\/mailto:rredelmeier@chalkbeat.org\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">rredelmeier@chalkbeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for Chalkbeat Philadelphia\u2019s free newsletter to keep up with the city\u2019s public school system. The Philadelphia&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[31033,5735,9794,7017,4329,17321,227,23162,4036,23163,16888,69,71,70,4044,76242,521],"class_list":["post-210939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-blackboard","tag-chair","tag-classroom","tag-color","tag-day","tag-desk","tag-education","tag-empty","tag-horizontal","tag-indoors","tag-nobody","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-photography","tag-primary-school","tag-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210939","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=210939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}