---

Regional News

Dear KIPP Philadelphia Families:

We hope that you have been well and are staying safe this summer. The KIPP Philadelphia staff is working tirelessly to ensure that students will return to a loving, safe, and rigorous learning environment in the fall.  We are aware of the outcome of the School District of Philadelphia’s most recent board meeting. We will continue to monitor the School District’s reopening plans and make sure we continue to monitor the safety and feasibility of our current reopening plan.  In the meantime, KIPP Philadelphia will continue to roll out our phased school re-opening as planned. We will also continue to monitor recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics, CDC and the Gov. Wolf administration. Our priority remains teacher and student safety and well being.

Don’t forget to read the parent square message each Monday.  You can also find our reopening plans and other important information on our website at www.kippphiladelphia.org. Make sure to follow us on Instagram at @KIPPPhilly to me notified of important announcements.

First Day of School
The first day of school will be August 24th.  We will resume school 100% online for the first three weeks.  We will continue to assess the state of the pandemic and our ability to open schools safely.  On September 14th, we hope to begin our hybrid in-school program.  We will make a call about whether we transition to a hybrid approach at the end of our second week of school.  If we transition to hybrid and you wish to continue your student’s schooling online, we will provide a fully virtual option.

Opt-In Virtual Learning Survey
Six weeks ago, we surveyed families about several back to school options.  However, the news about Covid-19 is changing quickly and we realize that opinions about sending students back to school may have changed.  After September 14th, if it is safe to do so, students will shift from 100% virtual learning to our hybrid learning model where students will be in our school building, learning in person, at least two days each week.  However, we will be offering the option to remain 100% virtual to all students through the end of the first marking period :

• K-8 Trimester 1: 8/24 – 11/20
• 9-12 Quarter 1: 8/24 – 10/23

For families that choose to remain virtual, you can expect students to engage in rigorous grade level learning activities that include live zoom classes and posted assignments to be completed independently. Students will be offered a full range of curricular opportunities.

Please note: If you choose to send your child to in-person school for our hybrid approach. You will be able to opt into virtual learning at any time.  If you choose virtual learning, your child must remain in the virtual setting for the remainder of the marking period and can return to in person instruction at the beginning of the next marking period.

Please complete the survey HERE to select all virtual learning or hybrid in person learning.

Instructional Overview:

KIPP Philadelphia has always worked hard to ensure our instruction is rigorous and addresses the whole child.  We plan to do the same in the 2020-21 school year whether students opt into our hybrid program or fully virtual option.

• Rigorous Grade Level Curriculum: All students will engage in high quality teacher led curriculum that has been modified to work in our new context.  Additionally, we’ve added to our suite of self paced computer based educational software to allow for more student practice at their own pace.
• Social Emotional Supports: All students will participate in developmentally appropriate proactive and reactive social emotional programming to support emotional awareness, stress navigation, and peer interactions.
• Community Building: All students will participate in community building activities with their cohort, their grade, and their whole school.  We are considering ways to safely embed extra curricular activities, social interactions, community meetings and other traditional KIPP community routines in our hybrid and virtual programming.
• Additional Supports and Interventions: All students will have access to additional academic supports if needed, through office hours, small group instruction, and additional teacher-student engagement.
• Well Rounded Program: All students will participate in core academic courses and enrichment classes and activities. Programming such as college advising, ACT preparation, social justice and more will be incorporated into student schedules in both the hybrid and virtual model.

Further schedule and course information can be found at the links below:

• Elementary
• Middle School
• High School

Special Education
KPPS will continue to provide special education services to students with IEPs in both hybrid and virtual models.  Depending on the student’s IEP and the learning environment, services may include the provision of direct instruction in identified areas, related services such as speech, and check-ins with teachers & case managers.  At the beginning of the school year, case managers will be reaching out to families to schedule IEP meetings to review data and consider revisions.  Additionally, as permitted by PDE, we will continue to conduct multidisciplinary evaluations and reevaluations to determine eligibility for services.

Family Town Hall Meetings
Schools will be hosting optional town hall meetings for families this week.  This is an opportunity to connect with school teams to answer any lingering questions you may have about our plans for the fall.  Please see below for meeting dates, times and zoom information.

Clever & Other Educational Technology will be unavailable from 8.1.2020 to 8.15.2020 as we prepare for the new school year!

Summer school and our extended school year programs are ending this Friday.  In order to make sure our technology is ready for the start of the new school year, we are going to take our online systems offline for two weeks starting on August first.  During that time your child will not have access to clever or any of the applications  accessed through clever such as Zearn, Dream box, SeeSaw, or Learning A-Z.  The good news is we are going to add new programs for your students to use and make it easier and more secure for your students to access these tools.