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Governor Tom Wolf is dedicating approximately $28 million to postsecondary institutions and adult basic education providers to assist them in implementing public health and safety plans and help them to resume operations in the fall. The funding will be used to help keep students, faculty, and staff safe and assist institutions in meeting the unique challenges of providing instruction during COVID-19.

“Students attending postsecondary institutions and participating in adult education programs are eager to return to class, and institutions have been planning for months for a safe return to instruction,” Gov. Wolf said. “This funding will help these institutions, whether they choose to continue to provide remote instruction, return to in-person instruction, or employ a hybrid approach to meet the instructional needs of their students.”

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Although every Pennsylvania county is operating in the green phase of COVID-19 recovery, allowing more businesses to reopen, the unemployment rate is still 13 percent. With 1.9 million claims filed for unemployment since March, tens of thousands of people remain both out of work and without all or most of the unemployment compensation they applied for months ago.

While the Philadelphia Inquirer recently reported about 90,000 people who applied for benefits between March 15 and June 20 still have not received them, the state Department of Labor and Industry told WHYY News it did not have a more current figure to reflect claims made in late June and July.

Margaret Krish is one of them. She loved working at Hahnemann University Hospital. She attended nursing school there before working those same halls as an oncology nurse for 25 years. When the hospital closed in September she was heartbroken.

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Governor Tom Wolf today visited the PA CareerLink York County to highlight the virtual services available to people looking for work and employers seeking qualified candidates. The governor also urged Republicans in Congress to extend the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program that provides an extra $600 a week to people receiving unemployment compensation. The federal program ended July 25.

“The fight against COVID-19 has required sacrifices from all of us, and for many people these challenging months have left them in search of a new job,” said Gov. Wolf. “PA CareerLink® has transitioned to offer more services online to help people find family-sustaining jobs for the long term.

“The most immediate way to help those workers is for Sen. Pat Toomey and Republicans
in Congress to extend the federal unemployment compensation program that provides an additional $600 a week. That added payment is critical for many people to pay their bills and keep food on the table. It’s the right thing to do, and it’s time for Washington to act.”

Pennsylvania is also helping workers by bolstering the online services offered in all 67 counties from PA CareerLink®, a one-stop-shop for job seekers and employers.

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Text of June 3 press release.

Harrisburg, PA – The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) today said elementary and secondary schools in the state’s yellow and green phases may resume in-person instruction and activities beginning July 1 under a phased reopening approach that first requires schools to develop health and safety plans based on guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the state Department of Health (DOH).

PDE also released guidance that allows postsecondary institutions and adult basic education programs, effective June 5, to begin in-person instruction immediately following the development of a health and safety plan outlining strategies for safe operations.

The preliminary documents follow Governor Wolf’s Process to Reopen Pennsylvania, which has been updated to reflect the new guidance.

“The Wolf administration remains committed to the safety and welfare of students, faculty and staff, and any reopening plan must be rooted in these principles,” said Secretary of Education Pedro A. Rivera. “As school leaders resume instruction in the 2020-21 school year, the department recognizes the need for preliminary guidance to aid in planning for a return to in-person instruction, delivery of services, and resumption of extracurricular activities.”

Given the dynamic nature of the pandemic, the preliminary guidance serves as a starting point for school leaders to consider in reopening preparations, and it will continue to evolve as further research, data and resources become available. Later this month, PDE will release additional guidance that outlines steps for school openings while addressing safe operations, teaching and learning and student wellness – with attention to equity throughout.

The two guidance documents released today provide a list of decisions that schools need to consider prior to reopening.

Elementary and secondary schools that want to begin offering in-person instruction or activities must first develop a health and safety plan, which will serve as a local guideline for all school opening activities. The plans should be tailored to the unique needs of each school and reflect a comprehensive, community approach created in consultation with local health agencies.

Plans must encompass several elements, including identifying a pandemic coordinator or team to lead response efforts; steps to protect high-risk children and staff who may be at higher risk; processes for monitoring students and staff for symptoms; guidelines for hygiene practices; processes for cleaning and disinfecting; guidelines for the use of face masks; protocols for social distancing; and procedures for restricting large gatherings.

The plans must be approved by local boards of directors and posted on the school or district public website before a school reopens. The plans must also be submitted to PDE.

The guidance applies to school districts, charter schools, regional charter schools, cyber charter schools, career and technical centers and intermediate units. Nonpublic schools are strongly encouraged to create plans tailored to their unique needs and post them on their websites.

Finally, postsecondary schools in the yellow and green phases can resume in-person instruction effective June 5 and following the development of a health and safety plan. The guidance applies to colleges, universities, seminaries, trade schools and adult basic education programs. Institutions must adhere to proper physical distancing guidelines and other general public health and safety considerations informed by guidelines released by the CDC and DOH.

“Educators, students and caregivers have done a remarkable job as we all navigate through this pandemic,” added Secretary Rivera. “Now we need to direct our energy to focus on how to resume instruction in the 2020-21 school year. We fully expect students to return to classrooms in some capacity and are confident that schools will use this guidance to build a framework that best meets the unique needs of their students and communities.”

For the latest information for individuals, families, businesses and schools, visit “Responding to COVID-19” on pa.gov.

For more information about Pennsylvania’s education policies and programs, please visit the Department of Education’s website or follow PDE on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.

Media contact: Eric Levis, 717-783-9802 or elevis@pa.gov

HARRISBURG — Mike Consevage came home from work the Friday before the long Memorial Day weekend to find two unemployment checks sitting on his kitchen table with his mail.

Consevage, a Harrisburg-based pediatric cardiologist for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, immediately knew something was wrong:

He is employed and never filed for unemployment.

“I said, ‘This had to be a mistake,’” Consevage said in an interview. “So I called my business manager and said, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ [The business manager] said, ‘That’s funny, another physician had just gotten a similar set of checks.’”

Consevage appears to be the victim of an elaborate, multi-state scheme to steal people’s identities, fraudulently file for unemployment programs, and then route the money to their own bank accounts, intercept paper checks, or deceive unknowing recipients into turning them over.

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It’s a truth the COVID-19 crisis has made abundantly clear; our health, our jobs and livelihoods are all inextricably linked. As the virus deals a blow to the complex and invisible web that connects us, we feel it in unexpected ways — bare grocery store shelves, idle manufacturing plants, empty college parking lots, and hospitals simultaneously overwhelmed and financially strapped. Leave it to an invisible virus to make visible the networks that underpin our daily lives. They’ve always been there; we just haven’t always noticed them.

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Scammers are getting away with using Social Security numbers and other identifying information belonging to identity theft victims to commit unemployment compensation fraud, officials at the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry warn.

“Unlike some other states, Pennsylvania is not seeing a large increase in unemployment scams since COVID-19 mitigation efforts began,” Secretary Jerry Oleksiak said. “We are working with our partner agencies to keep a close eye on the situation.”

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HARRISBURG – The number of people filing unemployment claims in the week ending May 17 dropped below 62,000 for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic prompted the state to close nonessential businesses statewide.

State Labor and Industry data shows the number of claims has dropped to  61,864 in the period.

That’s fewer new claims in the entire week than the state had each day in the initial period after the shutdown’s impact rippled across the state.

On March 20, 90,000 people filed claims for unemployment. In one week in late March, the number of new claims topped 400,000.

The drop in new claims comes as the state has begun relaxing those restrictions across much of the state.

In a press call with reporters on Monday, Labor and Industry Secretary Jerry Oleksiak said the number of claims, though declining, are still significant. In the weeks ending May 10, the number of claims was 65,000.

Oleksiak said the number of recent claims is “a tremendously high number, given that the state had been working with before the pandemic mitigation efforts went into effect.”

The state has received close to 1.9 million initial claims through the traditional unemployment program and another 266,000 claims for assistance through the stimulus-funded program to provide benefits to self-employed people and independent contractors, he said.

About 76% of the people who filed initial claims were approved, said Susan Dickinson, director of the state Office of Unemployment Compensation Benefits Policy.

The remaining 24% include both people whose claims are pending and those who may be ineligible, she said.

Pennsylvania has paid out $8.8 billion in benefits to unemployed people, Oleksiak said. That includes both the normal state benefit and the additional $600 a week provided by the federal stimulus funding.

Dickinson said that the state over the weekend also launched a new program that will provide an additional 13 weeks of benefits to jobless workers who have exhausted the 26 weeks of benefits normally provided by the state’s unemployment compensation program.

Those extra weeks will be available to unemployed people in Pennsylvania through the rest of 2020.

ext of May 17 media advisory.

Provides an additional 13 weeks of benefits.

More than $7.9 billion in total unemployment benefits paid since mid-March.

Harrisburg, PA – Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry (L&I) Secretary Jerry Oleksiak today announced the launch of Pennsylvania’s Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) program to provide an additional 13 weeks of benefits to people who exhaust their regular unemployment compensation (UC).

PEUC is included in the new federal unemployment compensation benefits provided by the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Pennsylvania has implemented all programs under the new CARES Act and paid out nearly $7.4 billion in total unemployment benefits since mid-March.

Important information about the extended benefits program follows and has also been emailed or mailed via the United States Postal Service to all individuals who potentially qualify for PEUC.

Eligibility

You are eligible for PEUC if you:

• Are unemployed between March 29 through December 26, 2020;
• Have exhausted your regular state or federal benefits with week ending July 6, 2019 or later;
• Are currently not eligible for state or federal unemployment benefits; and
• Are able and available to work and actively seeking work, except for COVID-19-related reasons including illness, quarantine, or “stay at home” orders.

How to Receive PEUC

• If you have an open UC claim but exhausted all of your benefits, the 13 additional weeks will automatically be added to your existing claim. Log in this week to file biweekly claims for prior weeks, back through the week ending April 4 (if applicable).
• If your benefit year has expired then you must submit an application online.
• If you don’t have access to computers or the internet, you can have a loved one or friend print the paper application for you to complete and submit via mail. We are also in the process of mailing paper copies of the application to individuals who might need it.
• Biweekly claims and payments work the same way as for regular UC benefits.

PEUC Weekly Benefit Amount:

• Your PEUC weekly benefit amount is the same as your regular UC weekly benefit rate.
• Your weekly benefit rate is based on your reported earnings during the base year (the first four of the last five completed quarters). You must also have over 18 credit weeks (weeks during which you earned $116 or more) in your base year to be eligible for UC.

Extra $600 on PEUC:

• You will receive an additional $600 per week from the federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) program. Anyone collecting any type of UC, including PEUC, will receive the extra $600 per week in addition to your weekly benefits as calculated.
• FPUC payments began the week ending April 4, 2020 and will end July 25, 2020. These payments will be backdated for eligible individuals and paid in one lump sum.
• You will receive the extra $600 FPUC payments the week after your PEUC payments.

Pennsylvania’s UC Payments

Since March 15, the department has made 15.7 million payments to claimants totaling nearly $7.9 billion in benefits:

• $4.8 billion from regular UC
• $2.85 billion from the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) program (extra $600 per week)
• $290 million from Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program since May 7

Regular UC claim statistics are available here and the breakdown of that data by industry and county is here. PUA claim statistics are available here.

Visit the commonwealth’s Responding to COVID-19 guide for the latest guidance and resources for Pennsylvanians or the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s dedicated coronavirus webpage for the most up-to-date information regarding COVID-19.

Media contact: Penny Ickes, dlipress@pa.gov