School News

East Penn will be introducing American Sign Language and math foundations courses for the next school year.

Take a look at stories that ran throughout the week of which we are most proud, had a profound impact on readers or that you might want to look at again.

All is moving according to plan for a new elementary school to go up in Fountain Hill Borough just in time for classes to start in August 2027. The project could cost about $60 million.

Good Shepherd Rehabilitation announced a new program to train long-term care nursing aides. Those who enroll will get paid while training and will be hired at the health care provider upon completion.

You Are The Light is a recognition program in the Allentown School District that celebrates staff and students. The district selects honorees each month to be featured on LehighValleyNews.com.

Da Vinci Science Center’s facility at Cedar Crest College will be open through April 1, with the downtown center to open in May.

East Penn School District is using a second targeted state improvement, or TSI designation, as an opportunity to plan for a variety of issues beyond what the state notice is prompting them to.

After two lengthy meetings detailing the proposal for a new charter school, the Bethlehem Area School District opted to reject the Bethlehem STEAM Academy's proposal during Monday's school board meeting.

An application by the Lehigh Valley STEAM Academy Charter School to open in the Whitehall-Coplay School District was unanimously rejected by the school board Monday night.

After another failed bid to open in Allentown, the Lehigh Valley STEAM Academy Charter School is seeking approval Monday night from school boards in Bethlehem and Whitehall, but it's not looking good.

The past year and a half has been traumatic for many people, including children. Many are starting the school year once again under the cloud of COVID-19. A Lehigh Valley yoga instructor is sharing ways to help kids de-stress.

Republicans in the House Health Committee are challenging the Pennsylvania health department’s order that requires children to wear face coverings at schools to decrease the spread of COVID-19.

The Bethlehem Area School District’s Miller Heights Elementary is operating remotely after a dozen COVID-19 cases affected students in five of its classrooms.

Nearly 20% of Americans today are too young to remember firsthand the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Tuesday was the start for Pennsylvania’s K through 12 masking mandate. The order was issued last week by Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam, not Gov. Wolf. Sarah Anne Hughes, deputy editor for SpotlightPA, a nonpartisan investigative newsroom which has been covering these issues, recently joined us by phone to discuss the move by the Wolf administration.

Pennsylvania’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives is mulling a legislative challenge to the Wolf administration’s latest mask mandate for schools. A group of state senators, meanwhile, is readying a bill to change the state’s constitution to prevent those mandates.

Whitehall-Coplay Superintendent Robert Steckel said they’re “staying the course” with their COVID-19 health and safety plan, but making adjustments for outside mandates such as the Wolf administration’s school masking requirement which went into effect on Sept. 7.

A report from the center-left think tank Third Way shows several degrees at Cedar Crest College take 10-29 years for students to see a return on their educational investment.

School districts across Pennsylvania are preparing to enforce a masking order handed down by Secretary of Health Dr. Alison Beam.

Muhlenberg College is welcoming in-person students back to campus this week. But for some of the COVID-19-era sophomores, being back-to-school means they’re new to school.

Pennsylvania officials on Tuesday announced a mask mandate for students and teachers in schools Pre-K to 12 and for licensed childcare providers.

Masks will be required in all Pennsylvania public and private schools, as well as child care facilities, Gov. Tom Wolf was set to announce Tuesday, reversing course amid a statewide COVID-19 resurgence that is filling hospital beds just as students return to class.