Some schools are closing or moving to remote learning during April's solar eclipse

PITTSBURGH — Some Pittsburgh-area school districts are planning to keep students home during the April 8 solar eclipse, which is expected to occur around student dismissal times.

Pine-Richland is canceling classes for the day "to allow families the opportunity to view this historic event safely from their homes," officials wrote in a letter.

The eclipse is expected to happen during student dismissal and "the potential is significant for students to be tempted to view it without proper safety precautions while exiting the school building or while getting off of the school bus," the letter states.

South Fayette School District will dismiss students early and those attending schools in the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh will move to remote learning for the day, officials confirmed.

The Pittsburgh region will see a partial eclipse, meaning the moon will cover a portion of the sun, causing the sky to slightly darken. But the event is expected to start around 2 p.m., with the maximum eclipse, or when the moon blocks the most amount of sun at a specific location, occurring at 3:18 p.m., according to the Carnegie Science Center. That means the eclipse will fall when several area schools are being dismissed.

And in order to avoid severe eye injury, protection such as eclipse glasses are required during partial solar eclipses because there is no period of totality when the moon completely blocks the sun, something that would be difficult for school and bus officials to monitor during dismissal.

The decision by local school leaders to close or move to remote learning mirrors national trends, especially in districts in the path of totality. So far, districts in Texas, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Vermont and Maine have announced school closures the day of the eclipse. Pennsylvania...