School District of Philadelphia offering free backpacks, supplies during back-to-school bus tour

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — The School District of Philadelphia is kicking off back-to-school preparations with a bus tour to answer questions, provide free school supplies and also immunizations at select sites.

The bus tour begins Monday, with less than a month to go before students return to the classroom on Aug. 25.

The first stop was the School of the Future, in Fairmount Park.

Expect a big block party with thousands of people, ice cream, water ice, a DJ, as well as free school supplies!

“Any questions that parents have, we will either be able to answer or we’ll find an answer for them,” said Adam Northam, deputy chief of internal communications for the school district.

He said the purpose of the back-to-school bus tour is to meet families where they are, bringing the information they need to each of the seven events planned over the next two and a half weeks.

“The past couple of years, we’ve averaged between 2,500 and 3,000 people per event. The more the merrier,” Northam said.

Families will receive free backpacks and school supplies at each event.

Immunizations and required sports physicals will be available at select sites.

Locations include:

The bus will make stops from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the following dates:

Monday, July 28
School of the Future
4021 Parkside Ave.

Friday, August 1
Fashion District
901 Market St.

Monday, August 4
Martin Luther King High School
6100 Stenton Ave.

Wednesday, August 6
George Washington High School Fields
10175 Bustleton Ave.

Saturday, August 9
Citizens Bank Park
1 Citizens Bank Way

Tuesday, August 12
Marcus Foster Stadium (Gratz Supersite)
1627 W. Hunting Park Ave.

Friday, August 15
Roosevelt Mall
2329 Cottman Ave.

Parents will certainly have questions about how kids who use SEPTA will get to and from school.

The transit agency is preparing to cut service by 20% on August 24, the day before Philadelphia students return to class.

RELATED: SEPTA posts notices warning riders ahead of drastic service cuts coming next month

SEPTA officials say roughly 55,000 public school students have SEPTA passes and that all of them will be starting school on the first weekday of the cuts.

We’ve been reporting that state lawmakers could approve additional funding to help avoid the cuts, but the state budget hasn’t passed yet.

SEPTA officials say they’ll need to know if they’re getting more funding at least three weeks before services are to be cut in order to make plans, so now they’re urging families to look up resources on septa.org and make that part of back to school preparations.

“We are urging students and their families to review that plan,” said SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch. “We have a special section broken out with details on school service plans and how that’s going to be impacted.”

Busch added, “What we do expect is students will have to allow more time than usual to get to school in the morning. From 7-9 in the morning when school’s in session. One of three people on SEPTA is a student traveling to school, so it’s going to be a big impact for them.”

SEPTA is supposed to meet with school district and university officials this week.