Signed by Governor Tom Wolf

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to concur with house amendments and pass a bill that authorizes financial assistance to schools and their employees while shortening the school year in response to the COVID-19 emergency.

Highlights:

• Specifies that this act shall expire June 30, 2021 (Sec. 1).

• Amends previous law to immediately waive the requirement that schools be kept open for at least 180 days due to the pandemic of 2020 declared by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020 (Sec. 4).

• Authorizes the Secretary of the Department of Education the power to do the following, including, but not limited to (Sec. 4):

• Ordering the closure of all school entities until the threat to health and safety caused by the pandemic of 2020 has ended;

• Increasing the number of flexible instructional days that school entities may institute;

• Waiving the minimum total number of hours required for a career and technical education program;

• Waiving the requirement to include performance data in a professional employees performance rating;

• Waiving the minimum number of days of pre-kindergarten instruction required under previous law;

• Waiving the 12-week student teacher requirement for education preparation programs that are unable to meet regulatory requirements due to the pandemic; and

• Waiving the NIMS assessment and NOCTI exam.

• Defines “NIMS assessment” as the assessment based on the National Institute for Metalworking skills Standards, and the “NOCTI exam” as the National Occupational Competency Testing Institute exam (Sec. 4).

• Establishes that no employee of a school entity who was employed as of March 13, 2020 shall receive more or less compensation than the employee otherwise would have been entitled to receive (Sec. 4).

• Defiens “school entity” as any school district, intermediate unit, area career and technical school, charter school, cyber charter school or regional charter school a child attends in order to fulfill the compulsory attendance requirements of this act (Sec. 4).

• Requires each school entity to provide for an employee responsible for cleaning school facilities the appropriate cleaning materials and protective clothing and gear as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Sec. 4).

• Requires each school entity to make good faith efforts in order to plan to offer a continuity of education to students using alternative means during the closure, which shall be posted on the school entities publicly accessible website (Sec. 4).

• Prohibits a school entity that was closed as a result of the pandemic of 2020 from receiving less subsidy payments, reimbursements, allocations, tuition, or other payments from the Department of education then they otherwise would have been entitled to receive had the pandemic of 2020 not occurred (Sec. 4).

• Extends the current continuing professional education compliance period by one year and specifies that this extension shall expire the following year (Sec. 4).

• Authorizes the governing body of a nonpublic school to close the nonpublic school due to the threat to health and safety caused by the pandemic of 2020 (Sec. 4).

• Authorizes school entities to renegotiate a contract for school bus transportation services in order to ensure contracted personnel and fixed costs are maintained during the period of school closure (Sec. 4).

• Authorizes that a school entity that continues to pay a school bus transportation contractor or operate its own school bus transportation to be eligible for financial reimbursement from the department of Education at a rate they would have received had the pandemic of 2020 not occured (Sec. 4).

• Prohibits a private residential rehabilitative institution that was closed due to the pandemic of 2020 from receiving less payment from school entities for any student enrolled as of March 13, 2020 (Sec. 4).

Full Bill Text