PRINTER'S NO. 337

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA

HOUSE BILL

No.

365

Session of

2021

INTRODUCED BY HARKINS, GALLOWAY, SAMUELSON, SANCHEZ, FREEMAN,

HILL-EVANS, SCHLEGEL CULVER, KINSEY, McNEILL, SCHLOSSBERG,

MALAGARI, NEILSON, BRIGGS, LONGIETTI, SCHWEYER, FRANKEL,

schools; amending, revising, consolidating and changing the

laws relating thereto," making editorial changes.

The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

hereby enacts as follows:

Section 1. Section 502 of the act of March 10, 1949 (P.L.30,

No.14), known as the Public School Code of 1949, amended October

30, 2019 (P.L.460, No.76), is amended to read:

Section 502. Additional Schools and Departments.--In

addition to the elementary public schools, the board of school

directors in any school district may establish, equip, furnish,

Cafeterias,

Agricultural schools,

Evening schools,

Kindergartens,

Libraries,

Museums,

Reading-rooms,

Gymnasiums,

Playgrounds,

Schools for [physically and mentally handicapped] children

directors, in their wisdom, may see proper to establish.

Said additional schools or departments, when established,

shall be an integral part of the public school system in such

school district and shall be so administered.

No pupil shall be refused admission to the courses in these

additional schools or departments, by reason of the fact that

his elementary or academic education is being or has been

received in a school other than a public school.

Section 2. Sections 925(f), 923.2-A, 1328, 1338, 1376(a),

1377, 1377.1, 1379, 1502-E(b) and 2108 of the act are amended to

hospitalization corporation, or nonprofit medical service

corporation, authorized to transact business within the

Commonwealth, insuring its employes, their spouses and

dependents and retired employes under a policy or policies of

group insurance covering life, health, hospitalization medical

service, or accident insurance, and for such purposes may agree

to pay part or all of the premiums or charges for carrying such

contracts, and may include the cost of such charges in its

estimate of the cost of operating and administering classes or

schools for [handicapped and institutionalized] children with

authorized to deduct from the employe's pay, salary, or

compensation, such part of the premium as is payable by the

employe and as may be so authorized by the employe in writing.

(3) All contracts procured hereunder shall conform and be

subject to all the provisions of any existing or future laws

concerning group insurance contracts.

Section 923.2-A. Visual Services.--(a) Legislative Finding;

Declaration of Policy. [Defects] Impairments in vision are

instruction in skills appropriate for the education, safety and

independence of children afflicted by visual impairments are

closely related to their physical, mental and emotional health.

school which the child regularly attends and forcing children to

go to other premises in order to have such needed services is

found by the General Assembly to be both inadequate and harmful.

The General Assembly expressly finds and declares diagnostic,

evaluative and instructional services for such children to be

health services and it is the intention of the General Assembly

now to make these available, on a general and even-handed basis

to all school children in the Commonwealth.

(b) Definitions. As used in this section:

"Nonpublic school" means any nonprofit school, other than a

(c) Provision of Services. The Secretary of Education,

directly or through the intermediate units out of their

allocation under section 922.1-A shall have the power and duty

to furnish free to nonpublic school students, upon the premises

of the nonpublic schools which they regularly attend, services

adequate for the diagnosis and evaluation of visual [defects]

impairments and instruction and training in skills advisable for

the education, independence and safety of such children,

public school district in which such nonpublic school is

located.

Section 1328. Compulsory Education of Children with Physical

person, having control or charge of any child of compulsory

school age who is deaf or blind, [or is so crippled,] or whose

hearing or vision is so [defective] impaired as to make it

impracticable to have such child educated in the public schools

of the district in which he is a resident, shall allow such

child to be sent to some school where proper provision is made

for the education of the deaf, or of the blind, [or of crippled

children,] or shall provide for the tuition of such child by a

legally certified private tutor.

Section 1338. Dependent Children.--In case any child of

the board of school directors may, by its superintendent,

secretary, attendance officer or State, municipal, port

authority, transit authority or housing authority police

officer, under such rules and regulations as the board may

adopt, proceed against said child before the juvenile court, or

otherwise, as is now or may hereafter be provided by law for

incorrigible, truant, insubordinate, or dependent children.

Section 1376. Cost of Tuition and Maintenance of Certain

and resident in this Commonwealth, who is blind or deaf, or has

cerebral palsy and/or neurological impairment and/or muscular

dystrophy and/or is [mentally retarded] intellectually disabled

has autism/pervasive developmental disorder and is enrolled,

with the approval of the Department of Education, as a pupil in

an approved private school approved by the Department of

Education, in accordance with standards and regulations

promulgated by the State Board of Education, the school district

in which such child is resident or, for students placed by a

charter school, the charter school in which the student was

enrolled shall pay the greater of either twenty per centum (20%)

of the actual audited cost of tuition and maintenance of such

child in such school, as determined by the Department of

years 1989-1990, 1990-1991 and 1991-1992, the school district

payment shall be no greater than forty percent (40%) of the

actual audited costs of tuition and maintenance of such child in

such school. For the 1992-1993 school year through the 2003-2004

school year, the school district or charter school payment shall

be the greater of forty percent (40%) of the actual audited

costs of tuition and maintenance of such child in such school,

as determined by the Department of Education, or its "tuition

Commonwealth shall pay, out of funds appropriated to the

department for approved private schools, the balance due for the

costs of such child's tuition and maintenance, as determined by

year thereafter, the school district or charter school payment

shall be the greater of forty percent (40%) of the approved

tuition rate as established pursuant to subsection (c.3) or

(c.5) or the school district or charter school's "tuition

charges per elementary pupil" or "tuition charges per secondary

pupil" as calculated under section 2561, and the Commonwealth

shall pay out of funds appropriated to the department for

approved private schools the balance of the approved tuition

rate due for the cost of such child's tuition and maintenance.

The department will credit the district of residence with

* * *

Section 1377. Payment of Cost of Tuition and Maintenance of

Certain Exceptional Children.--(a) To facilitate payments by

the several school districts to the schools or institutions in

which children who are deaf or blind, or cerebral palsied and/or

brain damaged and/or muscular dystrophied, or socially and

emotionally [disturbed] disabled or [mentally retarded children]

intellectually disabled are enrolled, of amounts due by such

withhold from any moneys due to such districts out of any State

appropriation for the assistance as reimbursement of school

districts, the amounts due by such districts to such schools or

and/or brain damaged and/or muscular dystrophied or the socially

and emotionally [disturbed] disabled and/or [mentally retarded]

intellectually disabled . Amounts so withheld shall be

specifically appropriated to the Department of Education.

(b) Payments of the Commonwealth's proportion of the cost of

tuition and maintenance of pupils who are blind or deaf, or

cerebral palsied and/or brain damaged and/or muscular

dystrophied, or socially and emotionally [disturbed] disabled

and/or [mentally retarded pupils] intellectually disabled and

are enrolled in schools or institutions for the blind or for the

the provisions of section 1376.1 providing for the actual cost

of tuition and maintenance of certain exceptional children in

the four chartered schools for education of the deaf and of the

blind, in no event shall the total payment for the cost of

tuition and maintenance of any such child exceed the rates per

year allowed under section 1376. The maximum amount payable for

the cost of tuition and maintenance of such children shall be

subject to review at least once every two years for the purpose

to determine from time to time what amounts are due to schools

for the blind or for the deaf or for the cerebral palsied and/or

brain damaged and/or muscular dystrophied or for the socially

intellectually disabled hereunder, such schools shall forward to

the department, at such times and in such form as the department

shall prescribe, sworn statements setting forth the names, ages,

and residences of all pupils enrolled hereunder, specifying the

school districts liable for a part of the cost of tuition and

maintenance of any such pupils, the per capita cost of and

maintenance of pupils, and such other information as the

department shall require.

For the purpose of providing adequate administration of the

program and to carry out the preaudit functions authorized in

palsied or brain damaged or muscular dystrophied or [mentally

retarded] intellectually disabled , or socially and emotionally

[disturbed] disabled, as provided for in sections 1376 and

1376.1, to school districts or intermediate units, as provided

for in sections 2509 and 2509.1, under unanticipated or

emergency circumstances, and when such transfers necessitate the

transfer of funds from the appropriation to the Department of

Education for special education for approved private schools to

schools, the Secretary of Education shall be empowered so to

transfer such funds, upon approval of the Secretary of the

Budget and written notification to the State Treasurer and the

school plant, maintenance of school plant, and fixed charges,

and each separately for elementary and for secondary schools,

per teaching unit, calculated by dividing the sums of (a), (b),

(c), (d), and (e) below by the numbers of elementary, secondary,

joint elementary, joint secondary, and area technical school

teaching units, respectively, based on the number of all pupils

on an equivalent full-time basis in average daily membership in

the public schools of the district, or joint district, or the

area technical school, or other school district within the

Commonwealth in which pupils of the district are educated, as

expenses of attending teachers' institutes, commencement

exercise and exhibit expenses, and other expenses of

instruction, (b) expenses of auxiliary agencies and coordinate

activities, to include salaries, books, repairs, replacements,

and other expenses of public libraries, and non-reimbursable

transportation and board and lodging in lieu of transportation,

and provisions for tubercular and undernourished children,

community lectures, social centers and recreation, enforcement

plant, to include wages of janitors and other employes, fuel,

water, light, power, janitors' supplies, care of grounds,

services other than personal, telephone rental, and other

plant, to include upkeep of grounds, repair of buildings,

repairs and replacements, heating, plumbing, lighting, apparatus

used in instruction, furniture, and other equipment, (e)

expenses of fixed charges, to include payments made to the

retirement board, rent, all insurance, and other fixed charges:

Provided, That the actual instruction expense for elementary

teaching unit for district pupils educated in the elementary

grades of a laboratory school of a State-owned college and the

actual instruction expenses for secondary teaching unit for

district pupils educated in the high school grades of a

average daily membership in the laboratory school, (ii) dividing

the total amount of money paid to the State-owned college by the

resident district for the education of all resident secondary

children enrolled in a laboratory school of a State-owned

college by the number of such secondary teaching units based on

the total number of such resident children in average daily

membership in the laboratory school. The teaching units are

computed on the basis of thirty (30) equivalent full time

* * *

Section 4. Sections 2509(b), 2517(e) and 2541(b)(3) of the

act are amended to read:

Children.--* * *

(b) To find the "instruction cost per special class pupil,"

add (1) salaries of directors and supervisors of special

education, public school psychologists, principals of special

schools and assistants, teachers of approved special classes for

exceptional children, clerks and assistants employed in the

district's program for special education, (2) the district's

contribution to the retirement fund on behalf of directors and

supervisors of special education, public school psychologists,

principals of special schools and assistants, teachers of

disabilities to remain in their homes and still participate in

classroom activities. Divide the sum of (1), (2), (3), and (4)

on that part thereof which is approved by the Department of

Education for reimbursement by the total number of pupils,

including those pupils who have available for use telephonic

system equipment whereby they may remain at home and still

participate in classroom activities, in average daily membership

in the district's approved special classes for exceptional

* * *

Section 2517. Payments.--* * *

(e) The Secretary of Education, with the approval of the

to school districts, in advance of the dates set forth in this

section to school districts which are financially [handicapped]

burdened, when the secretary deems it necessary to enable the

school district to keep their public schools open.

Section 2541. Payments on Account of Pupil Transportation.--

* * *

(b) Such payments for pupil transportation shall be made in

the following cases:

* * *

(3) To all school districts, for the transportation of

Section 5. This act shall take effect in 60 days.