Category: Government Actions

Office Hours for Act 13 & the FRCPP (August 14, 2026)

Act 13 Office Hours provide guidance and support on implementing Act 13 Educator Effectiveness requirements and processes. Each session provides answers to frequently asked questions and includes an open forum for participants to ask additional questions. To view the schedule of Act 13 Office Hours for the 2026-27 school year and to register, visit the Educator Effectiveness page on the SAS website under the Office Hours tab.

The Future Ready Comprehensive Planning Portal (FRCPP) Office Hours is an open session for attendees to ask questions about the plans and reports housed within FRCPP. Sessions are held the first Wednesday of the month from 2:30–3:30pm virtually via Microsoft Teams. After logging into the FRCPP through MyPDESuite, the passcode and meeting ID for these sessions can be found in the bottom left corner of FRCPP’s home screen.

USDE to End Disparate Impact Investigations (August 14, 2026)

School districts and states under federal investigation from the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) may soon see their cases narrowed or dropped as a result of the USDE’s recent announcement that it was formally walking back some systemic race-based discrimination investigations. The types of cases most likely to be affected were investigated by the Biden and Obama administrations under the disparate impact legal theory, which targets policies or practices that are neutral on their face but harm Black or other historically marginalized student groups in practice. The most common issue that has been targeted for investigation is how and whether schools equitably allocate their limited resources. Often, in those cases, school districts are often unintentionally acting in ways that result in disparate impact.

Disparate impact is a legal theory often used to reform policies and practices that unintentionally and disproportionately prevented students of color from accessing education, including issues involving discipline, access to advanced coursework and gifted programs, ability grouping and tracking, and school assignment and attendance boundaries

For more from K-12 Dive, click here.

Suit Filed Over USDE Professional Degree Definition (August 13, 2026)

On August 11, 2026, a coalition of unions, including the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), sued the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) over its regulatory definition of a “professional degree,” which excludes education graduate programs. The suit alleges that the omission of education graduate programs will make it more difficult and less attractive for students to enter the teaching profession.

In fact, students in advanced degree programs considered “professional” by the USDE are able to take out up to $200,000 in federal student loans. Education graduate students, and others pursuing fields excluded from the designation are capped at $100,000.

The lawsuit follows a federal judge’s June 2026 order from a temporarily blocking the USDE’s professional degree definition. Subsequently, as a result of that court order, the USDE expanded its list of professional degree programs to include nursing, physical therapy, athletic training and occupational therapy as of July 10th. However, education graduate programs have remained excluded.

For more from, K-12 Dive, click here.

Kids Online Safety Act Clears Key Senate Panel with Bipartisan Support (August 12, 2026)

On August 5, 2026, the U.S. Senate’s Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee advanced four key children’s online safety bills. Those bills now head to the Senate floor for a vote.

One of the bills, the bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), addresses how to best protect youth online, particularly pertaining to social media and artificial intelligence. Pressure has mounted as both concerns and litigation over the mental health risks to children and teens have become areas of great concern. 

The other bills approved for advancement include the Youth AI Privacy Act; the Children’s Health, Advancement, Trust, Boundaries, and Oversight in Technology Act; and the Children’s Artificial Intelligence Toy Safety Act.

For more from K-12 Dive, click here.

Funding Opportunity: PDE Grant to Prioritize School Psychology Interns in High-Need Districts (August 12, 2026)

The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) has been awarded federal School-Based Mental Health Services (SBMHS) grant funding to launch the “Prioritizing Attracting, Preparing, and Retaining School Psychologists” initiative. This program specifically targets the critical shortage of school psychologists in identified high-need and rural districts across the Commonwealth.

Through this grant, students planning to intern in these priority districts for the upcoming academic year may be eligible for a supplemental stipend. Applications for stipends will be processed based on districts indicating they have secured a school psychology intern for the upcoming school year.
Key Program Details:
• Selective Funding: Awards are not guaranteed. Applications will be reviewed using a competitive rubric, with funding assigned to the highest-scoring districts first until funds are exhausted. We are currently accepting applications on a rolling basis until funding has been exhausted.
• District Eligibility: Only interns placed in districts on the identified eligible list (meeting specific high-need criteria) are eligible for this additional funding. Districts not on this list are ineligible for these specific supplemental funds.


Application Process
Eligible districts who have an intern can complete the Rolling Enrollment: Prioritizing Attracting, Preparing, and Retaining School Psychologists in High-Needs LEAs application<https://forms.cloud.microsoft/g/2fY9jWZUGu>.

Quick Q&A
Which districts are eligible for this funding? Eligibility is limited to high-need and rural Local Education Agencies (LEAs).
How is “High-Need” defined? Eligible districts are defined as those with high student-to-school psychologist staffing ratios and high rates of economic disadvantage. This federal grant also provides additional rubric points for districts identified as rural, reflecting the rural focus of the program. Funding allocation prioritizes districts with the highest psychologist-to-student ratios (indicating significant staffing shortages) and higher percentages of students identified as economically disadvantaged.
How much funding do interns receive? Interns from in-state graduate programs receive $25,000 and are encouraged to apply for the PA HELPS grant, which can bring the total internship funding to $50,000. Interns from out-of-state programs receive $30,000 to supplement the Out-of-State School Psychologist (OOSP) grant through BSE, also bringing the total funding to approximately $50,000.
Who is eligible to apply? Interns from both in-state and out-of-state graduate programs are eligible if they are placed in an identified high-need or rural Pennsylvania LEA.
When we districts receive notification regarding funding decision? Funding determinations will be made by June 15, 2026, and all districts who have applied will be receive written notification of decision.
What are the requirements for recipients? Participants must agree to complete their entire internship in an identified eligible district.
Are there other benefits besides the stipend? Yes. The grant covers Praxis exam fees ($156) and provides specialized PREPaRE Workshop 2 training and materials at no cost to the intern and their supervisor.
When are payments disbursed? Supplemental payments are issued in two installments to the district: one in December and one in May of the internship year.
What is required of the district? Districts must agree that all grant funding will be provided directly to the intern. Districts must also allow the intern and their supervisor to attend training provided by the PaTTAN/PDE team, including PREPaRE training, which helps strengthen the capacity of both the intern and the supervisor. In addition, districts must provide quality supervision, host site visits, and complete an end-of-year survey.

Contacts
Questions on the grant can be directed to either contact below:
Dr. Angela McMasters (amcmasters@pattanpgh.net) – Program Manager
Dr. Dana Milakovic (damilakovi@pa.gov) – Program Director

Click here to view the SBMH List by IU.