On December 3, 2019, Governor Wolf signed three bills focused on student safety into law. HB 49, now Act 91, authorizes necessary fixes to provisions under Act 67 of 2019 regarding school safety personnel. The bill reinstates school police officers’ arrest power but does not give the same authority to private third-party vendors who serve in that role. Act 91 also extends the deadline for school police officers and school resource officers who were employed or contracted by a school entity or nonpublic school before September 2, 2019. The deadline is extended from February 29, 2020 to the beginning of the 2020-21 school year. As amended on the House floor this week, the training deadline for armed school security guards is still set at February 28, 2020 unless the school board approves an extension due to a hardship in complying with the deadline. A hardship includes: 1) an increased risk to students, staff or visitor due to the absence of school security guards while school is in session because of compliance with the training deadline; or 2) deployment or active military service, illness, family emergency or other approved leave that would prevent compliance with the deadline. The law also retains the original language of the HB49 regarding financial education. It also allows grades 9-12 students to apply up to one credit earned for successfully completing a course in personal finance to satisfy a graduation credit requirement in social studies, family and consumer science, business education or math. The school will determine how the credit earned will be applied. A student is not permitted to apply more than one credit to satisfy a math credit requirement for graduation. This change begins with students graduating at the end of the 2020-21 school year.

Senate Bill 473 and House Bill 97, now Act 93 of 2019 and Act 111 of 2019 respectively, amends the definition of “tobacco product” to include electronic nicotine delivery systems and prohibit the sale of these products to minors. Both acts would prohibit the use of tobacco products by students or any other person. The acts establish penalties and require school boards to adopt policy to enforce the prohibition regarding the use of tobacco products and notify students, parents and employees. Boards may designate certain areas to permit the use of tobacco products to persons other than students. This language clarifies the authority of school boards to implement rules and penalties for the use of tobacco products in school buildings, on school grounds, school vehicles and school-sponsored events. Act 111 additionally raises the minimum legal age to purchase tobacco products from 18 to 21 years of age, unless the person is an active member of the military.

Dana Milakovic, Mental Health/AOD Specialist at PDE’s Office for Safe Schools, is conducting regional meetings across the Commonwealth in accordance with PA’s Trauma Informed Practices in Schools (TIPS) initiative. Involvement by pupil services administrators is being sought in order to move this all-important initiative effectively forward.

The following list is a schedule for the regional meetings.  All meetings will be held from 9 – 11:30AM.

Region 1
IU: 22, 23, 24, 25 26
Counties: Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, Philadelphia
Meeting Date and Location: 12/17- PaTTAN, Malvern PA

Region 2
IU:14, 20, 21, 29
Counties: Berks, Carbon, Lehigh, Monroe, Northampton, Pike, Schuylkill
Meeting Date and Location: 11/26- Berks County IU

Region 3
IU:18, 19
Counties: Lackawanna, Luzerne, Susquehanna, Wayne, Wyoming
Meeting Date and Location: 12/16- IU 19

Region 4
IU: 9, 16, 17
Counties: Bradford, Cameron, Columbia, Elk, Lycoming, McKean, Montour, Northumberland, Potter, Snyder, Sullivan, Tioga, Union
Meeting Date and Location: 12/13 – IU 17

Region 5
IU: 12, 13, 15
Counties: Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Perry
Meeting Date and Location: 11/25- PaTTAN HBG

Region 6
IU: 8, 10, 11
Counties: Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Centre, Clearfield, Clinton, Fulton, Huntingdon, Juniata, Mifflin, Somerset
Meeting Date and Location: 12/10- IU 8

Region 7
IU: 1, 2, 3, 7, 27
Counties: Allegheny, Beaver, Fayette, Greene, Washington, Westmoreland
Meeting Date and Location: 11/19- PaTTAN Pittsburgh

Region 8
IU: 4, 5, 6, 28
Counties: Armstrong, Butler, Clarion, Crawford, Erie, Forest, Indiana, Jefferson Lawrence, Mercer, Venango, Warren
Meeting Date and Location: 12/4- MIU 4

A sample agenda can be found below. Although some meetings have already been held, the information is provided in its entirety to allow interested parties to know their region and inquire about future meetings. RSVPs are not required for any upcoming meeting. Please feel free to forward information to relevant members of your schools and community.

Trauma Informed Practices in Schools Workgroup- Regional Meetings

AGENDA

• 9:00-9:05 Welcome
• 9:05-9:15 Overview of Trauma Informed Practices in Schools Workgroup purpose and goal
• 9:15-9:30 Synopsis of T.I.P.S state-wide meeting

 Environmental Scan of Trauma Informed Practices in Region

• 9:30-10:15– Interactive Small Group Discussion
• 10:15- 10:40– Share out to Large Group
• 10:40-10:50 – Break
• 10:50-11:10 – County Discussion
• 11:10-11:30 – Debrief and next steps

A zoom option will be available from 9-10:40. Zoom information can be found below:

Join Zoom Meeting
https://pattaneast.zoom.us/j/997383855

Meeting ID: 997 383 855

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Meeting ID: 997 383 855

For more information, please email Dana Milakovi at [email protected] or call 717-214-4394 (phone) and 717-649-1592 (cell).

The Fall 2019 issue of “The BSE Bulletin”, is now available on the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PaTTAN) website at https://www.pattan.net/Publications/BSE-Bulletin-Fall-2019. The BSE Bulletin will be published on a quarterly basis during the 2019-20 school year. BSE developed the newsletter to provide updates and key information. The Bulletin features news about initiatives, programs and services supporting education for students with disabilities in Pennsylvania. The newsletter also introduces a unique Twitter hashtag to further highlight the positive, collaborative work happening in special education throughout the Commonwealth.

Today, Governor Tom Wolf signed three bills into law aimed at combating childhood sexual abuse. They are:

House Bill 962, now Act 87, which abolishes Pennsylvania’s criminal statute of limitations on childhood sexual abuse and extends the timeline victims have to file civil action against their abusers; extends civil statute of limitations for victims age 18-24 until the age of 30; extends the criminal statute of limitations for criminal proceedings for victims age 18-24 for 20 years; and provides counseling services for victims of sexual assault via the Crime Victims Compensation fund through the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD);

House Bill 1051, now Act 88, which increases penalties for failure to report child abuse by a mandated reporter; and

House Bill 1171, now Act 89, which makes conversations with law enforcement agents exempt from non-disclosure agreements.

For more information, click here.

On November 20, 2019, Carole L. Clancy, Director of PDE’s Bureau of Special Education disseminated a memo via PennLink titled 2019-2020 School Year Restraint Information System Collection Tracking and Training – Second Quarter Reporting Window.The memo states that the 2019-2020 school year Restraint Information System Collection (RISC) is open for data entry. The system has been enhanced and gives local education agencies (LEAs) greater opportunity to provide both more detail about restraints and to analyze trends in reducing the use of physical restraints.

The Bureau of Special Education (BSE) continues to require LEAs to report the restraints that occurred in each quarter. This reporting process permits LEAs to report restraints in a timely manner which, in turn, allows LEAs to monitor patterns of episodic behaviors and address them accordingly. The quarterly windows of reporting for the 2019-2020 school year are as follows:

Qtr 2

Begin Date:10/01/2019

End Date: 12/31/2019

Last Report Day:  01/15/2020

Window Opens: 01/01/2020

Window Closes: 01/15/2020

Qtr 3

Begin Date: 01/01/2020

End Date: 03/31/2020

Last Report Day: 04/15/2020

Window Opens:04/01/2020

Window Closes:04/15/2020

Qtr 4

Begin Date: 04/01/2020

End Date: 06/30/2020

Last Report Day: 07/15/2020

Window Opens:07/01/2020

Window Closes:07/15/2020

The RISC reporting design provides an “End Date” for LEAs to comply with their end of quarterly reporting. In addition, there is a two-week window date labeled “Last Day to Report” to allow LEAs to gather and report on those students that attend an out-of-district facility where they were placed in a restraint during that quarter. This two-week period is also a designated time for LEAs that had no restraints during the quarter to report zero in RISC. BSE will continue to send out reminder PENN*LINKS about this quarterly reporting requirement.

BSE will continue to monitor the restraint information reported by LEAs. RISC continues to require each LEA to report the event prior to the incident, the incident, the unsafe behavior, and the de-escalation techniques utilized. The LEA must notify the parent(s) of the use of a restraint and convene an Individualized Education Program (IEP) meeting within 10-school days of the use of the restraint in the educational program, unless after written notice, the parent agrees in writing to waive the IEP meeting. Additionally, restraints occurring during Extended School Year sessions should be reported within three weeks of the start of the school year.

In reviewing restraints submitted in RISC, the Special Education Advisers of BSE will continue to focus on LEA monitoring responsibilities as well as:

• Training of staff in de-escalation techniques;
• Excessive time of restraint;
• Excessive use of parent waivers;
• Mechanical restraints;
• Injuries;
• Number of restraints; and
• 10-day window (school days) to convene an IEP after a restraint occurs.

A RISC reporting webinar is posted on the RISC site at https://apps.leaderservices.com/_risc/index.aspx. The RISC reporting webinar link is located below the login box of the Leader Services RISC sign-in page. This webinar explains the reporting process and how to use the RISC system. The webinar also shares how to update your LEA’s contact information. All parties involved with RISC are highly encouraged to view this webinar to learn how to report restraints, how to use the system, and to understand the regulatory responsibility of LEAs.

Additionally, BSE’s “Guidelines for De-escalation and the Use of/and Reporting of Restraints in Education Entities” is available for review on the RISC site.

Questions regarding RISC should be directed to either of the following Special Education Advisers: Keith Focht at 717.783.6921 or [email protected] / Pat Haglund at 814.662.2662 or [email protected].