On Friday, July 26, 2019, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) and the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) announced the schedule for annual statewide training sessions offered to all participating School-Based Access Program (SBAP) teams. Trainings are scheduled for two different dates. You may register to attend a session based on your location and availability. Registration is required see instructions and dates below. A General Session will be led and presented by DHS. DHS team members will review policy highlights of SBAP, updates to the Provider Handbook, SBAP annual performance and claiming levels, compliance requirements for credentials and licensure, and other important information and reminders. Attendees will learn what information they are required to provide, how to provide it, and the timeline for completing SBAP requirements. Another session will be led and presented by Public Consulting Group (PCG). PCG will focus on assisting participating LEAs in achieving compliance within SBAP, addressing LEA responsibilities. A third session will be led and presented by Sivic Solutions Group (SSG). SSG will review the expense elements associated with annual cost settlements as well as critical dates in the cost settlement process

These training sessions are intended for ACCESS coordinators, special education directors and supervisors, business managers, and anyone else involved in SBAP. Training dates and times are: September 26, 2019 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.  at PaTTAN Harrisburg or Zoom Link and October 7, 2019 from 1:00 p.m. to  4:00 p.m. at PaTTAN Harrisburg or Zoom Link. Register online via PaTTAN at http://www.pattan.net.  Contact Sharon Kennedy at [email protected] with any registration questions. For content questions, contact DHS’ vendors at [email protected] or [email protected].

On Wednesday, July 24th, PDH Division of School Health Chief Jill Clodgo disseminated a flyer on 2019 School Vaccination information via Penn*Link on behalf of the Division of Immunizations.  That flyer can be accessed by clicking here or visiting the PAPSA website at https://papsa-web.org/wp-content/uploads/2019-SCHOOL-VACCINATION-INFORMATION-FOR-NURSES-final-7-25-19.pdf. Questions are to be directed to the LEA’s immunization nurse consultants or the Division of Immunizations.

At its July 10, 2019 meeting, PA  State Board of Education approved PDE’s recommendation to revise the satisfactory Keystone Exam composite score to 4,452, which would be used as one of the pathways to graduation under Act 158 of 2018.  The Keystone Exam Composite Score is the sum of the scale scores for the three Keystone Exams (Algebra I, biology and literature). A student must achieve at least a scale score of 1,500 on any one exam in order to score proficient, with 4,500 as the sum of three proficient scores. The change in the composite score to 4,452 , helps to ensure that a student who may have missed the composite cut of 4,500 due to measurement error is not prevented from graduating. However, students who meet the board-approved composite score of 4,452 must also score proficient on one of the three exams and no less than basic on the other two. According to PDE, 65.4% of 2017-18 twelfth graders scored met those requirements. For more information, please see PSBA’s summary of Act 158 changes to high school graduation requirements.

Thanks to PSBA for its contributing information.

At its July 10, 2019 meeting, the PA State Board of Education approved PDE’s recommendations for Performance Level Descriptors (PLDs) and cut scores for the revised PA Alternate System of Assessment (PASA) tests in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics for students with significant cognitive disabilities who are unable to participate in the general state assessments. The revisions were required to be developed because the assessments were redesigned to encompass two levels of complexity, instead of than three. During the 2018-19 PASA test administration cycle, the ELA and mathematics tests were revised. The revisions, aligned those tests with the two-tier structure. Thus, moving forward each tested subject will consist of two tiers of complexity at every grade level.