The constitutional amendment to Article VIII of the PA Constitution that Pennsylvania voters passed November 7, 2017 gives the General Assembly the authority to pass a law authorizing local governments to exclude up to the full value of residents’ homes that they own from taxation. However, the law in and of itself does not give taxpayers any such relief and only provides the possibility of legislative action that could eventually lead to reductions in the use of property taxes to fund education. It is also important to note that, should property taxes could be reduced through legislative action, the amendment does not provide a means for making up for any such cuts.

Presently, local governments, under the homestead exclusion, have  the ability to exclude up to half the median value of homes in their area from taxation. Billions of dollars are collected each year to help fund public schools in the Commonwealth.

In essence, legislators can now, if they so desire, enact legislation that would provide additional options for property tax relief for residential property owners. However, the result of such would probably entail shifts in other tax and revenue sources to help fund the exclusions and replace the funding needed to support education.

Effective November 6, 2017, and without the governor’s signature, the omnibus School Code provisions under House Bill 178 became law. This last bit of business is now out of the way and the 2017-18 budget is now complete.

Key elements in the law include:

• School districts are allowed to suspend (furlough) professional employees for economic reasons, with such suspensions being based on annual performance evaluations and not seniority. In addition, a school board must suspend at least an equal percentage proportion of administrative staff. Also, the secretary of education may grant a waiver if it is determined that the school district’s operations are already sufficiently streamlined, or if the suspension would adversely affect school stability and student programs. Other stipulations are also included in the law.
• A delay in the implementation of the Keystone Exams as a graduation requirement as set forth in Act 1 of 2016 for one more year, holding off implementation until the 2019-20 school year.
• Level funding for intermediate units (IUs) at an amount equal to 5.5% of the special education funding appropriation.
• The barring of school lunch “shaming,” requiring schools to provide a meal to a student who requests one, regardless of whether the student has money to pay for the meal and/or owes money for school meals. However, a student’s parents/guardians have the discretion to direct to the school to withhold a meal. Further, once a student owes money for five or more school meals, schools must be required to make at least two attempts to reach the student’s parent(s)/guardian(s) to have them apply for participation in the free/reduced lunch program and may offer assistance in helping them apply. Schools must also direct all communications regarding money owed by a student to the student’s parent/guardian and not to the student, and such communication can be by letter addressed to the parent(s)/guardian(s) but delivered by the student. Schools are also prohibited from: (1) Publicly identifying or stigmatizing a student who cannot pay or who owes money for school meals; (2) Requiring a student who cannot pay to perform chores; and/or (3) Requiring a student to discard a school meal after it was served due to the student’s inability to pay or if there is money owed for earlier meals.
• The requirement that schools provide instruction to students in grades six through12 in the prevention of opioid abuse, beginning in the 2018-19 school year. The PA Department of Health (PDH) and the PA Department of Education (PDE) must develop and make available to schools a model curriculum as well as in-service training programs for instructors who will be teaching courses where the mandated opioid instruction is integrated.
• Requirements for PDE and the PA Department of Agriculture to provide educational resources and programming regarding agricultural education to grades kindergarten through 12. The law also creates the Commission of Agricultural Education Excellence to assist in the development and implementation of agricultural education programming and to develop a model for statewide curriculum for agricultural education programs based on high priority occupations.
• School entities are allowed to conduct an annual school security drill in place of a monthly fire drill in each school building within 90 days of the start of each school year. The bill also outlines the steps and procedures for a school district to use when setting up the drill with law enforcement and to alert parents/guardians of the date, time, and address of the drill.

On October 30th, Governor Tom Wolf signed bills finalizing the overdue state budget. The package includes a massive expansion of gambling in Pennsylvania to help pay for what is said to be a “one-time” $2 billion budget deficit. The bills included provisions for the distribution of state subsidies necessary to pay the $32 billion budget that became law in July. Along with the legislation for expanded gambling, appropriations for state-related universities were also included. Of particular interest to the field of pupil services, the bill includes an appropriation under the Department of Labor and Industry for payment to the Vocational Rehabilitation Fund, which includes funding for services under the Work Experience for High School Students with Disabilities Act.