On June 4, 2024, House Bill 851 was approved by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives as a result of a bipartisan vote. The bill would make menstrual hygiene products available at no cost in Pennsylvania schools so students can have peace of mind to focus on academic learning, school attendance, and their health.

Governor Josh Shapiro’s 2024-25 budget proposal calls for $3 million to provide menstrual hygiene products in schools to help close a gap in women’s health care that too often hurts low-income girls and young women of color. The funding will enable schools to provide access to period products at no cost to students and complements the efforts undertaken by the Shapiro Administration to improve health equity in Pennsylvania.

The bill now moves to the Senate for consideration. “In 2021, two in five people struggled to purchase period products, an increase of 35% from 2018. Individuals that cannot afford period products can be found using newspapers, rags, and socks instead of pads, pantiliners, or tampons, leading to health problems. Further, period poverty disproportionately impacts Black and Latinx communities: nearly a quarter of menstruating individuals within these communities struggled to afford period products in 2021,” said Representatives Parker and Hill-Evans in the bill’s cosponsorship memo.

Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 (IDEA), every state must report annually to the public on the performance of each local educational agency (LEA) on the targets established in the State Performance Plan. This year states are required to report 2022-23 performance on the following State Performance Plan indicators for school-age students with disabilities: Graduation Rates; Dropout Rates; Participation and Performance on Statewide Assessments; Suspension Rates; Educational Environments; School-Facilitated Parent Involvement; Disproportionate Representation by Race/Ethnicity Receiving Special Education; Disproportionate Representation by Race/Ethnicity in Specific Disability Categories; Timelines for Initial Evaluation; Individual Education Program Secondary Transition Goals and Services; and Post-School Outcomes.

At the beginning of May, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) provided LEAs with an opportunity to preview these reports prior to going live to the public. The reports are now posted and available for public review at the Special Education Data Reporting (formerly PennData) website, (https://penndata.hbg.psu.edu/Public-Reporting/SEDR-Report-Dashboard).

Viewers can select their LEA from the drop-down list.

On May 30, 2024, PA Department of Human Services (DHS) Secretary Dr. Val Arkoosh and a bipartisan group of state legislators visited Barber National Institute in Erie to talk about the need for historic investments in Governor Josh Shapiro’s 2024-25 proposed budget, which would increase the number of Pennsylvanians who can access intellectual disability and autism (ID/A) services, and support the professionals who care for Pennsylvanians with ID/A.

Republican and Democratic members of the General Assembly joined Secretary Arkoosh for the event, with legislators calling the Governor’s proposed investment “a no-brainer.”

Read the full article below:
Erie-Times News: Pa. budget idea would help those with autism, intellectual disabilities

As of May 2, 2024, five relevant PA State Boards have taken action to protect Pennsylvania youth, warning that licensees who engage in conversion therapy may be subject to administrative discipline. All five State Boards voted to adopt new policies condemning the discredited, pseudoscientific practice of conversion therapy in the Commonwealth. It was also announced that the state board of Nursing joined the Medicine, Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapists, and Professional Counselors, Psychology and Osteopathic Medicine who all voted recently to adopt new Statements of Policy (SOP) that oppose the use of conversion therapy on minors in Pennsylvania.

The new policies notify licensees that all five Boards consider the use of conversion therapy to be unprofessional, harmful conduct that may subject any licensee engaging in it to administrative discipline.

Sometimes referred to as reparative therapy, sexuality counseling, or sexual orientation/gender identity change efforts, conversion therapy refers to any practice that seeks or purports to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

The Trevor Project – a national organization devoted to ending suicide among LGBTQ+ young people – along with the Pennsylvania chapter of the National Association of Social Workers and the Pennsylvania Psychology Association told State Boards earlier this year that conversion therapy on minors remains an issue in the Commonwealth despite an August 2022 Executive Order from former Governor Tom Wolf protecting Pennsylvanians from the invalidated practice.

Among the numerous national and global health associations that strongly oppose conversion therapy due to its lack of scientific evidence and its heightened risk of causing harm to minors are the following:

American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry\
American Academy of Family Physicians
American Academy of Nursing
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy
American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists
American College of Physicians
American Medical Association
American Psychiatric Association
American Psychoanalytic Association
American Psychological Association
Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies
National Association of Social Workers
Pan American Health Organization
World Medical Association
​World Psychiatric Association

The new SOPs will be effective upon publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin.

Anyone can file a complaint against a licensed professional engaging in unprofessional or harmful conduct like conversion therapy via the PA Department of State website.