Category: State Government Actions

PDH Releases Winter 2018 School Health Update

Jill Clodgo, RN, the Acting Chief of the Division of School Health at the PA Department of Health (PDH), recently released information and due dates via Penn*Link for the School Health Annual Reimbursement Request System (SHARRS) and Dental Hygiene Authorization Plan Submission.

  • The School Health Annual Reimbursement Report will open for data entry May 15, 2018 and close September 30, 2018. Only the Superintendent has the capability to submit the SHARRS report.  Instructions to set up a SHARRS user account, a template hard copy of the Authorization Plan, guidelines and applicable laws and regulations are available on the Division of School Health’s website at   http://www.health.pa.gov/My%20Health/School%20Health/Pages/Quick%20Links/Dental%20Health/Dental-Hygiene-Services-Program.aspx#
  • The Dental Hygiene Services Program Authorization Plan will open for data entry April 1, 2018 and close April 30, 2018. Any SHARRS user may submit the dental hygiene authorization plan. The Dental Hygiene Authorization Plan must be closed for data entry before the SHARRS system can be opened for data entry in order for the system to process reports correctly.  Late entries will no longer be accepted as this causes errors in processing.
  • The Dental Hygiene Authorization Plan is a plan for the upcoming school year. The plan must be developed by the Dental Hygienist and approved by the school dentist and school administration prior to the start of the school year. Schools that do not have a hygienist hired, a plan developed and approved will revert to a Mandated Dental Program and cannot be changed after the closing date due to processing requirements.  If a school does not have a certified hygienist then they may not implement a Dental Hygiene Services Program (DHSP) and must implement a Mandated Dental Program. See the Division of School Health’s website for more information on both programs. http://www.health.pa.gov/My%20Health/School%20Health/Pages/Dental-Health-Program.aspx#

The School Health website can be accessed at http://www.health.pa.gov/My%20Health/School%20Health/Pages/default.aspx#

Jill Clodgo will be the lead presenter during the April 11th session of the 40th Annual PAPSA at the Eden Resort in Lancaster.

PA Board of Ed. Releases Annual Report for 2017

At its January 11, 2018 meeting, the PA State Board of Education passed a resolution endorsing K-12 computer science standards developed by the Computer Science Teachers Association and encouraged local education agencies across the Commonwealth to voluntarily adopt these standards to guide their practice in the delivery of Computer Science instruction.

Also, Pursuant to Section 2603-B of the Public School Code of 1949, 24 P.S.§26-2603-B, the State Board of Education provided a report on its activities for the year 2017 including:

  • Immunizations – The Board adopted final amendments to 22 Code, Chapter 11. The amendments align the provisions of Chapter 11 pertaining to non-immunized students with revisions to immunization requirements for student attendance made by the PA Department of Health (DOH). Among the key changes made by DOH was a reduction in the provisional admission time frame for students who are not fully immunized from eight months to five school days and a requirement for school administrators to review a student’s medical certificate for becoming up-to-date with immunizations on a more frequent 30-day schedule.
  • Act 70 – The Board offered seven recommendations for improving instruction with regard to the Holocaust, genocide, and human rights violations.
  • Act 86 – The Board produced a report per Act 86 of 2016, which directed the Board to conduct a review of existing public school entity data collection requirements in the areas of finance, human resources, food services, transportation, child accounting, athletics, health, and special education.
  • Master Plan for Basic Education – The Board initiated a necessary update to its Master Plan for Basic Education. The Board anticipates that a draft update to the Master Plan will be completed in Spring 2018, after which time the Council of Basic Education will conduct a stakeholder engagement effort to gather additional input on the draft plan before it is presented to the Board for adoption.
  • Pennsylvania Alternate System of Assessment (PASA) – The Board approved changes to the cut scores for PASA, the state assessment administered to students with the most severe cognitive disabilities. The Board also approved updates to certain Alternate Eligible Content to which the PASA is aligned. In May, the Board approved new Alternate Eligible Content for Writing and updated Alternate Eligible Content for Science. In July, the Board approved revised Performance Level Descriptors and cut scores for the PASA.The cut score revisions were necessary to reflect changes to the Alternate Eligible Content in English Language Arts and Mathematics that were previously approved by the Board in 2015.
  • English Language Development Standards (ELDS) – The Board updated ELDS that replace PA’s prior English Language Proficiency Standards. ELDS standards are required by federal law. PA’s updated standards include model performance indicators – examples of how students use language at the various proficiency levels – that are broken down by grade levels, content areas, English proficiency levels, and language domains. The content-related examples in the new ELDS also were updated to reflect the rigor of the new PA Core Standards.

Change in Senate Ed Committee May Sway Vote on School Choice Bill

The state Senate Education Committee is going to make a mid-session personnel change. Erie County Republican Senator Dan Laughlin is officially moving from the Education Committee to the Community, Economic, and Recreational Development Committee. It has been announced that his replacement will be Rich Alloway, a Republican Senator from Franklin County. The result of such a move is likely to have significant consequences for SB 2, a bill that would allow students in the lowest-performing public schools to use the money the state would have spent on their education for other school options, including private schools. Sen. Laughlin has been a key opponent of SB 2 and a big reason the bill failed by a single vote to get to the Senate floor in October. Alloway is one of the bill’s co-sponsors.

Senate Ed Committee Approves Alternative Grad Requirements

The Senate Education Committee has approved Senate Resolution 248, which opposes the use of the Keystone Exams as a graduation requirement and urges PDE to come up with alternative methods of assessment to show graduation readiness and that align with IDEA and ESSA. That means that those methods of assessment must provide accommodations to students permitted to have such, that the assessments are developed in keeping with principles of universal design, and that the assessments meet the PA Career Ed and Work Standards or are valid and reliable measures of the PA Core Standards for Algebra I, English Lit, and biology in ways comparable with the Keystones.

PA Senate Reauthorizes CHIP

On Monday, December 11, 2017, in a 43-6 vote, the PA Senate passed a bill to reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) through 2019. The CHIP program provides health insurance to children in financially strapped families whose income is too high to qualify for standard Medicaid programs. The bill now goes to Governor Wolf for his signature.

Re-authorization became controversial and political rankling has occurred since Governor Wolf moved to expand the program to include transgender services, which was left unchanged in the final bill.

Federal funding covers approximately 90 percent of the $450 million cost of Pennsylvania’s CHIP program and that funding is at risk without Congress approving reauthorization on the national level.