The Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA) is reporting that the PA Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) has updated and released its Model K-12 Threat Assessment Procedures and Guidelines. The guidelines were first issued in 2019, pursuant to Act 18 of 2019 that established new requirements for K-12 school entities related to the establishment of threat assessment teams and related policies and procedures.

In 2022, further amendments were made under Act 55 of 2022 related to school safety and threat assessment. Act 55 clarified the frequency with which education and awareness efforts must be made with students, staff and parents/guardians, as well as the frequency with which appointed Threat Assessment Team members must undergo required training.

This second edition of the PCCD’s Model Threat Assessment Procedures and Guidelines has been revised to reflect these statutory changes. Additional changes reflect practical applications from recent research, updated resources and references, and addressing overlap with suicide prevention and response.

Click here to see the revised Model K-12 Threat Assessment Procedures and Guidelines.

Source: PSBA

As the General Assembly leaves the Capitol on the last scheduled legislative session day, legislators failed to address a critical and ongoing need to support behavioral health services. Unfortunately, legislators left Harrisburg without allocating $100 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to address urgent needs. In fact, those funds were appropriated nearly four months ago in the budget and a  commission of experts in the field came together to make recommendations for their use, as mandated by the General Assembly, which created the commission. However, despite the work of the commission and support of the governor, no action was taken as we approach the holidays, a time when stressors on some tend to increase. In addition, a proposed regulation that would have provided additional protections against discrimination by adding “sex,” “race” and “religious creed” to the list of Protected Classes in the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act and the Pennsylvania Fair Educational Opportunities Act is currently held up in the legislature, potentially preventing it from moving forward. 

On October 24, 2022, Acting Secretary of Education Eric Hagarty joined the annual DyslexiaAwareness Gathering at the state Capitol Building to advocate for the one in five Pennsylvanians with dyslexia. During the event, leaders from state organizations, elected officials, parents, and advocates educated attendees about learners with dyslexia and their needs.

“We know that, as with any learning differences, early assessment and intervention provide the best outcomes for learners with dyslexia,” said Acting Secretary Hagarty. “It is critical that we provide schools and educators with the resources they need to meet students where they are and offer tailored instruction to ensure they can continue to learn, grow, and thrive.”

The Mayo Clinic describes dyslexia as “a learning disorder that involves difficulty reading due to problems identifying speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words (decoding). Dyslexia is a result of individual differences in areas of the brain that process language.”

Nationwide, about 85% of special education students with a learning disability have a primary learning disability in reading and language processing. As many as 15–20% of our population as a whole have some of the symptoms of dyslexia, including slow or inaccurate reading, poor spelling, poor writing, or mixing up similar words. 

Continuing its commitment to high-quality education for all learners, PDE recently announced that it has developed new educator competencies to support literacy. These competencies identify the knowledge and skills educators should have to teach reading based on current research, and they will enable current and aspiring educators to teach reading to students effectively.

Literacy instruction focuses on decoding—the ability to apply knowledge of letter-sound relationships to correctly pronounce written words. This helps learners recognize familiar words quickly and figure out new words. Structured literacy instruction ensures that all students have access to effective reading instruction. 

The PA Department of Education (PDE) will provide structured literacy supports and professional development to educators who hold instructional certificates in early childhood education, elementary-middle level, PK-12 Special Education, English as a Second Language, and Reading Specialist. Structured literacy focuses on the five essential components of reading (phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension). 

For more information on the Pennsylvania Department of Education, please visit the website.