Category: News

PDE Notifies LEAs of Online Availability for Public Review of 2022-23 Special Ed. Data Reports (June 1, 2024)

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.

Gov. Shapiro’s Proposed Budget Investment in Intellectual Disabilities and Autism Services, Workforce Receives Bipartisan Support (May 31, 2024)

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

Special Alert! PAPSA Provides Webinar Series

How Innovative Schools Are Addressing
Social Media, Tech, and
Student Well-Being

When: Thursday July 25th, 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. ET
Registration Link: CLICK HERE

Every day, students are hit with social media posts, comments from friends, changing tech trends, and a variety of pressures, including the need for all students to achieve academic success. Schools try to support student well-being and address social media and tech to foster productive learning environments, but it’s easy to make mistakes.

In this free webinar, the Pennsylvania Association of Pupil Services Administrators (PAPSA) and The Social Institute (TSI) will partner to guide educators in cultivating modern life skills in their students for sustained success. Attendees will learn actionable strategies to build a systemic approach to modern life skills that also addresses a couple of the biggest influences on students: social media and technology.💻

Registrants will learn: 
✅5 best practices to avoid key mistakes when modernizing your approach to modern life skills & social media education and address student well-being
✅The latest research behind why schools are adopting a positive approach to social media and technology that empowers and equips students, rather than scares and restricts
✅The role of social media and technology play in student well-being and academic success
✅How administrators can help ensure practices and procedures will benefit all students

Join TSI’s Caitlin Dallmeyer and PAPSA’s Jeanne Knouse and Justin Rubenstein for the first in a series of webinars!

Click here to learn more.

Register today!

Five PA State Boards Have Adopted New Policies Making Clear That Conversion Therapy on LGBTQ+ Minors is Harmful and Unprofessional (May 28, 2024)

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.