Public comment period for proposed charter school regulations ends Monday – Your comments needed… TODAY!
Pennsylvania School Boards Association
The public comment period for the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s proposed regulations for charter and cyber charter schools will end next Monday, October 18, 2021. PSBA will be submitting comments to PDE on the proposal and will post them on the association’s website for members to read. There is certainly a need for public comment on the regulations and we encourage school directors or school administration to provide comments – even if it is brief and to the point. It would seem the more public comment on the regulations themselves the better. A few things you should know – the new regulation is established as a new Chapter 713 under Title 22 of the Pennsylvania Code. The proposed regulations clarify six areas of the state’s Charter School Law:
- Establishes requirements for charter school applications.
- Requires charters to make non-discriminatory enrollment policies public.
- Clarifies ethics requirements and standards for charter school boards of trustees.
- Requires charter schools to use common accounting principles and auditing standards as school districts already do.
- Outlines the process to reconcile disputes over school district payments to charter schools for student tuition.
- Clarifies requirements for charter school employee health care benefits.
Click here to read the proposed regulation in its entirety. The preamble, beginning on page 22 of the document, provides a summary of each section under the regulation.
Public comments can be emailed to RA-EdCharterRegs@pa.gov or mailed to: Division of Charter Schools, Department of Education, 333 Market Street, Harrisburg, PA 17126. All comments submitted will be shared with the House and Senate Education Committees and the Independent Regulatory Review Commission to assist in their review of the regulation.