Pennsylvania

ELC Applauds Pittsburgh Public Schools’ New Code of Student Conduct

Aug. 5, 2014 – The Education Law Center applauds Pittsburgh Public Schools’ new code of student conduct, which reduces harmful zero-tolerance policies that disproportionally impact students of color and students with disabilities, while emphasizing greater protections and supports for English language learners, LGBTQ students, and parenting students.  The PPS School Board adopted the changes at its meeting on Aug. 4, 2014.

The new policy will go into effect when school resumes later in the month.

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ELC Statement on State Budget: Missed opportunity to address school funding crisis

UPDATED July 22, 2014

Governor Corbett’s 2014-15 state budget does little to address Pennsylvania’s systemic public education funding crisis.

“This budget was a missed opportunity for the legislature and the Governor —  and a loss for public school students,” said Rhonda Brownstein, Executive Director of the Education Law Center. “There were several options for our state leaders to not only provide adequate funding to our schools, but to also enact cost-saving measures.”

The General Assembly pursued a fix to the state’s special education funding system that would have addressed the flawed approach to providing funding to students with disabilities in public schools — both charter-operated and district-run. The fix would have more accurately calculated costs and aligned resources to those costs, providing a significant savings to school districts throughout the state and ensuring that children with disabilities receive the services they need. Instead, the whims of political insiders thwarted that effort — resulting in a job half done that does not fix the admitted problem.

The effort to secure a consistent state revenue source for schools was also abandoned, leaving the legislature and Gov. Corbett to fall back on one-time funding schemes and last-minute deals to create a patchwork of public school funding that remains completely disconnected from the cost to provide all students with the necessary resources to meet the state’s academic standards.

“We cannot continue to rely, year after year, on political horse-trading and last-minute budgeting contortions that, ultimately, leave our schools lacking basic resources and leave our communities struggling to make up the difference with local revenues,” said Brownstein. “Our public schools require, and deserve, a thorough and efficient system — an actual system — of education funding as mandated by our state’s constitution.”

Op-Ed: More school nurses are needed to protect our children

May 28, 2014 – by Maura McInerney, Public School Notebook – Our hearts go out to the family, friends, fellow students,and teachers of Sebastian Gerena, the 7-year-old boy who died at Andrew Jackson Elementary last week. In the absence of a school nurse on duty (a nurse is present only on Thursdays and every other Friday), school staff called 911. We know they did everything they could with the resources they had to respond.

Read the complete op-ed.

Pennsylvania schools face funding, construction challenges

May 12, 2014 – Editorial, Allentown Morning Call – Pennsylvania faces a long-term challenge in public education and economic development. Current policies are defining the haves and have-nots statewide. It’s not good for students, and it’s bad for local economies.

However, the angst being heard in some communities may help to explain the election-year momentum and optimism for changes to public school funding in Harrisburg. With bills moving through the Legislature to address basic education funding and school construction, minds are changing all the way up to the governor’s mansion.

There are two foundational state funding streams that schools depend on — basic education funding for operations and school construction dollars.

Read the full editorial

 

Racial disparities in school discipline: A Radio Times discussion

March 31, 2014 – WHYY, Radio Times – New information released by the Department of Education shed more light on a disturbing difference when it comes to school discipline — minority students are suspended at a much higher rate than white students. The same applies to expulsions and harsher punishments and the problem is particularly acute in Pennsylvania. With more research to show that zero tolerance policies are ineffective, some educators are rethinking the whys and hows of school discipline.

WHYY’s Radio Times talks to Harold Jordan of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, Deborah Klehr of the Education Law Center, and University of Pennsylvania education professor Matthew Steinberg about the issues around school suspensions, expulsions and even arrests, particularly when it comes to minority students.

Listen to the discussion.

Op-Ed: Major flaws in charter school bill

March 9, 2014 – David Lapp, Special to the Sunday News – Significant problems exist with Pennsylvania’s current charter school policy, and we agree with state Sen. Lloyd Smucker that charter school reform is needed in the commonwealth.

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Easton Students Return to School; Lawsuit Resolved

January 16, 2014 – Teenage brothers, who were disenrolled from the Easton Area School District because their family was experiencing homelessness, are back in school as a result of legal action by the Education Law Center.

The Law Center filed the case in early December when the students — one of whom is in 12th grade — were abruptly disenrolled from Easton Area High School because they lived with their parents in a camper outside the district.

“The federal McKinney-Vento Act requires school districts to continue to educate students experiencing homelessness even when they are living outside their prior district. The Act also requires the state to ensure that school districts comply with this law in part by resolving enrollment disputes,” said Maura McInerney, ELC Staff Attorney.

In response to ELC’s motion for a preliminary injunction and presentation of the dispute to the court, the District agreed to re-enroll the children days later.

A record number of public school students have become homeless in Pennsylvania and in the nation, putting more than 1.1 million children nationally at increased risk of falling behind in school, dropping out and perpetuating the cycle of homelessness. In Pennsylvania, the number of K-12 students experiencing homelessness increased to 19,905 in 2012 from 18,531 the previous year, an increase of 7 percent. In the nation, the number of homeless students increased by 10 percent, according to October 2013 data from the U.S. Department of Education.

The Law Center has urged the state to adopt guidance to improve the dispute resolution process for families and to ensure that what happened to these students will not happen to others.

“We have asked the state to issue guidance explaining that school districts cannot unilaterally disenroll students based on the duration of homelessness, and that families must be notified — in writing — of the basis of any decision to deny enrollment, including the resolution of appeals to the state. Children have the right to stay in school as long as a dispute is pending,” said McInerney.

The family has since secured permanent housing within the District, and ELC has withdrawn its lawsuit.

“This is a terrific outcome for these students and this family,” said McInerney.

 

 

CONTACT:
Brett Schaeffer
Education Law Center
[email protected]
Office: 215-238-6970 ext. 334
Mobile: 215-519-6522

 

 

 

 

ELC Webinar January 22, 2014

Join Education Law Center attorney Maura McInerney as she presents a webinar for families of students with disabilities who are home schooled, educated in cyber charter schools, charter schools, private schools or parochial schools.

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New PA Policies to Improve Early Education Access for Students Experiencing Homelessness

May 15, 2013 – New policy guidance issued last week by the Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning improves access to early learning opportunities for homeless children under the age of six.

This policy sets new standards for interagency collaboration at state and local levels to identify young children experiencing homelessness across service systems and ensure access to quality early learning programs, such as Head Start and Early Intervention.

“We are so pleased that OCDEL has stepped forward to provide important vision and leadership that will help ensure that young children experiencing homelessness get the supports and services to which they are entitled and desperately need,” said the Education Law Center’s Nancy A. Hubley, Managing Attorney for ELC’s Pittsburgh office.

Hubley works closely with the Bridges Collaborative — a network of early childhood and homeless advocates — to address the lack of education access for these young children.
According to OCDEL, more than 40 percent of Pennsylvania’s homeless children are under the age of six.

“This policy,” Hubley added, “will help ensure that staff of social service agencies, including housing programs and early childhood providers, are aware of which children are to be considered homeless and the legal rights that accompany them.”

OCDEL’s guidelines reiterate the federal requirements for supporting homeless students, as detailed across federal and state laws such as the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act.

The act, which became law in 1987, ensures that “each child of an individual who is homeless and each youth who is homeless have equal access to the same free, appropriate public education, including a public preschool education, as provided to other children and youth.”

Read the OCDEL guidelines.

 

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The Education Law Center in non-profit legal advocacy organization, dedicated to ensuring that all of Pennsylvania’s children have access to a quality public education.

 

CONTACT:
Brett Schaefer
Education Law Center
Office: 215-238-6970 ext. 334
Mobile: 215-519-6522
[email protected]