Author: elcadmin

Pa. Group Alleges Discrimination in Alternative-School Placements

August 7, 2013 – by Christina Samuels –

The Pennsylvania-based Education Law Center filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice today, saying that young people with disabilities and black students are being placed in alternative schools far out of proportion to their representation in the school population.

Read the full story:
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/speced/2013/08/pa_advocacy_group_alleges_disc.html?cmp=SOC-SHR-FB

PA Education Budget: Funding for a Few

July 8, 2013 – The Pennsylvania education budget adopted June 30, 2013, fails to address underlying, systemic inequities in the state’s public school funding, locks in the massive 2011 education funding cuts, and boosts funding to a few select districts, according to an Education Law Center analysis.

“The General Assembly and the Governor have delivered education dollars in a way that cherry-picks a small group of school districts for additional funding, but ignores the remaining 479 school districts,” said Rhonda Brownstein, Education Law Center Executive Director.

The legislature identified 21 school districts for additional state funding. Some of these districts have high numbers of students learning English, some have high numbers of students in poverty, and some are fast-growing districts. But other school districts on the list received additional funding based on particularly narrow and unique characteristics rarely used in comprehensive education funding formulas, according to the Law Center.

“Poverty, number of students learning English, rapid growth — these are all important student and district factors that should be applied in a fair, accurate, and transparent education funding formula,” said Brownstein. “What’s unfortunate is that the General Assembly and the Governor have chosen to apply these factors to only a handful of districts. The impact for schools and students throughout the Commonwealth could have been greatly improved if our legislative leaders had simply used these factors to distribute education dollars to all 500 school districts,” she added.

For example, only five school districts received additional funding based on the “English Language Learner Supplement” in the current budget, yet 412 other school districts in the state have students learning English.

“It’s a good sign that our legislative leaders have recognized there are different costs associated with different types of students,” said Brownstein. “The students in these five districts should receive the necessary resources to meet state academic standards — but so should English language learners in all of our other school districts,” she added.

Of the 21 specially selected districts, eight have now had their 2011 funding cuts restored. There are 490 other school districts throughout the state that still have not. (Two school districts — Chester-Upland and Duquesne — received funding restorations last year as part of a state-takeover plan.)

A March 2013 Law Center report, “Funding, Formulas and Fairness,” examines public education funding formulas in each of the 50 states.

Pennsylvania remains one of only three states in the nation without a fair, accurate, and transparent education funding formula, according to the report.

The report shows most other states use funding formulas to calculate and distribute education dollars. The formulas share common components, such as an accurate per-student base cost, different funding variables that recognize student differences in all schools, and a funding goal that the state works towards in order to ensure adequate funding for all students.

Pennsylvania abandoned these basic principles in its 2011-12 budget and officially amended its education funding formula out of use in 2012.

“Pennsylvania school districts must now operate in fiscal limbo every year, wondering if they’ll be one of the chosen school districts receiving special allocations from Harrisburg,” said Brownstein. “It’s time for that to change. It’s time for Pennsylvania to become a national leader in the development and implementation of a sound, comprehensive education funding formula that addresses real classroom costs and meets real student needs in all of our schools.”

View the calculations for the various funding supplements:
ELC_BudgetAnalysis_2013_fundingsupplements

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

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

PA Enacts Historic Special Education Funding Reforms

June 14, 2013 –  Governor Corbett signed into law today historic legislation to fix Pennsylvania’s broken special education funding and accountability system.

Act 3 establishes a legislative commission to develop — for the first time in the Commonwealth — a funding formula for special education that uses accurate student counts and addresses actual student needs.

Advocates from 40 different organizations throughout Pennsylvania support this legislation, which was nearly adopted in 2012.

“This is historic,” said Rhonda Brownstein, Executive Director of the Education Law Center, one of the lead advocacy groups supporting this legislation. “The commission will outline a much-needed approach for funding special education in Pennsylvania — one that takes into account accurate data and real student needs.”

Rep. Bernie O’Neill and Sen. Pat Browne were lead bill sponsors and will be a part of the commission.

“We want to thank our legislative champions — Representative O’Neill and Senator Browne — for their work on the legislation, and, of course, we want to thank all of our advocates throughout the state for their commitment and dedication to seeing this bill passed,” said Pam Klipa, Special Education & Training Coordinator for The Arc of Pennsylvania.

The Commission established by the legislation will begin work next month and make its recommendations in September. The funding formula established by the Commission would be applied to any new dollars added to the state’s special education line item.

Districts could utilize any new state special education funding to improve programs and supports and other best practices that benefit students with disabilities, such as meeting state and federal performance indicators and providing curricula adaptation, co-teaching, assistive technology, and school-wide positive behavior supports.

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The Education Law Center is a non-profit, statewide 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]

ELC Releases Spanish Language Version of Early Childhood Learning Guide

June 1, 2013 – The Education Law Center recently released a Spanish language version of its Family Guide to Inclusive Early Childhood Learning in Pennsylvania: Guía sobre el Aprendizaje Temprano Incluyente para Familias Residentes en Pennsylvania.

The guide is a quick and easy resource to inclusive early childhood learning programs in Pennsylvania for parents of children with developmental delays or disabilities. It describes eight different early childhood learning programs, including Early Head Start and Head Start, Infant and Toddler and Preschool Early Intervention, and Pre-K Counts, and provides information for parents on child development and how to find quality early learning programs.

The guide offers parent tools, problem-solving tips, and information about the legal rights of parents and children to early childhood learning programs. It also gives links to websites and other resources to help parents and others navigate the full range of early childhood opportunities in Pennsylvania.

The project is supported by a grant from the Pennsylvania Developmental Disabilities Council. The guide can be downloaded here or on the Pennsylvania Developmental Disabilities Council’s website at www.paddc.org.

The Education Law Center is available to provide free training to groups of parents, early childhood educators, social workers, and others on the entire guide or portions of the guide.

For more information or to schedule a training, please contact Nancy Hubley in Pittsburgh at [email protected] or (412) 258-2120.

 

 

PA Issues New Guidelines to Improve Early Education Access for Homeless Children

 

May 15, 2013  – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

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 is a 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]

 

ELC Report: School Nurse Shortage Jeopardizes Student Health and Safety

May 7, 2013 – The health and safety of Philadelphia’s public school students is in jeopardy following the elimination of more than 100 school nurse positions, according to a new report from the Education Law Center conducted with assistance from the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) Program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Currently, 195 nurses are serving approximately 200,000 public school students. That’s one nurse per 1,025 students. National research recommends one nurse per 750 healthy students, according to the ELC report.

One of the results of the nurse shortage has been an increase during the 2012-13 school year in non-medical school personnel administering medications and treatments to students on a regular basis.

A current school nurse explained the risks of continuing that approach.

“Children who have chronic health problems such as asthma, diabetes, or food allergies are not safe in schools without a full-time school nurse. Numerous medication errors have already occurred as a result. If the District continues on the current path, we will soon realize the real cost,” said one of the school nurses who participated in the research.

Beyond the immediate health risks, the lack of school nurses places the School District of Philadelphia at risk legally.

“The District is legally obligated to provide specific nursing services to children with special education needs and those with qualifying disabilities, such as asthma and diabetes,” said Education Law Center Senior Attorney Maura McInerney, who co-authored the report. “If school nursing services are not provided to ensure that children can learn and are properly accommodated in school, they may suffer discrimination in violation of federal and state law,” she said.

ELC reviewed research on public health and school nurses, conducted in-depth interviews, and surveyed more than 70 representatives of organizations serving children with disabilities, school nurses, and families of children with healthcare needs.

Based on that research and additional research on student health and safety, ELC recommends that the District take the follow steps to fix the current crisis:

  • Conduct a cost-benefit analysis to clarify the value of nurses in the School District of Philadelphia.
  • Adopt a student-to-school nurse ratio on a “per school” basis that accounts for the impact of students with acute and chronic medical needs and special education needs. This ratio will ensure compliance with all applicable federal and state laws that protect both students with disabilities under the IDEA and those with qualifying disabilities under Section 504.
  • Eliminate reliance on untrained personnel to perform duties of a school nurse.
  • Utilize nursing students from various local universities to perform discrete tasks with supervision by a registered and licensed school nurse.

“We recognize the fiscal crisis facing the District but we cannot afford to overlook the essential and cost-effective role that school nurses play in supporting learning — from ensuring consistent attendance to identifying medical needs to ensuring that children with disabilities receive needed support.”

The School Nurse Shortage in Philadelphia: Prognosis & Prescription for Change

 

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

CONTACT:
Education Law Center
Office: 215-238-6970

 

Why School Libraries Matter

A school library helps each school meet its mission of each student learning and achieving academic success. A school library helps teachers teach and students learn; it promotes information literacy and digital citizenship; it fosters in students a love of and enthusiasm for reading and encourages students to become life-long learners.

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Back to School: How to Enroll Yourself as an Older Youth in School

An enrollment guide for older youth who are emancipated or living on their own.  You have a legal right to go to school in Pennsylvania until the end of the  school term in which you have your 21st birthday or until you graduate with a regular high school diploma (whichever comes first).

Student Voices on Pennsylvania School Funding Reform

In 2008, Good Schools Pennsylvania and the Education Law Center visited schools throughout the Commonwealth and invited students to share their hopes and goals, and comment on how adequately funded schools support their aspirations. These are their stories.