Early childhood education (ECE), including preschool, childcare, and other settings where children learn foundational skills, is critical for a child’s academic and social development. Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), young children with disabilities or
developmental delays have the right to receive a free appropriate public education (FAPE) and must be educated with their typically developing peers to the maximum extent appropriate. Research shows, however, that early childhood education programs are disproportionately excluding, or “pushing out,” young children with disabilities in violation of their educational rights and often causing lifelong harm. In addition, due to systemic racism and individual racial bias, early education programs are also excluding young learners who are Black and Brown at far higher rates than their white peers, often in violation of their civil rights and causing similar long term harm.

This fact sheet provides information about how to advocate to ensure that young children can access high-quality, inclusive ECE with their peers — and make progress free from discrimination.

Act 47, first enacted in 2025 and revised in 2026, amends multiple provisions of the Pennsylvania Public School Code. This fact sheet focuses on new detailed requirements governing enrollment, attendance, and truancy in cyber charter schools. These changes include: prohibiting students who are habitually truant from transferring to cyber charters during the school year without permission from a judge; requiring specific residency verifications for children enrolling in cyber charter schools; new attendance requirements for synchronous and asynchronous learning in cyber charters; and mandated wellness checks for students in cyber charters and those attending full-time virtual programs in school districts. This fact sheet provides relevant information for families, school district staff, attorneys, children and youth agencies, and judges.

All children with disabilities have a right to “related services,” such as speech therapy and occupational therapy, and the right to “make up” services if they are not provided. In response to a state administrative complaint filed by the Education Law Center-PA, the Pennsylvania
Department of Education found in October 2025 that the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) failed to provide required related services to many students with disabilities across the district due to vacancies, staff leave, and provider shortages or capacity. In response, the state ordered SDP to take several steps to correct the violations, including creating new procedures to notify parents of failures to provide related services and to provide timely make up services (or compensatory education) for the violations. The protocol is now being implemented and
explains how related services must be tracked and how, when they are not provided, related services must be remediated.

This fact sheet explains the new procedures for securing those services so you can advocate for your child if they experience service gaps.

An IEP, or Individualized Education Program, is a plan written by a team of people, including the parent or other educational decision maker (EDM). This plan describes the unique needs of a child who is eligible for special education and explains the specific services and supports that the school will provide based on the child’s individual needs. Parents who want to effectively advocate for their child to receive a quality education that meets their needs should be prepared for IEP meetings and know what to expect. This fact sheet discusses specific steps you can take as parent, guardian, caregiver, or other EDM to prepare for IEP meetings, ask questions at meetings, and successfully advocate for your child. It also includes a checklist at the end.

The role of schools in filing summary citations and referring school-based conduct to local law enforcement has significant consequences for students and their relationship with their school, and significant consequences for their school communities more generally. This fact sheet focuses on students’ rights related to the referral process and school-based summary citations.

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (known as Title IX) is a landmark civil rights law that guarantees all students equal opportunities in school regardless of their gender. As part of this commitment, Title IX ensures that schools are inclusive and equitable environments so all students can learn. Title IX specifically prohibits sex discrimination and sexual harassment in all federally funded education programs, including public schools. This fact sheet provides an overview of the Title IX complaint and investigation process in Pennsylvania K-12 public schools to address sexual harassment, which is a form of sex discrimination.

School closures can also have lasting consequences for neighborhoods and communities. Families and communities have opportunities to voice their opinions to their school board about potential school closures and reconfigurations, and they can work with their school district to minimize disruptions to education and to support students, both when decisions are made and when plans are being implemented. This fact sheet explains the important role of parents in this process.

Pennsylvania’s Address Confidentiality Program (ACP) allows survivors of certain crimes to keep their residential addresses confidential and provides a substitute P.O. Box address that state and local agencies, including schools, must accept for all official purposes, including school
enrollment. This fact sheet explains the basics of the ACP: who can participate and how participation affects school enrollment and transportation to school.

Although federal law generally prohibits schools from sharing student records, the law permits schools to disclose certain basic information (such as student name, address, phone number, date and place of birth) without consent unless a parent (or student age 18 or older) “opts out” of sharing this “directory information.” This fact sheet explains your rights to keep this information private, if you wish.

ELC-PA has also created two new tools to help parents and “eligible students” opt out of “directory information,” as permitted by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), if the students’ school does not provide a form of its own.    

• Directory Information Opt-Out Request (Eligible Students): If a school does not provide a specific opt-out form, “eligible students,” students who are 18 years or older or are attending a postsecondary institution, can use this tool to opt out of the disclosure of directory information. Requests must be submitted by the deadline identified by the school. Click here for the tool. [Spanish]

• Directory Information Opt-Out Request (Parents): If a school does not provide a specific opt-out form, parents, guardians, people acting in the place of a parent/guardian, and educational decision-makers, can use this tool to opt out of the disclosure of directory information. Requests must be submitted by the deadline identified by the school. Click here for the tool. [Spanish]

This fact sheet is available in Spanish, Arabic and Chinese.

Every child of school age who is a resident of a Pennsylvania school district is entitled to a public school education. A school district may ask a family to provide documents to establish residency and may challenge whether the family lives in the district, except when a child is experiencing homelessness. Under Pennsylvania’s Act 67, children have the right to remain in their current school during the pendency of a residency dispute. Learn more in our fact sheet.

We have also developed three templates that school districts can share with families about their rights under the McKinney-Vento Act, as required by Act 67; to apprise families of their right to a residency hearing in accordance with the statutory requirements of Act 67 and the constitutional rights of students; and to apprise families of the School District/Charter School’s decision regarding their child’s right to attend school after a Residency Hearing.

• Act 67 Notice #1: You Have the Right to Attend School If You Are Experiencing Homelessness
• Act 67 Notice #2: Notice of Residency Hearing
• Act 67 Notice #3: Notice of Decision Regarding Right to Attend School

For the Spanish version of this fact sheet, click here.