Emily Scolnick is a 2026 Dow Jones News Fund intern at Pennsylvania Capital-Star.

Funding for cyber charter schools will remain flat this year, even as Pennsylvania’s latest school code refines and builds on existing reform policies aimed at ensuring student safety and holding cyber schools accountable.

Last year’s budget included dramatic funding cuts and policy reforms to the cybersecurity charter, resulting in: Financial losses of $238 million under 14 Commonwealth cybersecurity public charters. Gov. Josh Shapiro initially proposed another $75 million cut in February budget addresswhich school principals say could cause earnest financial harm to their institution, including staff layoffs and program cuts.

Now they say they are grateful to lawmakers who listened to their concerns and managed to keep funding consistent.

“I believe that when our community comes together, it will work,” said Erin Van Guilder, CEO of Insight PA Charter School. “We were able to kind of fend off these devastating proposed funding reductions.”

Rep. Peter Schweyer (R-Lehigh), who chairs the House Education Committee, said lawmakers have expressed concerns about schools over previous cuts.

“We heard that we needed an additional year or two to calm down and see what the impact of last year’s budget cycle and financial changes would be,” he said.

School districts in Pennsylvania pay cyber students’ tuition directly to the Cyber ​​Charters Foundation, which means funding for the charter is directly tied to enrollment rates. Tuition rates vary depending on the district and whether the student requires special education.

Prioritizing student safety

The school code now requires cybersecurity student health screenings by requiring them to appear on camera and communicate once a week with a teacher, administrator or school district representative.

This policy results legislation introduced by Schweyer, which then passed through the House Education Committee sizzling debate last month.

He said mandatory health screenings are one of the most significant elements of the school code for the recent fiscal year.

If a student fails a medical examination without a documented reason, school districts must notify parents and guardians within one day. If it is still not completed after three days, districts must schedule a “wellness review conference” to ensure the student is secure and participates in future wellness checks.

If such a conference does not occur, districts must conduct in-person home visits within 24 hours.

“If we do nothing other than make sure that students, regardless of where they learn, learn in a safe and healthy environment, we have done a really good job,” Schweyer said. “We are going to put [cyber students] in a healthier environment. We’re going to make sure that we have a better chance of catching a child who is, you know, hurting in some way.”

Improving existing policies

The school code also refines two rules that were changed last year, prompting fierce opposition from cybersecurity charter leaders and Republican lawmakers.

When the legislator approved the last budget to end the month-long impasse in November, families with students enrolled in cyber courses had to provide proof of residence twice a year. Administrators said this caused unnecessary confusion and burden on families.

“It could also create bottlenecks by delaying tuition reimbursement to public cyber schools until the paperwork is completed,” Republican Joe D’Orsie (R-York) said in a statement. He also previously raised concerns about the lack of protection for students experiencing homelessness in existing residency verification policies.

This school code limits the residency verification requirement to once a year, bringing it in line with requirements for conventional residential public schools. D’Orsie said lawmakers are “working to create parity between public schools,” regardless of which learning method families choose.

The updated code also allows families experiencing homelessness or other unstable living conditions to be exempt from having to provide indefinite proof of residence.

“I am always a big supporter of providing additional protection for this fragile population,” Van Guilder said.

The existing habitual truancy policy, which stipulates that students who recorded at least six unexcused absences and were deemed chronically truant could not transfer to cyber studies mid-year without a judge’s approval, also sparked complaints from leaders and lawmakers. They said this limits families’ access to school choice.

This policy remains in effect in the updated school code, including a provision that cyber charterers who continue to enroll students who are chronically truant will not receive district tuition for those students.

The Code also refines the judicial aspect of this policy by providing clear time frames for “educational best interest hearings” to determine whether a student may be transferred.

In-person hearings must be held within 10 days of the truancy notice and must be attended by a representative of the student’s current school, a parent or legal guardian who lives with the student, and the student if the student is 15 years of age or older.

“It really prevents families from having to wait months for hearings so that students can attend classes and learn,” Van Guilder said.

Under the code, a judge must consider a student’s academic performance, safety, discipline history, chances of success and family support when deciding whether he or she can transfer to a cybersecurity charter.

Van Guilder said that even with improvements, the habitual absence policy still limits school choice.

“We will continue to work with our legislators to better understand this,” she said.

Schweyer said members of both parties are “very frustrated with the stay and truancy concerns” arising from cybersecurity cards.

“In cases like this, finding the language is really difficult,” he said. “Trying to find a legislative solution has kind of irritated us. So… we’ve been tinkering with this budget a little bit. We’re going to continue to reassess and try to get there.”

Emily Scolnick is a 2026 Dow Jones News Fund intern at Pennsylvania Capital-Star.

When Gov. Josh Shapiro signed Pennsylvania’s 2026-27 budget into law On Sunday evening, he also introduced a slew of fresh initiatives included in the state’s latest school code aimed at improving student safety and well-being.

The budget allocates more than $900 million for public schools, including $565 million in fresh funding matching school districts, which remains a priority for Democratic state lawmakers as they work to ensure a more equitable school funding system in the state. It also directs $100 million to mental health and school safety resources.

But other programs will create fresh policies on cyberbullying, limit the dissemination of student health statistics and support educate students about social media skills and the prevalence of eating disorders.

“The overwhelming theme of this education code was the protection of students, both their physical safety and their mental health and well-being,” said Rep. Peter Schweyer (D-Lehigh), who chairs the House Education Committee.

The Code calls on schools to provide education about the mental, physical and psychological effects of social media, as well as provide students and teachers with programs to develop social media skills as part of broader efforts to protect children in the digital age.

It also requires each school to establish or amend policies specifying disciplinary actions for cyberbullying, including notifying parents and guardians immediately after an incident is reported and identified. School administrators are also required to annually report incidents of bullying or cyberbullying – including the number of incidents involving artificial intelligence.

“We’ve done a lot of work on student safety and security, and we’re really proud of that work,” Schweyer said.

Other fresh policies in this year’s school code focus more on students’ physical health. The Commonwealth now requires schools to work with the state Department of Health to offer eating disorder awareness education to students in sixth through 12th grades each year, making the materials available to families.

The initiative stems from a bill sponsored by Rep. Jason Ortitay (R-Allegheny), who first introduced legislation calling for the creation of Eating Disorders Task Force in January 2025. A year and a half later, this year’s budget ensures the creation of the commission becomes a reality and calls for its first meeting within two months. Health and education departments will need to update awareness of eating disorders

Another measure introduced in 2025 by Rep. Danielle Friel Otten (D-Chester) called for eliminating body mass index screening among students, citing privacy concerns and excessive stigmatization of BMI. While this year’s budget doesn’t completely eliminate screenings, it does allow parents and guardians to request waivers for their students and instructs school nurses to keep students’ health statistics private unless they specifically request it.

This year’s budget continues to fund free breakfasts for students across Pennsylvania, allocates $3 million to ensure students have access to menstrual hygiene products, and calls for mandatory recess for students in kindergarten through fifth grade. The latter has been a priority for Shapiro since his February budget speech.

“Common sense tells us that children need more time to play, socialize and interact with each other,” he said at a budget signing ceremony this weekend.

Schweyer also highlighted school code provisions regarding school site surveys and school mapping, emphasizing the importance of ensuring students’ physical safety.

By the end of 2027, the state Department of Education will collect data from each district on the number of facilities it occupies and the purpose and capacity of each facility. Schweyer said the information would be used to “verify the age and suitability of our schools.”

Mapping schools will allow first responders to know the purpose and location of each room in a school facility in an emergency, Schweyer said.

“If there is a specific case that requires first aid, they have somewhere to go and where to go,” he added.

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat.

Pennsylvania school districts will receive $11.8 billion next year in the state budget signed by Gov. Josh Shapiro over the weekend, an enhance of $670 million over last year.

The $50.8 billion budget includes an infusion of money for job training and special education programs, as well as more funding for teacher stipends and additional cybersecurity requirements for charter schools to monitor student well-being.

But the budget, which often includes major education legislation, did not include the ban on cell phones in schools that Shapiro expected or less funding for early childhood education than the governor expected.

The budget includes $157 million more for schools in Philadelphia, the state’s largest district.

In response to A Court ruling from 2023 which found the state’s school financing system unconstitutional, the budget gives districts a $565 million boost under the so-called “adequate financing”. It also allocates $58 million more to basic education funding and $47 million more to special education funding.

While the overall budget is about $2 billion less than Shapiro proposed, the final amounts for education are larger than he initially proposed.

“In my opinion, a quality education requires not only dollars and cents, but also common sense,” Shapiro said during Sunday’s budget speech. He said that’s why he urged schools to require schools to provide all primary and secondary school students with a 30-minute recess every day, which is included in the budget. Philadelphia schools guaranteed day break for all district students already in February.

Mai Miksic, executive director of the Pennsylvania-based advocacy group Children First, said in a statement that the budget would lend a hand schools “sustain and build upon the academic progress made possible by increased adequate funding.”

However, she was disappointed that the budget “was not large enough to support early childhood education”. Shapiro initially proposed a $10 million enhance for a program aimed at recruiting and retaining child care workers and a $7.5 million enhance for the state’s Pre-K Counts free kindergarten program. However, the final budget included only half of these increases.

Laura Boyce, executive director of the Pennsylvania advocacy group Teach Plus, said increasing teacher adequacy funding and stipends is “something worth celebrating.”

But she hoped the budget would enhance funding for early literacy rather than keep it constant at $10 million. That’s a “good down payment,” Boyce said, but “not close to the amount we will ultimately need” to lend a hand schools meet literacy requirements set to take effect in the 2027-28 school year, such as implementing professional development and demonstrations.

In the last two years, Philadelphia students’ scores on English language and literature tests have dropped. Approximately one-third of students in grades 3–8 achieved proficient or higher levels on the ELA exam on the latest state assessments.

Some conservatives had hoped the budget would include more investment in existing state school choice tax credit programs, while a deadline looms for Shapiro to determine whether Pennsylvania join the federal tax credit program. “Unfortunately, the budget agreement does not significantly increase educational choice,” said Nathan Benefield, director of policy at the conservative think tank the Commonwealth Foundation.

Philadelphia Federation of Teachers President Arthur Steinberg said in a statement that he was disappointed that the budget bill did not include a statewide cell phone ban. However, he welcomed additional general funding for schools.

“As always, we look forward to a faster timeline that closes the adequacy gap between affluent and non-affluent districts once and for all,” Steinberg said.

Pennsylvania increases funding for job training, student teachers

This year’s budget includes a $10 million enhance for career and technical education programs as part of a total annual investment of $193 million in workforce development. It also slightly changes the testing requirements for these programs, allowing vocational training centers to administer competency tests before students reach the 12th grade and thus lend a hand them complete the programs.

Peter Schweyer, a Democrat and chairman of the House Education Committee, praised the changes, saying they would allow the programs to enroll more students.

The budget also includes an additional $10 million for the popular student and teacher scholarship program, bringing the total to $40 million. Program there has been oversubscription in recent years.

According to a statement from the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the enhance means about 700 future teachers and co-teachers will receive scholarships next year.

The budget also increased funding for the state’s child welfare staff retention and recruitment program by $5 million, for a total of $30 million.

The budget allocates $120 million for mental health and safety in K-12 schools

This year’s budget also includes $120 million to improve mental health and safety in K-12 schools. Last year, the Shapiro administration approved the same amount for this category for updates on school safety, custodial staff training and mental health resources such as calming spaces in schools.

Organizations helping prevent gun violence in Philadelphia and across the state will receive $62.2 million in the up-to-date state budget, an amount similar to what was allocated last year. Prevention groups dealing with violence prevention he praised this moveespecially as these and similar efforts face threats at the federal level.

Last year, this funding was also provided supported extracurricular activities that lend a hand children stay connected with trusted adults and reduce the risk of exposure to violence.

The Shapiro administration credits this investment with a 35% reduction in homicides and a 40% reduction in gun crimes statewide, according to Uniform Crime Reporting cited on the state website.

Rebecca Redelmeier is a reporter at Chalkbeat Philadelphia. He writes about public schools, early childhood education and issues that affect students, families and teachers throughout Philadelphia. Contact Rebecca at rredelmeier@chalkbeat.org.

Sammy Caiola discusses solutions to gun violence in and around Philadelphia schools. Do you have any ideas for her? Contact us at scaiola@chalkbeat.org.

Carly Sitrin is the Chalkbeat Philadelphia Bureau Chief. Contact Carly at csitrin@chalkbeat.org.

Emily Scolnick is a 2026 Dow Jones News Fund intern at Pennsylvania Capital-Star.

Nearly 70,000 students attend one of Pennsylvania’s 14 free online public schools. Over the past few years, lawmakers have worked to reform the institutions’ funding models and curb what they consider excessive spending.

But cybersecurity charter leaders say such efforts do more harm than good.

Although cybersecurity cards are free to families, Pennsylvania school districts pay student tuition directly to cyber schools. Tuition rates vary depending on the district and whether the student requires special education.

For this reason, according to Susan Spicka, the company’s executive director, cybersecurity card funding for a given year is directly tied to its registration. Education Voters in Pennsylvania.

In February 2025, state Auditor General Timothy DeFoor released a cybersecurity charter performance audit reportwhich found a huge enhance in revenue and cash reserves for several schools and called for radical changes to Pennsylvania’s cybersecurity charter funding model.

Cyber ​​charters also underperformed academically, with many performing poorly well below the state average for knowledge of English, mathematics and science.

Pennsylvania’s 2024 budget included a significant adjustment cyber charter special education tuition. But current spending plan brought a sweeping round of funding changes and policy reforms to the Cyber ​​Charter.

Cybersecurity Charter leaders stated that the changes are detailed in Act 47 of 2025resulted in a reduction in funding by USD 238 million in 14 schools, which is USD 60 million more than the legislator assumed Estimates at $178 million.

Act 47 included two other significant policy changes: a fresh rule stating that students who are chronically truant – those who have accumulated six or more unexcused absences – cannot transfer to cybersecurity schools without a judge’s approval, and a twice-yearly residency verification requirement designed to ensure that individual school districts pay appropriate amounts to their students enrolled in cybersecurity charters.

Rep. Peter Schweyer (D-Lehigh), who chairs the House Education Committee, expressed concerns that cybersecurity charters “spend money in a way that does not directly benefit students.”

“We have not reduced funding for education,” he said. “We are giving money from one type of school that has no results.”

Smaller schools are struggling

Leaders of seven compact and medium-sized public cybersecurity organizations recently released a report alleging that funding and policy changes have “led to shortages” among students and detailing what they call the “unintended consequences” of Act 47.

“There are economies of scale in the public cyber charter school sector that allow larger public cyber charter schools to absorb the cuts imposed by Act 47,” he said. report reads. “Meanwhile, smaller public cybersecurity schools (which are equally important to Pennsylvania’s public education landscape) are struggling to make ends meet.”

Erin Van Guilder, CEO Cyber ​​Charter Insight PA Schoolshe said her school has laid off 58 employees since November. To reduce expenses, several schools have slowed or frozen hiring.

“We don’t replace anything that doesn’t need to be replaced [role]”, Michael Leitera, CEO School PA Distance Learning Cardhe said. “The last two years have not been good for our budget.”

He said the cuts also forced the school to put on hold plans to add a social worker to its staff.

Karla Johnson, CEO of Pennsylvania Leadership Charter Schoolstated that $9 million in lost funds would have gone to student and employee programs. The school is currently projecting an $8 million deficit for next year.

Registration problems

Commonwealth Charter Academy (CCA) is the largest cybersecurity charter in Pennsylvania, currently enrolling approximately 40,000 students. This is six times more than before the COVID-19 pandemic. Successful increases in student enrollment and district tuition funds have helped offset the school’s $120 million loss in state funds this year.

“There will be more cash inflow as more students enroll,” said Timothy Eller, director of branding and government relations at CCA. But the school continues to tardy its hiring pace and see where it can get money from what cash reserves it already has was subjected to inspection.

The balance in the school’s endowment fund – used primarily for long-term investments – was just over $180 million for the 2024-2025 fiscal year. revision. However, the unallocated general fund balance is only $830,000, which Eller said is a “one-time infusion of money.”

“We overpaid [cyber charters] for years,” said Rep. Joe Ciresi (D-Montgomery), a member of the House Education Committee. “There are good people who probably budgeted properly, that some of these changes hurt, but we’re not putting anyone out of business and we’re not trying to do that.”

As CCA student enrollment increases, smaller cybersecurity practice leaders recognize that increased enrollment is the best way to enhance revenue and offset changes in funding. However, according to publicly available enrollment data, nine cyber charter organizations have lost enrollment since the Covid-19 pandemic.

“If you get less per student, you have to have more students to be fiscally solvent” – Malynda Maurer, CEO Central Pennsylvania Digital Education Foundationhe said.

Spicka said cyber charter leaders need to recognize their current market.

“If you run an online school and families don’t choose your school, then the cookie crumbles and they have to deal with that reality,” she said.

Policy changes

Cyber ​​Charter leaders said the habitual truancy policy and increased frequency of residency verification also raise some concerns. Leitera said enrollment in distance learning PAs has dropped since January due to the furlough rule. The school expects another economic downturn next year, which could prevent it from reaching its student enrollment target – a number critical to financial stability.

Maurer stated that her school had to turn away truant students.

“We tend to admit students who are chronically truant because our program is designed to help kids re-engage with school. That’s our reputation,” she said.

CSW defendant question the leave policy in May.

Many Republican lawmakers have begun introducing legislation to improve aspects of Act 47.

Sen. Dawn Keefer (R-York) and Rep. Barbara Gleim (R-Cumberland) sent out memos seeking to repeal Gleim’s leave policy he wrote “removes decision-making power from parents and puts it in the hands of bureaucrats.” Her Bill he currently serves on the House Education Committee.

“[Truancy] it was simply attacked as a cyber issue,” Keefer said. “It all seemed one-sided. The cyber cards had no place at the table.”

Reps. Joe D’Orsie (R-York) and Sen. Jarrett Coleman (R-Lehigh) want to limit residency verification to an annual requirement. D’Orsie said lawmakers “want compliance, but we don’t want to confuse people filling out these forms.”

“It is extremely popular in our communities and among many members of the Senate, including many Senate Republicans, to bring control to this extremely expensive and incredibly hopeless area of ​​public education,” Schweyer said. “I don’t think many members are making good faith arguments based on the facts and data before us.”

Current prospects

Cyber ​​charter reform efforts are “moving in the right direction,” said John Armato, director of community relations for the Pottstown School District. Pottstown saw a $215,000 reduction in cyber charter spending this year, which allowed it to maintain access to guidance counselors.

Spicka said support for Act 47 was “overwhelming and bipartisan” during last year’s budget negotiations. He hopes lawmakers will continue to build on the reforms of the past two years.

This year’s state budget is supported by Democrats I propose another $75 million for cyber charter funding adjustments. Cybersecurity charter leaders say this decline, coupled with pre-existing funding uncertainty, could prove irreversible.

Leitera stated that the PA Distance Learning fund balance would not cover operating costs for the entire year. His school is projecting a 20% to 25% reduction in revenue for the 2026-27 school year, and the projected deficit – as low as $3 million to $4 million – could continue to grow.

As cyber charters grapple with the potential loss of more funding, Schweyer stressed that he and other lawmakers are working to hold institutions accountable for their spending and aid provide students with the best education possible.

He said recent reforms as well as fresh regulations aimed at ensuring well-being of cyber studentsthey continue to pursue this goal.

If you or someone you love is having suicidal thoughts, call 988 Suicide and crisis lifeline. Call, text and chat options are available.

A proposal requiring companion AI apps to impose certain safeguards, clearly intended to address reports of chatbots encouraging suicidal thoughts or self-harm, has moved to the full House of Representatives.

Democrats on the House Communications and Technology Committee voted in favor of the measure by a 14-12 vote. Citing concerns about the speed and limitations of the considered AI-powered chatbot legislation, every Republican on the panel voted against House Bill 2006 on Tuesday.

“The revolutionary potential of artificial intelligence and the positive impact this technology will have on businesses, government and society is undeniable. Yet we currently have no safety protocols or consumer protections in place,” said sponsoring Republican Melissa Shusterman (D-Chester).

The original bill focused on banning chatbots from encouraging or assisting in suicide attempts or acts of violence, banning the creation of child sexual abuse material, and requiring companies to take “reasonable measures” to protect minors from sexual content. Its language provided for a civil penalty of $15,000 per day for each violation.

“I want to ensure that the people of our community benefit from technology, but as legislators we also work to prevent tragedies,” Shusterman continued.

But an amendment expanding required safety protocols and other rules raised concerns among some committee members and ultimately split the final vote along party lines.

“We started with a bill focused solely on identifying and preventing suicide. It’s really expanded into a lot more legislation, a lot more topics,” said Rep. Andrea Verobish (R-Blair). “At this point, I think maybe we should take a step back and talk about this more before we create one of the most restrictive AI laws in the country.”

Not everyone agreed.

“We have AI-based chatbots that are being deployed by these companies now. They’re on everyone’s phones now. Young people and children are at risk right now. That’s why I think we need to move faster than the technology allows,” said Rep. Ben Waxman (Philadelphia).

Rep. Eric Nelson (Westmoreland) wondered about the limits of state oversight and whether the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office would be able to prosecute an infringer in another country.

“Does (the office) have the skills to go after international bad actors? If an Iranian entity creates a chatbot that tries to promote suicide or drug use… it’s really up to the federal government to take care of that,” Nelson said.

Other lawmakers noted that the federal government has yet to develop a nationwide set of standards for artificial intelligence and related technologies, despite a push last year by the Trump administration to scrap state-level regulation in favor of a one-size-fits-all rule.

In the face of this absence, some elected leaders in Pennsylvania have pushed their own proposals. For example, Governor Josh Shapiro has both an educational toolkit and ongoing trial against one company whose bot “posed as licensed professionals and provided medical advice.”

“Yes, it will be a challenge,” committee chairman Rep. Joe Ciresi (D-Montgomery) said of states imposing regulations on multinational companies. “Are we just going to give up because it’s going to get harder, or are we going to actually commit to it? And then when we commit to it, it doesn’t push other states to move in that direction with us because the federal government isn’t willing to act on it?”

The bill now goes to the House of Representatives for further consideration.

Natalie Javitt is an intern with the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents Association.

Middle school nurse Kacie Blum said she had nearly 12,000 visitors to her office last academic year, seeing 60 to 75 students a day.

She said Blum’s local urgent care facility sees about 35 patients a day and employs multiple physicians.

Caring for students with diabetes, cystic fibrosis and cerebral palsy, as well as working on individualized health plans and clinics, are just some of the tasks Blum deals with every day. But she said she can only provide consistent and reliable care if she has the time and ability to do so.

“There’s not a lot of room for a bathroom break, a lunch break, or planning for the administrative responsibilities that I’m supposed to have during the day,” said Blum, who received the 2025-2026 School Nurse Excellence Award for the south-central region of Pennsylvania.

Blum, who works at York Suburban Middle School in York County, was one of 20 school nurses who went to the Capitol on Tuesday to demand an update to Pennsylvania’s 75-year-old public school code, which governs nurse-to-student ratios and state funding for medical needs.

AND House bill proposed by Rep. Lisa Borowski (D-Delaware) would augment reimbursement rates and the required number of nurses per student in schools.

Currently, the code provides for one school nurse for every 1,500 students. Under Borowski’s House Bill 2285, that ratio would be cut in half, to one nurse for every 750 students, bringing it into line with CDC recommendations.

Pennsylvania reimburses public schools for health care costs through a flat-rate funding structure. The bill also seeks to augment the reimbursement rate by 30% on an average student basis to offset rising medical and service costs.

It also proposes limiting school reimbursement for providing care.

Borowski proposed the bill after meeting with Leigh Ann Coary, a school nurse in the Tredyffrin/Easttown school district, tthe hat made her concerned that the nurses were stretched too lean. Coary said on average she sometimes sees more than 100 students, making it tough to meet their individual needs and multitask.

“If I’m dealing with a medically sensitive student, I can’t be in another hallway and have an allergic reaction,” Coary said. “If I’m on the phone with a parent about a student in crisis, I can’t be running into an emergency situation at the same time. When we’re short-staffed, the question becomes, ‘Who else is waiting?’

Coary said school nurse regulations need to be updated to better reflect the unpredictability and variety of health crises students are currently experiencing.

The bill modernizes the reimbursement system instead of relying on an dated financing system, but the policy will be meaningless if staff shortages are not addressed, she added.

Coary continued that nurses need to be recruited and retained by school districts so they don’t have to employ so many students.

The shortage of nurses is a national problem felt across the country questionnaire finding a 19% vacancy rate for registered nurses in Pennsylvania hospitals.

Borowski said she expects these shortcomings will be addressed in lawmakers’ deliberations on the bill. But she said staffing rates ensure children have access to care even in the face of shortages, and increasing funding would improve care by actually covering costs.

“I don’t know how one person can meet the needs of so many students in one day,” Borowski said.

Blum said increasing reimbursement rates was more cost-effective than paying the costs of litigation if something went wrong and there weren’t enough nurses to support in an emergency.

She said Pennsylvania’s school code is archaic and written for a different era because the last update to the school health care reimbursement structure was in 1991.

“The work I do within the walls of my school spills into my students’ homes and onto the streets of their neighborhoods,” said Whitney Roach, a nurse in Philadelphia County. “School nurses are uniquely qualified and trusted to improve the health and well-being of not only schools, but entire communities.”

The House of Representatives Education Committee passed the bill party line vote in March.

Emily Scolnick is a 2026 Dow Jones News Fund intern at Pennsylvania Capital-Star.

House lawmakers are urging the state Senate to pass a bill that would allow Pennsylvania’s governing body for high school athletics to split playoffs for public and private schools.

House Bill 41First introduced by Rep. Scott Conklin (D-Center), would give Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) has the legal authority to make changes to the playoff structure.

Standard passed the House in delayed April by a 178-23 bipartisan vote and currently serves on the Senate Education Committee.

Proposed text Amends the Public School Code of 1949 to allow the PIAA to separate playoff games for border and non-border schools.

The bill “does not require PIAA to make any changes,” said Sen. Marty Flynn (D-Lackawanna), who introduced it Senate version of the billhe said. “It simply gives the organization the power to make changes.”

The legislation gained momentum this year after the boys basketball team from Old Forge High School in Lackawanna County made a historic run to the PIAA championship before losing to Sewickley Academy, a private school near Pittsburgh, prompting its principal to call for reform.

“The issue wasn’t about working harder, it wasn’t about coaching, it wasn’t about dedication,” said Chris Rasmus, a recent graduate of Old Forge High School and a member of that basketball team. “The problem is competitive balance.”

Paul Brennan, Director of Riverside School Districtstated that it is necessary to consider whether “our children [lost] to a better team from another community, or did they lose to a system that allowed one side to build differently?”

The issue of fair competition in high school sports in Pennsylvania is not novel: Conklin said that before the COVID-19 pandemic, schools outside the PIAA’s boundaries were considering forming their own league because “it has become crystal clear that the idea of ​​high school sports is to teach that we all stay at the same level.”

Several speakers emphasized that the bill is not an attack on private, religious or charter schools, but is intended to ensure equal opportunities for student-athletes across the state.

“We are here because equity and opportunity matter, and public schools and athletes matter.” Stara Kuźnia School District said Superintendent Chris Gatto.

Out-of-bounds schools currently make up 24% of PIAA members but win 57% of state titles compared to out-of-bounds schools, Gatto said. Since 2011, foreign schools have won 68% of state basketball titles.

“The current system adapts to wins and losses, it does not adapt to access to talent,” he said. “No formula will ever do this unless we are willing to honestly admit that there is a difference between the two models.”

Flynn, representing Old Forge, added that the goal of the bill is to prioritize fair and equitable competition.

“We don’t always see that the votes were unequal,” said Rep. Jim Haddock (D-Luzerne), who also represents Old Forge. “Democrats and Republicans came together to support House Bill 41 because it was not about politics, it was about students.”

Casey Scanlan, a prominent Lehigh Valley mother community organizer Supporting the bill, they said state school administrators’ associations and school boards also support the measure, along with a coalition of more than 400 superintendents from across the state.

Haddock said “PIAA is working” to ensure the bill is passed and “understood.”[s] situation.” Scanlan said that if it passes the Senate, the changes could take effect in delayed 2027 or early 2028 after a series of public hearings.

“We believe they will hear from the public what we say,” Scanlan said.

Scanlan also made a direct appeal to Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (Indiana) and Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward (Westmoreland), urging them to move the legislation through the Education Committee and consider it on the floor.

“The time has come,” he said. “The House just passed you the most bipartisan legislation you will see. Our coalition does not want to be kept waiting.”

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat.

Furious over the Philadelphia Board of Education’s vote to close several schools, City Council Education Committee Chairman Isaiah Thomas wants to consider changing the board from a mayor-appointed to an elected one.

However, this would be an extremely complicated and politically discouraging process. State lawmakers would have to pass legislation, which the governor would have to sign. The mayor would have to give up appointing board members, and voters would have to approve the change.

The move to an elected board could also strip the City Council of much of its influence over the district. That’s because these and other legal changes could ultimately give the school board the main power it currently lacks: the power to levy taxes.

Proposal from Tomasz follows a citywide outcry all around the district’s decision to close 17 schoolsto which he was vehemently opposed; he promised apply to suspend the closuresalthough no such suit has been created to date.

The highlight is his push to change the way school board members are elected long-term conflicts between various centers of political power in the city. It also raises concerns that, unlike every other school district in the state, Philadelphia residents lack direct representation when the board makes vital decisions about spending, charter school expansion, curriculum mandates, desegregation initiatives and more.

Under the current arrangement, school board members and the superintendent must go back to the mayor and council each year to insist on a portion of city taxes that would be sufficient to facilitate the district meet student needs, after many years of what the court found. there were insufficient state funding levels, which was a violation of the Pennsylvania Constitution.

This forces board members and district leaders to argue with the council over the budget every year. Even more stressful is the district’s long-standing structural deficit. For 2026-27 management just adopted budget of $4.6 billion, with cuts of $225 million to meet projections $300 million missing.

All of this means that if the school board gained its own taxing powers and could rely less on city government, “it would be a huge structural change in the way the city and the school district operate,” said Christopher McGinley, a former Philadelphia school board member who also served as superintendent in two suburban districts with elected boards.

It’s unclear what, if anything, would convince city officials to give up their current power over school funding and school board members. Last month, Thomas said that while he supports an elected school board, he does not support giving it taxing powers.

Mayor Cherelle Parker elected all nine current board members at the beginning of her term. Nominees are first verified by: Education Nominating Panelwho is also appointed by the mayor. They are then subject to the “advice and consent” of the City Council. (Board member Joyce Wilkerson was appointed by Parker but he never obtained council approvaland now serves as a “remaining” member who caused additional controversy.)

A spokesman for Parker did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

An elected school board could create modern political problems in Philadelphia even if it alleviates current ones. But some believe the existing process is insufficient to address the myriad challenges facing the district.

Lisa Haver of the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools, a longtime critic of the board, pointed out that at local hearings on the proposed school closures, almost every speaker opposed them, but to no avail. For her, Philadelphia’s elected school board is also about integrity.

“Why should every other school district in Pennsylvania have an elected board and Philadelphia shouldn’t?” she said

School boards in Pennsylvania have taxing power – except for Philly’s

The most direct impact an elected and unelected board could have on the city’s schools would be the ability to raise tax dollars.

In all of the state’s other 500 school districts, elected boards of education collect taxes from schools, while municipal and county governments raise taxes for other needs, such as infrastructure and social services. Education and citizenship governing bodies are separate entities with their own taxing powers, geographic boundaries and sources of revenue. For example, Montgomery County includes 62 municipalities and 22 school districts.

Merely moving from an appointed to an elected school board would not automatically include taxing rights. Giving the elected school board taxing powers would require a vote of the state legislature and amendments to the state school code. It would also require voters to approve changes to the education portion of the city’s 1965 Charter of Home Rule.

However, unlike other jurisdictions, Philadelphia is its own county and its own school district. This means that even if an elected school board were given the power to levy taxes by the state government and voters, it would result in the City Council and the Board of Education drawing from the same sources of tax revenue.

Richard Feder, a former legislative chief at the city’s law department, said all of these changes would mean “cutting the City Council out of the process” of school funding, likely leading to the kind of sturdy council opposition that Thomas has already expressed.

In addition to the sedate political concerns, Feder said he doesn’t think giving the elected board taxing powers is a good idea from a fiscal standpoint.

“I’ve spent my career fighting for more school funding,” Feder said, “but we shouldn’t have two competing tax authorities fighting for the same limited tax base.”

Susan Gobreski, former head of the advocacy group Education Voters PA, said Philadelphians already elect officials who fund schools. The council “is not a single-issue body” like the school board and can put all of the city’s needs into perspective, she added.

At the same time, she added, the feeling that the management board is accountable to no one is real. Gobreski said that even if the elected board lacked taxing powers, it would still be worthwhile to allow the public to elect its members so that voters could feel they had a say in choosing those responsible for education policy decisions.

Electing school board members could open Pandora’s box

But there would be another complication of changing the elected board. Feder said that to meet state requirements, Philadelphia voters would have to approve a change to the city’s charter to allow partisan elections. Otherwise, state voters would have to approve a school code amendment allowing Philadelphia to hold nonpartisan elections.

McGinley, who served on the School Reform Commission that previously ran Philadelphia schools and was superintendent at Lower Merion and Cheltenham, worries that electing school board members will open a political Pandora’s box, giving more influence to interest groups “that play their cards” on various issues.

But Elaine Simon, a retired urban planning professor at the University of Pennsylvania who is co-authoring a forthcoming book on the latest wave of school closures in 2013, said an elected board, especially one with regional representatives, would be more sensitive to the needs of different areas of the city.

“At this time, school board members do not represent the district,” she said.

Not surprisingly, Board of Education Chairman Reginald Streater is skeptical about the benefits Philadelphia would gain by electing school board members.

He said more time should pass before another major change in district management can be considered. Only this recently appeared from an even less democratic period, when a state commission ran city schools from 2001 to 2018 before ceding control to the local school board.

He emphasized that the state is moving towards adequacy of school financing after historic ruling of the Commonwealth Court, and that in Philadelphia, measures include test scores, attendance rates, and dropout rates are improving.

Conditions “are getting better… why change it now?” he said.

Chalkbeat’s Philadelphia bureau chief, Carly Sitrin, contributed to this article.

The pace of school cellphone bans has reached more than half of states as teachers, superintendents and education experts praise the policies as a way to improve student achievement and mental health and rebuild a sense of community that many say has been undermined by students’ addiction to screens.

The question now for many states and school districts is not whether to remove distracting devices from students every day, but for how long.

States that have passed laws requiring some type of cellphone policy are now considering going further and enforcing 24-hour bans, even for high school students. The idea was met with opposition from students, but also from teachers and parents, who claim that strict bans from bell to bell are not necessary. Some say they worry about safety in the event of a school shooting or other threat.

Education experts say newfangled initiatives to ban school phones have gained momentum after the pandemic changed how students apply technology and interrupted crucial in-person classroom experiences. Kara Stern, director of education and engagement at SchoolStatus, a data collection company that helps K-12 districts with attendance and other school issues, said smartphones have moved from being communication tools during remote learning to sources of isolation once students return to classrooms.

“During remote learning, phones have become the primary way children have fun and stay connected,” Stern said. “But as schools reopened, phones went from being a tool for connection to being a tool for disconnection.”

Currently, 38 states and Washington, D.C., have implemented some form of statewide restriction or requirement on districts to limit student phone apply. Of those, approximately 18 states and districts have all-day bans or comprehensive statewide restrictions (including during and outside school hours).

Despite widespread adoption and support of cell phone restrictions in schools, compliance remains uneven, according to a 2025 University of Southern California study test. Researchers found that most students continued to apply their phones during the school day, regardless of restrictions.

Still, more than half of teens surveyed said law enforcement is stricter this school year than last year.

“Teaching a class where students are on their phones is like trying to teach at Disney World over a loudspeaker,” Stern said. “The environment is not designed for learning.”

Push for broader bans

Georgia belongs to the states considering a bell-to-bell policy for all public secondary schools. This comes a year after Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed the ban for grades K-8.

Students pay attention. At East Paulding High School in Dallas, Georgia, students and teachers offered mixed views regarding bans on the apply of mobile phones. In a student-led news program that aired last fall, some students expressed concerns for their safety, while some teachers were bullish on the idea that the ban would be effective at the high school level.

Republican state representative Scott Hilton, who proposed the up-to-date law, he said Georgia Recorder that the ban for younger students helped families become accustomed to the bell-to-bell ban.

“I was amazed by the positive response from all the constituencies, teachers, administrators, parents and even in many cases students who experienced the difference and said, ‘Oh wow, I kind of like this,’” Hilton said.

Several states focus their bans on banning cell phone apply “during class time,” which does not necessarily include free time such as lunch. Kansas lawmakers do pushing forward regarding the prohibition of apply during teaching activities; this would replace previous measures that allowed local districts discretion over cell phone apply in schools. Michigan lawmakers passed a similar bill last month; it was sent on Monday to Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Similar teaching time bills were passed last year in Iowa, North Carolina and Wisconsin. In Oregon, Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek issued an executive order in July requiring all counties to adopt bell-to-bell cellphone bans by Jan. 1. Several districts said the mandate had expired better than expectedand some superintendents say they have seen more interactions between students.

Bell-to-bell cell phone restrictions are being considered or implemented in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, and New York recently introduced them. The Massachusetts bill goes further than most by adding smartphones, tablets and Bluetooth devices to the list of banned electronic devices.

Most of the regulations reviewed by Stateline include exceptions to the bans for students with special needs and emergencies.

According to a review by Education Week. Still, there were 18 shootings last year, resulting in seven deaths, the review found.

In Georgia, State Superintendent Richard Woods, a Republican, told reporters that he had heard firsthand from shooting survivors about the importance of having a cell phone on hand for safety reasons.

“Do I support this? Absolutely” – Woods he saidreferring to the ban on using mobile phones. “But I think we have to find a middle ground and not go to extremes.”

What works best?

According to Pew Research Center vote Released last summer, it found that 74% of U.S. adults support bans on cell phone apply in classrooms for middle and high school students, up from 68% in fall 2024. The poll found that significantly fewer adults (19%) oppose cell phone bans in classrooms, and 7% are unsure.

For proponents of phone-free education, the gold standard of cell phone policy is “ring-to-ring” restrictions, which involve no access to the device’s memory.

A 2025 article in JAMA Pediatrics reported that teenagers ages 13–18 spend an average of 90 minutes on their phones in school, but little has been written about what students do during this time.

“Although 99.7% of U.S. public school principals say their school has a smartphone policy, few studies have objectively examined smartphone app use in schools,” the study abstract said.

Stern said she saw firsthand the effects of “consistent bell-to-bell policy” on her own son. When his phone broke in the eighth grade, he was afraid to go to school without it. But after the first day, he returned home and told Stern that he had played soccer during recess, met up-to-date classmates and had a “really good day” – better than usual.

Kim Whitman, co-founder of Smartphone Free Childhood US, and other education experts believe cellphone bans will reflect changes in public health that have occurred in the past: like banning smoking in schools – and perhaps redefine what it means to be in a classroom post-pandemic.

“Today we cannot imagine allowing smoking in schools,” Whitman said. “I think in five to 10 years we’ll be saying the same about cell phones — wondering how we even allowed them into classrooms.”

Whitman, who studied and rated states on the effectiveness of cellphone bans, found that North Dakota and Rhode Island were the only states that deserved high marks for adopting and enforcing bell-to-bell policies.

Despite claims from adults who love no-phone politics, students are not so convinced. According to data, only 41% of teenagers support a ban on the apply of cell phones in middle and high school classrooms questionnaire published in January by the Pew Research Center.

The USC study finds that the greatest percentage of teens who like certain no-phone policies attend schools where policies allow phone apply during non-school hours.

Editor’s note: This story has been edited to correct that it was Kara Stern of SchoolStatus who told Stateline about her son’s experience with a phone-free day.

Stateline reporter Robbie Sequeira can be reached at: sequenceira@stateline.org.