PA Governor Wolf Signs Act 1 of 2022

By William J. Zee & Megan E. Bomba

January 28,2022

Governor Tom Wolf signed into law Act 1 of 2022 yesterday, aimed at helping students who have experienced educational instability in the transition to a new school. Educational instability is defined as “one or more changes in school entity enrollment during a single school year as a result of homelessness, adjudication or changes in placement or custody.”

Beginning with the 2021-2022 school year, schools must offer accommodations to students to ensure that their transition to a new school is simplified. Accommodations will include establishing a point of contact for the student, developing policies to transfer credits earned at a previous school, and allowing the student to be involved in extracurriculars upon enrollment.

Act 1 also addresses how the established point of contact should work with school counselors and the student’s IEP or 504 team to facilitate placement of the student in appropriate courses and connect the student to educational necessary resources. The point of contact is charged with gathering the educational records from the previous school and creating a graduation plan for high school-aged students.

The Act focuses on timely graduation, and being proactive in finding ways to help students who have experienced educational instability meet the requirements either at a previous school or the new one. The Act offers a secondary school diploma, known as the Keystone Diploma, that may be granted to students who cannot obtain a traditional diploma from a receiving school entity and exhausted other available options to obtain a diploma from a prior school.

The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) has 180 days to issue guidelines and best practices to assist school entities in implementing Act 1. The Appel, Yost & Zee Education Group will continue to update clients on guidelines and expectations from PDE regarding Act 1.

Should you have any questions regarding Act 1 of 2022 or any other student service-related questions, please do not hesitate to contact William J. Zee or any of the attorneys in the Appel, Yost & Zee Education Group.