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Pennsylvania House of Representatives
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=H&SPick=20190&cosponId=27862
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House of Representatives
Session of 2019 - 2020 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: January 18, 2019 03:25 PM
From: Representative David H. Zimmerman
To: All House members
Subject: Private Academic Schools Act (Prior HB 857 – 17/18 Session)
 
In the near future, I plan to reintroduce legislation (prior HB 857) that would amend the Private Academic Schools Act of 1988 to permit the licensure of online schools.

Private Academic Schools are state licensed private schools which enroll tuition paying students. Currently the State Board of Private Academic Schools is only given the statutory power to license so called “brick and mortar” schools with physical classrooms. My legislation provides for a definition of an “online school”, which shall not include a cyber-charter school, and amends the definition of a “private academic school” to include online schools. My bill further amends certain requirements in the act to accommodate the inclusion of online schools, which are unique due to their lack of any school building or physical classrooms. The bill also requires the State Board of Private Academic Schools to promulgate, within 18 months, any rules, regulations, policies, principles and standards necessary to provide for the inclusion of online schools in the act, and it prohibits the Board from issuing a license to an online school until those rules, regulations, policies, principles and standards are in effect.

In this new era of education where the progression of technology has made online instruction increasingly prevalent, I believe it is necessary to modernize our state laws to account for and accommodate the advent of online schools.

Please join me in sponsoring this legislation. Thank you for your consideration.



Introduced as HB868