PRINTER'S NO. 2944
No. 2155 Session of 1984
INTRODUCED BY E. Z. TAYLOR, BATTISTO, BOWSER, ARTY, HALUSKA,
BUNT, COY, AFFLERBACH, JOHNSON, HERMAN, FATTAH, GREENWOOD,
SEMMEL, FISCHER AND SALVATORE, MAY 14, 1984
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION, MAY 14, 1984
AN ACT
1 Relating to admissions policies of the State System of Higher
2 Education; and prohibiting the use of certain admission
3 criteria which may adversely affect handicapped individuals.
4 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
5 hereby enacts as follows:
6 Section 1. Definitions.
7 The following words and phrases when used in this act shall
8 have the meanings given to them in this section unless the
9 context clearly indicates otherwise:
10 "Board of Governors." The Board of Governors of the State
11 System of Higher Education.
12 "Director." The Director of the Office for Civil Rights of
13 the United States Department of Education.
14 Section 2. Responsibility of the universities.
15 In administering its admissions policies, no university of
16 the State System of Higher Education may make use of a test or
17 criterion for admission that has a disproportionate adverse
18 effect on handicapped persons unless the test or criterion, as
1 used by the university, has been validated as a predictor of
2 success in the education program or activity in question and
3 alternate tests or criteria that have a less disproportionate
4 adverse effect are not shown by the director to be available in
5 compliance with section 504 of the act of September 26, 1973
6 (Public Law 93-112, 29 U.S.C. § 701 et seq.), as amended.
7 Section 3. Responsibility of the Board of Governors.
8 The Board of Governors shall ensure that admission tests are:
9 (1) Selected and administered so as to best ensure that,
10 when a test is administered to an applicant who has a
11 handicap that impairs sensory, manual or speaking skills, the
12 test results accurately reflect the applicant's aptitude or
13 achievement level or whatever other factor the test purports
14 to measure rather than the applicant's impaired sensory,
15 manual or speaking skills, except where those skills are the
16 factors that the test purports to measure.
17 (2) If designed for persons with impaired sensory,
18 manual or speaking skills, offered as often and in as timely
19 a manner as are other admissions tests.
20 (3) Administered in facilities that, on the whole, are
21 accessible to handicapped persons.
22 Section 4. Effective date.
23 This act shall take effect January 1, 1985.
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