PRINTER'S NO. 4213
No. 3073 Session of 1994
INTRODUCED BY STAIRS, HERMAN, THOMAS, SCHULER, GRUPPO, CORRIGAN,
GEIST, RAYMOND, PETRONE, SAYLOR, HENNESSEY, WOZNIAK, FARGO,
PETTIT, BOYES, HANNA, B. SMITH, MICOZZIE, BARLEY,
E. Z. TAYLOR, FAJT, TRELLO, HERSHEY, RUBLEY, WAUGH, DEMPSEY,
TOMLINSON, MILLER, PLATTS, STEELMAN AND MERRY,
SEPTEMBER 28, 1994
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION, SEPTEMBER 28, 1994
AN ACT
1 Establishing a program to encourage school entities to provide
2 certain cooperative services; providing additional powers and
3 duties of the Department of Education; and making an
4 appropriation.
5 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
6 hereby enacts as follows:
7 Section 1. Short title.
8 This act shall be known and may be cited as the School
9 Incentive Funding Act.
10 Section 2. Definitions.
11 The following words and phrases when used in this act shall
12 have the meanings given to them in this section unless the
13 context clearly indicates otherwise:
14 "Department." The Department of Education of the
15 Commonwealth.
16 "Disruptive student program." Any program which removes
17 disruptive students from regular school programs in order to
1 provide those students with an educational program designed to
2 modify disruptive behavior and return the students to a regular
3 school program.
4 "School entity." A school district, intermediate unit, area
5 vocational-technical school and a joint operating board of a
6 school.
7 "Secretary." The Secretary of Education of the Commonwealth.
8 Section 3. Establishment of program.
9 There is hereby established a program to provide short-term
10 incentive grants to encourage school entities to provide
11 cooperative services for education programs. This program shall
12 provide incentive funding for cooperative services that generate
13 savings for school entities.
14 Section 4. Procedure.
15 (a) Application form.--The department shall develop an
16 application form for funding within 60 days of the effective
17 date of this act.
18 (b) Submission.--Applications shall be submitted by a
19 consortium of school entities or by an intermediate unit on
20 behalf of more than one of its constituent districts.
21 Applications under this program shall be submitted to the
22 department for approval or disapproval by April 1 of the year
23 preceding the year for which funding is requested.
24 (c) Approval.--The department shall have 90 days to approve
25 or disapprove the application. The department's approval or
26 disapproval shall include a review of the estimated costs and
27 savings of the program, with priority for approval for
28 applications which maximize cost savings for school entities.
29 The department is authorized to negotiate the costs of the
30 program with the school entities prior to approving the
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1 application. Failure to approve or disapprove an application
2 within this time period shall be deemed to constitute approval
3 of the application.
4 (d) Exclusions.--Applications shall not be approved for
5 programs providing instruction in special education and
6 vocational education, for services for students attending
7 nonpublic schools, other than transportation to nonpublic
8 schools as provided under section 1361 of the act of March 10,
9 1949 (P.L.30, No.14), known as the Public School Code of 1949,
10 or for programs for disruptive students.
11 Section 5. Funding.
12 (a) Calculation.--School entities shall be reimbursed the
13 amount of the incentive grants in September of the fiscal year
14 following the cooperative program. Reimbursement shall be paid
15 in the following manner:
16 (1) For the first year of the program, the participating
17 school entities shall receive 10% of the program costs of the
18 participating entities.
19 (2) For the second year of the program, the
20 participating school entities shall receive 5% of the program
21 costs of the participating entities.
22 (3) For the third year of the program, the participating
23 school entities shall receive 2.5% of the costs of the
24 participating entities.
25 (b) Division of reimbursement.--The participating entities
26 shall determine the division of the reimbursement among the
27 entities in the application submitted to the department.
28 However, a school entity which drops out of a cooperative
29 program shall no longer receive incentive funding. Funding shall
30 not be used by school entities for planning purposes.
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1 Section 6. Report.
2 The secretary shall file a report with the chairman and the
3 minority chairman of the Education Committee of the Senate and
4 the chairman and minority chairman of the Education Committee of
5 the House of Representatives by October 1 of the year in which
6 the cooperative services are provided.
7 Section 7. Appropriation.
8 The sum of $10,000,000, or as much thereof as may be
9 necessary, is hereby appropriated to the Department of Education
10 for the purposes of this act for the 1995-1996 fiscal year.
11 Section 8. Effective date.
12 This act shall take effect July 1, 1995.
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