PRINTER'S NO. 196
No. 156 Session of 2007
INTRODUCED BY RHOADES, WONDERLING, RAFFERTY, BOSCOLA, FONTANA,
WOZNIAK AND KITCHEN, MARCH 6, 2007
REFERRED TO EDUCATION, MARCH 6, 2007
AN ACT
1 Amending the act of March 10, 1949 (P.L.30, No.14), entitled "An
2 act relating to the public school system, including certain
3 provisions applicable as well to private and parochial
4 schools; amending, revising, consolidating and changing the
5 laws relating thereto," further providing for dates and times
6 of school terms and sessions.
7 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
8 hereby enacts as follows:
9 Section 1. Section 1504(a) of the act of March 10, 1949
10 (P.L.30, No.14), known as the Public School Code of 1949,
11 amended July 1, 1978 (P.L.575, No.105), is amended to read:
12 Section 1504. Dates and Times of School Terms and Sessions;
13 Commencement.--(a) The board of school directors of each school
14 district shall fix the date of the beginning of the school term,
15 which date shall not be earlier than the first Tuesday after
16 Labor Day. Unless otherwise determined by the board, the daily
17 session of school shall open at nine ante-meridian and close at
18 four post-meridian, with an intermission of one hour at noon,
19 and an intermission of fifteen minutes in the forenoon and in
1 the afternoon. Upon request of a board of school directors for
2 an exception to the aforesaid daily schedule, the Secretary of
3 Education may, when in his opinion a meritorious educational
4 program warrants, approve a school week containing a minimum of
5 twenty seven and one-half hours of instruction as the equivalent
6 of five (5) school days, or a school year containing a minimum
7 of nine hundred ninety hours of instruction at the secondary
8 level or nine hundred (900) hours of instruction at the
9 elementary level as the equivalent of one hundred eighty (180)
10 school days. Professional and temporary professional employes
11 shall be allowed a lunch period free of supervisory or other
12 duties of at least thirty minutes. The provisions of this
13 subsection shall not be construed to repeal any rule or
14 regulation of any board of school directors now in effect which
15 provides for a lunch period longer than the minimum prescribed
16 herein or to repeal any action of any board of school directors
17 taken in compliance with section 7 of the act of July 25, 1913
18 (P.L.1024, No.466), entitled "An act to protect the public
19 health and welfare, by regulating the employment of females in
20 certain establishments, with respect to their hours of labor and
21 the conditions of their employment; by establishing certain
22 sanitary regulations in the establishments in which they work;
23 by requiring certain abstracts and notices to be posted; by
24 providing for the enforcement of this act by the Commissioner of
25 Labor and Industry and others; by prescribing penalties for
26 violations thereof; by defining the procedure in prosecutions;
27 and by repealing all acts and parts of acts inconsistent with
28 the provisions thereof," as amended.
29 * * *
30 Section 2. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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