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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2015 - 2016
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | May 16, 2016 02:08 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Duane D. Milne |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Regulatory Flexibility/Creating Act 48 credit carryover |
| On Wednesday, May 18, I plan to introduce legislation to support educators in the pursuit of professional education hours that help sustain excellent teaching. Specifically, this legislation will allow regulatory flexibility by creating a carryover provision of professional education hours under qualifying circumstances. Pursuant to Act 48 of 1999, the Public School Code requires professional educators to complete 180 hours of continuing professional education every 5 years. A professional educator may satisfy the Act 48 requirement through completion of 6 college credits, 6 credits of continuing professional education courses, 180 hours of continuing professional education programs, activities or learning experiences, or any combination of these equivalent to 180 hours. My proposed legislation will allow an educator who has completed more than the required number of continuing professional education hours (for a given five year compliance period) to carry over up to 50 excess professional education hours, or their credit equivalent, earned during the final two years of the educator’s compliance period. These hours would be applied to the educator’s next succeeding compliance period. My legislation seeks to reward those educators who make a significant investment in professional enrichment in the latter stage of an Act 48 compliance period by permitting a portion of that investment to apply to their next succeeding compliance period. These situations can happen, as examples, because of the design of certain university curricula or due to the timing of when professional education opportunities arise. By limiting the total hours eligible for carryover, my legislation honors the intent of Act 48 by ensuring that educators will have to continue to participate in professional education activities during each five year compliance period. Further, Act 48 will hold true to its primary purpose of enhancing the professional knowledge and skills of Pennsylvania educators, thereby boosting excellence in the Commonwealth’s classrooms. |
Introduced as HB2082