The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Pennsylvania
- Level
- State
- Authority
- Pa. Const. art. III; amending the Public School Code of 1949, 24 P.S. § 15-1501.8 (added)
- Issued
- 2020-03-27 Mar. 27, 2020
- Effective
- 2020-03-27 (immediately) (read as 2020-03-27)
- End
- Section 1501.8 applies to the 2019-20 school year and the period of closure; reimbursement provisions operate for that year (read as 2020-09-30)
- In force
- Mar. 27, 2020 to Sept. 30, 2020
- Quarters
- 2020 Q22020 Q3
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Schools and child careOther
- Addressees
- school entities
- school bus transportation contractors
- the Secretary and Department of Education
- Functions reached
- SB routes idled by the Mar. 13-16, 2020 closure
- OP contract renegotiation and weekly reporting
- WF complement levels preserved as a condition of payment
- CB school entities and the Department of Education
- Collection
- Passenger Transportation and Travel Services SEC-21
Operative words
(b)(1) The requirement under section 1501 requiring all school entities to be kept open each school year for at least one hundred eighty (180) instructional days is waived immediately. (2) The Secretary of Education may... (i) Order the closure of all school entities until the threat to health and safety caused by the pandemic of 2020 has ended.... (l)(1) Each school entity may renegotiate a contract for school bus transportation services to ensure contracted personnel and fixed costs, including administrative and equipment, are maintained during the period of school closure. During the period of school closure, the school bus transportation contractor shall submit weekly documentation to the school entity that its complement levels remain at or above the level on March 13, 2020, in order to continue being paid. (2) Notwithstanding any other provision of this act, if a school entity continues to pay a school bus transportation contractor or operates its own school bus transportation, the school entity shall be eligible for reimbursement from the Department of Education at a rate the school entity would have received had the pandemic of 2020 not occurred.
Enforcement
Statute; payment conditioned on weekly complement documentation; State reimbursement
Notes
The General Assembly's own description of the closure ('the period of school closure'), its grant to the Secretary of power to 'Order the closure of all school entities,' and its payment regime for idled school-bus contractors, enacted eleven days after the closure began.