Section 9-914.1-A - Contracts with private residential rehabilitative institutions; certain criteria in department audits(a) Intermediate units and local school districts shall have the power to contract with private residential rehabilitative institutions for educational services to be provided to children as part of any rehabilitative program required in conjunction with the placement of a child in any such institution or in a day treatment program of that institution pursuant to a proceeding under 42 Pa.C.S. Ch. 63 (relating to juvenile matters). (b) Reimbursement for educational services shall be determined as follows: (1) For private residential rehabilitative institutions that had five hundred (500) or fewer Pennsylvania resident full-time equivalent students in the school year 1998-1999, for school year 1999-2000 and each school year thereafter the cost of the educational services as provided in subsection (c) shall be determined under section 2561(6) of this act. The department shall promulgate audit standards which shall be used by the contracting parties in determining the actual costs which are subject to reimbursement to the private residential rehabilitative institution. The audit standards, promulgated by the department, shall specify as reasonable costs associated with the operation of the educational program offered.(2) For private residential rehabilitative institutions that had more than five hundred (500) Pennsylvania resident full-time equivalent students in the school year 1998-1999, for the school year 1999-2000 and each school year thereafter the cost shall be determined by multiplying six thousand four hundred fifty dollars and fifty-nine cents ($6,450.59) times the cumulative percentage change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers from the 1998-1999 school year, times the number of Pennsylvania resident full-time equivalent students, within the limitations of subsection (c).(3) The department shall effectuate necessary procedures for the transfer of funds from the school district of residence to the school district or intermediate unit in which the private residential rehabilitative institution is located. In effectuating the transfer of funds, the department may deduct the appropriate amount from the basic instructional subsidy of any school district which had resident students that were provided educational services by a private residential rehabilitative institution. If the school district of residence of the child cannot be determined, the costs shall be borne by the Department of Education.(c) For the purpose of this section, a "private residential rehabilitative institution" means a facility, other than one operated by a public agency, which as of December 31, 1977 provided to juveniles legally committed thereto or legally committed to a day treatment program of that institution pursuant to a proceeding under the act of December 6, 1972 (P.L. 1464, No. 333), known as the "Juvenile Act," educational services as part of a total rehabilitative package, funded, at least in part, through contractual agreements with the county of which each child is a resident, whereby the institution received from the county an amount per diem for each child legally committed thereto or legally committed to a day treatment program thereof. For the purpose of this section, educational services shall be defined as direct expenditures for instruction and the administration of the instructional program. Any expenditures not pertaining directly to instruction and the administration of the instructional program of the students shall be considered a cost of child welfare services as provided for insections 704.1 and 704.2, act of June 13, 1967 (P.L. 31, No. 21) , known as the "Public Welfare Code," and as a social service as defined in the regulations promulgated pursuant to that act. Under no circumstances shall a school district or the Department of Education be required to provide funding for programs operated in excess of one hundred eighty (180) days of instruction or nine hundred (900) hours of instruction at the elementary level or nine hundred ninety (990) hours of instruction at the secondary level during any one school year. However, nothing in this section shall be construed to alter or limit the educational rights of exceptional children.(d) A private residential rehabilitative institution shall be exempt from administrative control by the intermediate unit contracting therewith other than those controls necessary to assure the proper expenditure of funds for the maintenance of the minimum education program provided for in the contract. Such contracts shall not require compliance with this act to any extent greater than such compliance existed on the effective date of this amendatory act.1949, March 10, P.L. 30, No. 14, art. IX-A, § 914.1-A, added 1980, April 6, P.L. 86, No. 30, § 3, imd. effective. Amended 1980, June 30, P.L. 279, No. 80, § 2, imd. effective; 1982, Dec. 17, P.L. 1378, No. 316, § 3, imd. effective; 1984, June 29, P.L. 438, No. 93, § 3, imd. effective; 1988, Oct. 20, P.L. 827, No. 110, § 3, imd. effective; 1996, July 11, P.L. 633, No. 107, § 1, imd. effective; 1999, Nov. 23, P.L. 529, No. 48, § 1, imd. effective; 2001, May 17, P.L. 4, No. 4, § 2, imd. effective. Editorially renumbered from 24 P.S. § 9-964.1 in 2011.