Section 1723-F.1 - Department of Education.The following shall apply to appropriations to the Department of Education:
(1) From money appropriated for general government operations, no less than $1,500,000 shall be used for an educational and professional development online course initiative. The department shall establish a central online clearinghouse in accordance with the Public School Code of 1949, which shall include an online database of online courses for students in grades K-12 and online professional development courses, and to make the clearinghouse accessible to school entities, nonpublic schools, home education programs and the general public.(2) From money appropriated for the Pre-K Counts Program, the per-student grant award amount for grants made pursuant to section 1514-D of the Public School Code of 1949 shall be increased by 14.3% over the amount paid in fiscal year 2021-2022.(3) From an appropriation for adult and family literacy programs, summer reading programs and the adult high school diplomas program. The following apply:(i) no less than the amount allocated in the 2014-2015 fiscal year shall be allocated for an after-school learning program servicing low-income students located in a county of the sixth class with a population, based on the most recent Federal decennial census, of at least 60,000 but not more than 70,000; and(ii) no less than the amount allocated in the 2016-2017 fiscal year shall be used for an after-school learning program servicing low-income students located in a county of the third class with a population, based on the most recent Federal decennial census, of at least 320,000 but not more than 321,000.(4) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the appropriation for pupil transportation may not be redirected for any purpose.(5) From money appropriated for Pennsylvania Chartered Schools for Deaf and Blind Children, the following apply: (i) Upon distribution of the final tuition payment for the fiscal year, the balance of the appropriation, excluding amounts under subparagraph (ii), shall be used to pay the schools' increased share of required contributions for public school employees' retirement and shall be distributed pro rata based on each school's contributions for the prior fiscal year.(ii) $1,000,000 is included for capital-related costs and deferred maintenance to be divided equally between each approved private school.(6) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the amount of money set aside under section 2509.8 of the Public School Code of 1949 shall be allocated to each approved private school with a day tuition rate determined to be less than $32,000 during the 2010-2011 school year. The allocation shall be no less than the amount allocated in the 2015-2016 fiscal year.(7) Money appropriated for regional community college services shall be distributed to each entity that received funding in fiscal year 2019-2020 in an amount equal to the amount it received in that fiscal year and a pro rata share of $85,000.(8) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, money appropriated for community education councils shall be distributed in a manner that each community education council which received funding in fiscal year 2021-2022 shall receive an amount equal to the amount it received in that fiscal year and a pro rata share of $96,000. Added by P.L. TBD 2022 No. 54, § 37, eff. 7/11/2022.