Education (Curriculum)

in committee · Pennsylvania · House Jan 27, 2025

HB 332: An Act amending the act of March 10, 1949 (P.L.30, No.14), known as the Public School Code of 1949, in terms and courses of study, providing for media literacy education.

HB 332 requires Pennsylvania public schools (K-12) to incorporate media literacy education into their curriculum starting the school year after the law takes effect. The state Department of Education must develop an age-appropriate model curriculum within six months, covering skills like identifying bias, recognizing misinformation, understanding media influence, and evaluating messages. School districts must adopt this curriculum, and the state will provide free resources and teacher training through public websites. This law directly affects all Pennsylvania public school students and educators by mandating concrete media literacy instruction.

Topics ✓ EducationSupports EducationMandates media literacy curriculum integration for K-12, enhancing student critical thinking and media evaluation skills per bill requirements.95% confidence

Sub-Topics Curriculum K-12 Education Teachers

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in committee · Pennsylvania · House Feb 12, 2025

HB 606: An Act amending the act of March 10, 1949 (P.L.30, No.14), known as the Public School Code of 1949, in terms and courses of study, providing for early human life development education.

HB 606 requires Pennsylvania public and private schools to integrate "early human life development education" into biology courses starting in the 2025-2026 school year. This mandates including specific ultrasound videos showing fetal development at 8, 12, 17, 22, 27, 32, and 37 weeks' gestation, plus a computer-generated animation of fertilization and prenatal development stages. The bill applies to all school entities (districts, charters, cyber charters) and directly affects all K-12 students in Pennsylvania. It amends the 1949 Public School Code to standardize this curriculum component within existing biology requirements.

Topics ✓ EducationSupports EducationMandates specific curriculum content (early human life development) in K-12 biology, directly addressing educational curriculum standards.95% confidence

Sub-Topics Curriculum K-12 Education

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in committee · Pennsylvania · Senate Jan 22, 2025

SB 59: An Act amending the act of March 10, 1949 (P.L.30, No.14), known as the Public School Code of 1949, in community colleges, further providing for definitions, for powers and duties of State Board of Education and for degrees.

SB 59 clarifies Pennsylvania's definition of "community college" to explicitly include programs like career training, college-parallel courses, and credit courses for high school students. It grants the State Board of Education authority to set mandatory standards for community college facilities, curriculum, faculty qualifications, student enrollment, and degree requirements. The bill also requires the State Board to prescribe all types of diplomas and certificates awarded by community colleges and permits them to offer nursing bachelor's degrees to students with associate's in nursing. This directly affects community colleges and their students across Pennsylvania.

Topics ✓ EducationSupports EducationClarifies community college definition to include career training/high school courses, mandates State Board standards for curriculum/faculty, and requires diploma/certificate prescriptions, expanding access and strengthening educational standards.95% confidence

Sub-Topics Curriculum Higher Education K-12 Education

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in committee · Pennsylvania · Senate Jun 23, 2025

SB 700: An Act amending the act of March 10, 1949 (P.L.30, No.14), known as the Public School Code of 1949, in evidence-based reading instruction, further providing for definitions and for evidence-based reading instruction curriculum and providing for reading screening, for reading deficiency and identification, for school entity duties and reading intervention plan, for parent notification, for grants to school entities, for funding and for reporting; and establishing the Evidence-based Reading Instruction Restricted Account.

SB 700 requires Pennsylvania public schools to adopt research-backed reading curricula aligned with the science of reading, beginning with the 2026-2027 school year. It mandates schools to use approved reading screeners to identify early literacy struggles, develop intervention plans for struggling students, and notify parents about their child’s reading progress. The bill creates a state list of approved curricula and screeners, overseen by a 20-member Reading Leadership Council including teachers and specialists, and requires schools to report adoption and screening data. Schools must also provide free, required professional development for educators on evidence-based reading instruction and intervention methods. This directly affects all K-3 public school students, their teachers, and parents through updated curriculum, screening, and intervention requirements.

Topics ✓ EducationSupports EducationMandates evidence-based reading curricula, establishes dedicated funding account, and requires literacy intervention plans to improve student outcomes in K-12 education.95% confidence

Sub-Topics Curriculum

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in committee · Pennsylvania · House Feb 20, 2025

HB 666: An Act amending the act of March 10, 1949 (P.L.30, No.14), known as the Public School Code of 1949, in terms and courses of study, providing for learning loss plans.

HB 666 requires Pennsylvania's Department of Education to create model guidelines for schools to address learning loss after disruptions like pandemics, natural disasters, or strikes causing five or more days of school closure or remote instruction. Starting with the 2026-2027 school year, school districts, charter schools, and other school entities must submit remediation plans that include in-person instruction and specific strategies such as tutoring, extended school days, or additional instructional days. These plans must cover the number of days lost to the disruption (or the rest of the school year, whichever is shorter) and follow the state's model guidelines. The bill directly affects all public and charter schools in Pennsylvania and the Department of Education, which must develop and distribute the guidelines by July 2026.

Topics ✓ EducationSupports EducationMandates remediation plans for learning loss after disruptions, requiring specific strategies like tutoring and extended days to strengthen student recovery efforts.95% confidence

Sub-Topics Curriculum

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in committee · Pennsylvania · Senate Mar 21, 2025

SB 479: An Act amending the act of March 10, 1949 (P.L.30, No.14), known as the Public School Code of 1949, in terms and courses of study, providing for moment of silence on January 6 anniversary.

SB 479 requires Pennsylvania public schools to observe a moment of silence during instructional hours on January 6 each year to honor those injured or killed in the 2021 Capitol insurrection. It directs the state Department of Education to develop a model curriculum about the January 6 events (including historical context, the attack, government response, and post-January 6 challenges) within 12 months, and to make this resource available online. School districts, charter schools, and other "school entities" are not required to adopt or use this curriculum. The bill applies to all public schools in Pennsylvania and takes effect immediately.

Topics ✓ EducationSupports EducationMandates model curriculum on January 6 events, enhancing K-12 educational content and historical context in schools.90% confidence

Sub-Topics Curriculum School Safety

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in committee · Pennsylvania · House Apr 23, 2025

HB 1288: An Act amending the act of March 10, 1949 (P.L.30, No.14), known as the Public School Code of 1949, in terms and courses of study, providing for foreign language.

HB 1288 requires Pennsylvania public schools to provide foreign language instruction for all students in kindergarten through grade twelve starting in the 2026-2027 school year. The state Department of Education must develop a toolkit and curriculum guidelines for teaching foreign languages by that time. School districts will then create their own foreign language programs using this state-developed resource, with flexibility to choose a language that aligns with their community's demographics.

Topics ✓ EducationSupports EducationMandates foreign language curriculum expansion for all K-12 students, requiring state-developed resources to enhance educational programming and access.95% confidence

Sub-Topics Curriculum K-12 Education

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in committee · Pennsylvania · House Jun 30, 2025

HB 1680: An Act amending the act of March 10, 1949 (P.L.30, No.14), known as the Public School Code of 1949, in terms and courses of study, providing for proposed curriculum changes and online curriculum availability.

HB 1680 requires school entities (including districts, charter schools, and cyber charters) to follow specific processes for curriculum changes and increase public access to course materials. It mandates that school boards present proposed curriculum changes at a regular meeting and cannot approve them until the next meeting. Starting in the 2026-2027 school year, schools must post online links to primary course resources, syllabi, and state standards within 30 business days of updates, without violating copyright laws. The bill applies to all public and private schools covered under Pennsylvania's Public School Code.

Topics ✓ EducationSupports EducationMandates public access to course materials/syllabi and requires deliberate curriculum change processes, enhancing transparency and accessibility per education topic indicators.95% confidence

Sub-Topics Curriculum

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in committee · Pennsylvania · House Mar 3, 2025

HB 793: An Act amending the act of March 10, 1949 (P.L.30, No.14), known as the Public School Code of 1949, in terms and courses of study, further providing for Holocaust, genocide and human rights violations instruction.

HB 793 requires Pennsylvania public schools to post primary resources and course summaries about Holocaust, genocide, and human rights violations instruction on their public websites by the 2026-2027 school year. It directs the Pennsylvania Department of Education to develop curriculum guidelines within 12 months, encouraging coverage of Holocaust history, global genocides (like Rwanda), human rights violations, and anti-Semitism. The bill applies to all school entities (districts, charter schools, technical schools) and mandates transparency without requiring new content. The guidelines must specify minimum instructional time and be posted online, while respecting intellectual property rights.

Topics ✓ EducationSupports EducationMandates Holocaust/genocide curriculum requirements and resource posting, enhancing educational content per PA Code without restrictions or funding cuts.95% confidence

Sub-Topics Curriculum

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in committee · Pennsylvania · House Mar 3, 2025

HB 792: An Act amending the act of March 10, 1949 (P.L.30, No.14), known as the Public School Code of 1949, in terms and courses of study, further providing for Holocaust, genocide and human rights violations instruction.

HB 792 amends Pennsylvania's Public School Code to require the State Board of Education to collect data on how schools teach Holocaust, genocide, and human rights violations. Starting after the 2025-2026 school year, the State Board must annually request schools to report on whether they offer such instruction, the curriculum used, teacher training participation, and details like grade levels and instructional hours. Every five years, the State Board must issue a report to the Governor, Education Secretary, and legislative education committee chairs, including statistics on school participation and recommendations for improvement. The bill does not mandate specific curriculum content but establishes a reporting system to track existing educational practices.

Topics ✓ EducationSupports EducationMandates curriculum requirements for Holocaust/genocide education and annual data collection, advancing educational content standards in K-12 schools.92% confidence

Sub-Topics Curriculum Teachers

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