Jun. 27, 2015
HARRISBURG – In an effort to conserve valuable resources and staff time in Pennsylvania’s public schools, the House voted in favor of a measure Rep. Rosemary M. Brown (R-Monroe/Pike) introduced which would require the State Board of Education, in consultation with a newly created advisory committee, to identify and report on all unnecessary data reporting requirements on public schools.
Brown’s
House Bill 1112 would amend the Public School Code to require the state board to establish an advisory committee to identify and issue a report regarding redundant, overly burdensome, or unnecessary public school entity data collection requirements.
“Reporting obligations take up a lot of staff time and resources in our public schools,” Brown said. “This bill is the first step to begin to free public schools from unnecessary reporting requirements, so they can devote more resources to their primary mission-educating and serving our children. Our schools have asked for help in this manner and I do believe we can effectuate real change once we garner the detailed information.”
Additionally, this legislation would require Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) to suspend all unnecessary reporting requirements not required by state law or regulation. It would also prohibit the department from resuming the collection of any data subject to a recent reporting obligation eliminated under this bill.
“This proposal would require the state board to consult with the advisory committee, comprised of public school business managers, the majority and minority chairmen of the House and Senate Education Committees (or designees), the Secretary of Education (or a designee) and citizens of this Commonwealth, to identify public school reporting obligations that are no longer necessary in the areas of finance, human resources, food services, transportation, child accounting, athletics, health and special education, and publish a list of such unnecessary reporting requirements in the Pennsylvania Bulletin,” Brown explained.
No federal law currently falls under the purview of this legislation. House Bill 1112 has been sent to the Senate for its consideration.
For more information about this legislation, or any state-related issue, contact Brown’s district office in East Stroudsburg located at 696 Seven Bridge Road, Suite 101, by calling 570-420-8301. Information can also be found on online at
RepBrown.com or
Facebook.com/RepRosemaryBrown.
Representative Rosemary M. Brown
189th District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Krisinda Corbin
KCorbin@pahousegop.com
RepBrown.com /
Facebook.com/RepRosemaryBrown