HARRISBURG – The PA House approved legislation that would enhance required training courses for elected school board officials. Currently, the Department of Education is responsible for delivering the training to elected school board officials. House Bill 1743 would allow professional organizations to implement the required training. Newly elected or appointed school directors would be required to complete, during the first year of the school director’s first term, a training program made available by PDE in consultation with a statewide organization that represents at least 75% of school boards, has experience providing training that meets the requirements, and has acted as a statewide provider for at least three years. The training program consists of at least five hours of instruction, including information regarding instruction and academic programs, best practices related to trauma-informed approaches, personnel, fiscal management, operations, governance, and ethics and open meetings. The statewide education organization also would recommend quality alternative training programs to PDE that fulfill the requirements. The bill moves to the state Senate.
