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Last Friday night, the Pennsylvania Senate unanimously passed Senate Bill 664, “Optional Year of Education Due to COVID-19; and yesterday, Governor Wolf signed the bill into law.

• This bill allows an additional school year for students aging out (21 years old) of special education.
• The bill also includes the option for any K-12 students to repeat their 2020-2021 school year.

The Pennsylvania Department of Education will be sharing more information in the days ahead, and Achieva will provide that information as it becomes available. For more information and to discuss your family’s situation with an Achieva advocate, please call 412.995.5000 x486 or email advocacyassistance@achieva.info.

Also, the House and Senate passed the 2021-2022 FY State Budget, Senate Bill 255, and the accompanying fiscal codes. It is a $37.8 billion budget and is an 11.13 percent increase over FY 2020-2021. Governor Wolf signed the budget bills yesterday. More specific information will be available in the next few days. However, of importance to the intellectual disability community:

• The Intellectual Disability (ID) Community Waiver line item will provide enough funding for an additional 832 individuals off the Emergency Waiting list. 732 individuals will receive a Community Living waiver, and 100 individuals will receive a Consolidated Waiver.
• Special Education received a $50 million increase in funding.
• Early Intervention (Birth-3) providers will receive a three percent increase through the American Rescue Plan funds.

We will provide more information regarding how additional American Rescue Plan funding will be allocated when information becomes available.

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