Pennsylvania State Capitol. Photo credit: Zack Frank/Shutterstock.com

As children in Pennsylvania gear up for a new school year, Pennsylvania's General Assembly has proposed multiple school-specific legislation in recent memoranda. The reforms range from extending flexible instructional days, mandating PFOS and PFOA chemical testing in schools to prohibiting certain aspects of school district superintendents' contracts.

State Rep. Kristin Hill, R-York, proposed codifying the Flexible Instructional Days, a program that allows teachers to upload assignments to the internet and students receive and complete those assignments online on a day when the school building is closed for inclement weather but the students are still completing assignments and it's considered a school day. The program was seen by supporters as offering greater flexibility to schools and preventing snow days from affecting the start of summer vacations.

Hill represents York County, a county with multiple districts that participated in Flexible Instructional Days, according to a media report.

The Pennsylvania Department of Education approved the program for a three-year trial in 2014. Currently the program hasn't been renewed.

Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Montgomery, said she'll introduce legislation requiring the testing of perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in school buildings. Certain quantities of exposure to PFOS and PFOA may result in cancer, liver damage and a host of other physical ailments, according to Dean's memo.

Dean said her legislation would require school districts to test for PFOS and PFOA in buildings at the start of every school year. If test results show PFOA or PFOS levels above five parts per trillion, the school district would be required to notify parents and guardians, provide an alternative source of water and submit a remediation plan to the Department of Education and Environmental Protection, according to her posed legislation.

Rep. Brad Roae, R-Crawford, also seeks to make changes to Pennsylvania's schools, specifically the contracts of school districts' superintendents.

Roae issued a memo stating his goal to ban any school district superintendent that has quit, no longer is employed or was fired or forced to resign to receive any compensation after their resignation.

He also seeks to prohibit school district superintendents from having more paid sick and personal days than teachers are allotted in their union contracts, along with other provisions. No former superintendent of the school district could serve as an acting superintendent or consultant, or perform any paid services for the district, based on Roae's proposed measure.

— Victoria Hudgins, of the Law Weekly •