In charter schools, further providing for enrollee wellness checks.
Summary
SB 927 amends the Public School Code’s cyber charter school “enrollee wellness checks” requirement. Under current law, cyber charter schools must ensure that each enrolled student is visibly seen and communicated with in real time at least once during any week with at least three full or partial days of academic instruction, for the purpose of confirming the student’s well-being and verifying participation. This bill keeps that weekly check-in requirement but clarifies that the student must be able to be visibly seen and communicated with in real time by a teacher, administrator, or other school representative, either in person or electronically.
The bill also specifies that the requirement may be satisfied when students turn on a webcam during synchronous online instruction. The measure would take effect 60 days after enactment. In practical terms, the bill narrows and clarifies how cyber charter schools may comply with wellness checks, making webcam-based participation an explicit method of meeting the statutory standard.
Impact
SB 927 would amend Section 1748.1-A(a) of the Public School Code of 1949, which governs cyber charter school enrollee wellness checks. It would not create a new program, but would refine existing compliance rules for cyber charter schools by expressly allowing webcam use during synchronous instruction to satisfy the real-time visibility requirement. The bill affects cyber charter schools, their students, and school staff responsible for attendance, participation monitoring, and student welfare verification.
Sentiment
The available voting history suggests generally favorable committee support, with the Senate Education Committee reporting the bill as committed by a 10-1 vote. No committee transcript excerpts are available, so there is no recorded floor or committee debate to indicate broader public arguments. The strong committee vote suggests the bill was viewed as a relatively technical clarification rather than a major policy overhaul.
Contention
The main point of potential contention is the balance between student privacy/comfort and the state’s interest in verifying attendance and well-being in cyber charter settings. Supporters likely view the bill as a practical clarification that gives schools a clear, workable compliance option through webcam participation. Any opposition appears limited in the available record, but the 10-1 committee vote indicates at least one member had reservations, possibly about the intrusiveness of requiring students to be visibly seen in real time or about the broader oversight of cyber charter schools.
In preliminary provisions, providing for Cyber Charter School Funding and Policy Council and furthe r providing for advertising and sponsorships; in pupils and attendance, further providing for exceptional children and education and training; in charter schools, further providing for definitions, for funding for cyber charter schools, for powers and duties of department and for assessment and evaluation, providing for fund balance limits, further providing for cyber charter school requirements and prohibitions, providing for cyber charter school fund balance accountability, further providing for establishment of cyber charter school, for cyber charter school application, for enrollment and notification, for enrollee wellness checks and for applicability of other provisions of this act and of other acts and regulations and providing for cyber charter school moratorium; and, in reimbursements by Commonwealth and between school districts, further providing for extraordinary special education program expenses.