Laws, Regulations, Policies & Guidelines

Purdon’s Statutes – Purdon’s Pennsylvania Statutes is an unofficial consolidation of the statutes of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In 2007, the Pennsylvania General Assembly struck a deal with Thomson West (now Thompson Reuters) to post an unofficial version of the statutes for free online, making it the last state to freely provide its statutes online. Title 24 of Purdon’s Statutes addresses Education. Note that Purdon’s Pennsylvania Statutes is the Commonwealth’s statutory code, and contains statutes passed by the Pennsylvania General Assembly. See the PA Code below for the Commonwealth’s administrative code which contains regulations created by PA’s state agencies.

Public School Code of 1949 – Relating to the public school system, including certain provisions applicable as well to private and parochial schools; amending, revising, consolidating and changing the laws relating thereto. The Public School Code is frequently modified by actions of the General Assembly.
PA Code & Bulletin The Pennsylvania Code is the Commonwealth’s administrative code, and contains regulations created by Pennsylvania state agencies. Title 22 of the PA Code deals with Education.

Basic Education Circulars (BECS) – The PA Department of Education publishes these circulars to provide guidance on implementing statutes, regulations and policies.

Federal Education Law Resources – Federal involvement in public education is relatively limited in terms of policy and funding. However, major education legislation has a substantial impact on how schools operate, especially considering the role of the Elementary and Secondary Educations Act or ESEA [referred to in the past as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and currently as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA].

Standards Aligned System – PDE’s Standards Aligned System (SAS) website includes information pertaining to state academic standards, curriculum, instruction, assessment, and educator effectiveness (standards & evaluation)

Independent Regulatory Review Commission – IRRC’s goal is to make the regulatory review process easily understandable and accessible. The regulatory review process provides opportunities for the public to share their views about regulations before they go into effect. The website includes searchable databases including regulations, pubic comments, and more.