On July 13, 2016, the General Assembly enacted changes to the continuing education provisions of section 1205.2 of the Public School Code, 24 P.S. § 12-1205.2.  Section 1205.2 was amended to include subsection (n.2), which permits a professional educator to carry forward into the next compliance period up to 50 hours of continuing professional education credits obtained during the final two years of the educator’s compliance period that are in excess of the required 180 credit hours for the current compliance period. In light of these changes, the Department is providing this initial guidance to address preliminary questions related to the new statutory provision.

The provisions of section 1205.2(n.2) are applicable to both Act 48 continuing education credit hours and Act 45 PIL credit hours required for school and system leaders.  Any professional educator or school or system leader who had an open compliance period on or after July 13, 2016, and has allowable carry over credit hours in accordance with section 1205.2(n.2) may have up to 50 excess credit hours applied to the succeeding compliance period.  Section 1205.2(n.2) is not retroactive to any compliance period that closed prior to July 13, 2016.

The Department will publish FAQs to address practical issues and common questions related to section 1205.2(n.2). Changes to PERMS will be made to implement the attribution of any excess credit hours for educators who have allowable carry over credit hours. The Department expects to implement this function in the fall of 2016.  Educators should be able to view any allowable carry over credits in their PERMS record on or after January 1, 2017.

If you have any questions related to the application of Act 48 carry over credits please send your questions to RA-edact48@pa.gov or if you have questions related to Act 45 carry over credits, please contact Carla Wilson at  c-cwilson@pa.gov or call 717.346.7112.