Members of the House Education Committee voted Wednesday to advance a bill that requires cyber charter school students to be on camera at all times during live virtual instruction.
Democrats say they want to ensure cyber charter students, who often attend classes from home, are visible to educators watching for signs of abuse, neglect or self-harm. This comes after multiple reports were circulated about cyber charter school students who were tortured and abused at home.
In one such case, the neglect resulted in the death of a Chester County 12-year-old while she was enrolled at Commonwealth Charter Academy.
But cyber charter school leaders and proponents say they are already complying with regulations meant to keep students safe and in touch with school staff, who legally must report any suspected child abuse.
They add that the new measure should be equally applied to traditional public schools, arguing that abuse and harm aren't unique to students enrolled in virtual classes, nor are their schools the only systems that sometimes fail to keep students safe.
"There are things that happen every day, everywhere, all across Pennsylvania," said Reach Cyber Charter School CEO Jane Swan. "And it's not just because a child attended a cyber school that this happened."
Swan, whose school enrolls about 6,000 students across the commonwealth, is one of several CEOs of small and mid-sized cyber charter schools raising concerns about the on-camera legislation and other reforms targeting online charter schools.
Democrats argue that equivalent standards in state law already apply to traditional brick-and-mortar schools. They say cyber charter-specific rules must be codified due to the schools' many technical and logistical differences.
"I'm not asking them to have some sort of unruly or awkward expectation," House Education Committee chairman Rep. Pete Schweyer said during Wednesday's vote. "I want you to make sure you're seeing kids in the event they are in harm's way."
Truancy transfer prohibition
Swan and a group of seven other cyber charter school CEOs are backing a bill that would repeal existing language requiring students to be on-camera during each instructional period to be counted as present. It would also reverse a truancy transfer prohibition enacted last year.
Lawmakers included in November's state budget a provision that prohibits habitually truant students from transferring to a cyber charter school in the middle of the school year unless approved by a magisterial district judge.
Several judges told legislators last year that they sometimes see students transferring from brick-and-mortar schools to cyber schools to avoid truancy consequences. The new rule is triggered once a student accrues six or more unexcused absences.
But in the months since the provision went into effect this winter, cyber school leaders say they have been forced to turn away hundreds of students without being able to address the root causes of their absences.
Michael Leitera, CEO of PA Distance Learning Charter School, said students often seek out his school to get away from instances of bullying or mental health concerns — common drivers of chronic absenteeism.
He said these students shouldn't face additional barriers when returning to the classroom, whether that be in an online setting or in person. But since the new truancy law went into effect, PA Distance Learning Charter School, which serves 1,500 students statewide, has been forced to turn away 90 families, according to Leitera.
Leitera, former superintendent of Mohawk Area School District in Lawrence County, said he understands districts stand to lose crucial dollars when a student transfers elsewhere. State funding for Pennsylvania public schools is allocated per pupil and based on enrollment.
But he said that financial implications shouldn't come first when determining which school setting best suits a student. The new law charges magisterial district judges with making that determination.
"I think a student's best placement or best interest determination should always be what's best for the student," Leitera said. "And not 'we want to retain that student for potentially a financial reason,' versus what's best for that child."
Legislation introduced last week by Rep. Barbara Gleim of Cumberland County would end the transfer prohibition and establish a process by which parents can appeal any unexcused absence or tardiness determined by school staff.
Gleim, a Republican, has repeatedly accused Democrats of pushing a political agenda that unfairly targets cyber charter schools.
But in a statement to WESA, attorneys with the Education Law Center of Pennsylvania warned that Gleim's bill "simply eviscerates" the state's cyber charter student safety protections.
"We support legislative efforts to ensure the protection and safety of 65,000 children who are educated via cyber charter schools and who as a consequence have few consistent visual interactions with teachers and staff," Maura McInerney, the center's legal director, wrote in a statement.
McInerney added that the legislature must also address the consistently low test scores and graduation rates produced by cyber charter schools.
"We need to directly address the fact is that cyber charters are failing our students," she wrote in a statement. "This has been the case for decades while cyber charters — who don't have the same costs as brick and mortar schools — continued to drain school districts of full tuition," she said.
Financial fallout
Pittsburgh Public Schools and three other western Pennsylvania school districts are suing the state's largest cyber charter school for failing to meet academic proficiency standards.
At Commonwealth Charter Academy, just 9.1% of students are considered proficient or advanced in reading, compared to 49.9% of students statewide. In math, only 4.2% are considered proficient, compared to 41.7% statewide.
A study of Pennsylvania students found that those enrolled at cyber charter schools were significantly less likely than traditional public school students to graduate or enroll in college. Researchers note that the flexibility cyber charter schools offer may mean they enroll more students facing other educational barriers or obligations at home, such as work, parenting or chronic health issues.
Still, these dismal outcomes are among the reasons school district administrators have long pushed for changes to the state's tuition formula for cyber charter schools. School districts must pay tuition for each child residing within their geographic boundaries who chooses to attend a cyber charter school.
Many school officials applauded the legislature last year for passing a budget that included a new tuition formula for cyber students. The changes now allow school districts to deduct operation and maintenance costs, student activity expenses, and tax collection and assessment services from the rates they pay.
That's saved Pittsburgh Public Schools $11.5 million this year, according to school officials. The district budgets almost $150 million for charter school tuition payments annually.
The push for cyber charter school tuition reform picked up after a report by the state's auditor general last year found that five of Pennsylvania's largest cyber charter schools have seen their reserves more than double since 2020 to a combined $619 million.
But CEOs of the state's small and mid-sized cyber charter schools say the tuition changes, which took effect retroactively, have left them with fewer dollars than they budgeted for this school year.
Leitera with PA Distance Learning Charter School said non-essential positions vacated at his school will now remain unfilled. Malynda Maurer, who runs a cyber charter school in Altoona serving just 200 students, said that her school is dipping into its cash reserves to close the deficit without disrupting students mid-year.
Other schools, including Agora Cyber Charter School and Insight PA Cyber Charter School, authorized layoffs in the middle of the school year. Unlike traditional school districts, cyber charter schools cannot increase taxes to raise revenue when their budgets are hurting.
Leitera said his school is withdrawing $2 million a year from its reserves to cover the deficit, and he worries about more potential cuts on the way.
"That gives you a life cycle for a school of anywhere between the next four years or six years being gone," he said.
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