ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A bill that would require schools to notify parents and teachers of incidents involving weapons on school grounds is heading to the governor's desk after finding a rare display of bipartisan support in the General Assembly.
The state Senate passed the final version of the bill Wednesday by a 48-to-2 vote with all Republicans in support. The state House passed the same version of the bill earlier in the month by a 202-to-1 vote with all Democrats in support.
Gov. Josh Shapiro has until Nov. 1 to sign or veto it.
Should the legislation pass, public, charter, technical and private schools would have 24 hours to alert parents, guardians and school staff of any incidents involving a weapon on school grounds or at a school-sponsored event.
The legislation would also apply to school buses or other school-sponsored modes of transportation.
The bill was first introduced in April 2023 by state Sen. Jarrett Coleman, R-Bucks/Lehigh, after a fourth grade student brought a knife to Schnecksville Elementary School with the intention of hurting another child.
The public didn't learn of the incident until a week later when Pennsylvania State Police issued a report.
"It's a problem at home, and parents need to know what's going on in their kids' classrooms."State Sen. Jarrett Coleman, R-Bucks/Lehigh
Coleman, a former Parkland School Board member, said alerting the public to these incidents is a common sense policy meant to drive transparency. Communities can only band together to address concerns about weapons in schools when they're provided with reliable information, he said.
"This isn't the fault of teaching. It's nothing like that. It's a problem at home, and parents need to know what's going on in their kids' classrooms," he said.
While the bill had overwhelming support, it still took two-and-a-half years to pass through the General Assembly. Coleman blamed the slow pace of government for the delay on what should have been slam dunk legislation.
Pennsylvania government is divided with Democrats in control of the House and Republicans in control of the Senate. The split has contributed to the four-month delay in the state budget that's created funding gaps for school districts and county governments.
Finding common ground
Given the divisions, Coleman said it's important for lawmakers to find common ground when they can. He thanked several Lehigh Valley lawmakers for backing the legislation, including state Rep. Peter Schweyer, D-Lehigh and chairman of the House education committee.
"I think right now, we are split on lots of issues. But you can remain split on lots of issues or you can find areas where you agree on certain policies," Coleman said. "I think we all agree on a lot more than we think."
As education committee chair, Schweyer had significant control over whether the bill advanced through the House. But with more than 500 school districts and hundreds more private and technical schools, Schweyer said it made a lot of sense to set a statewide standard on how school officials should respond when a weapon appears on school grounds.
"The underlying bill was something that was not only a good idea but good legislation."State Rep. Peter Schweyer, D-Lehigh
"The underlying bill was something that was not only a good idea but good legislation," Schweyer said.
The incident at Schnecksville Elementary isn't the only time school officials have stayed mum when weapons have shown up in schools. In September 2022, Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin confirmed a 14-year-old was arrested inside William Allen High School with a loaded semi-automatic handgun a week earlier.
At the time of the incident, Allentown police and school officials had disclosed the school went into lockdown after reports of gunshots at a nearby park and that a teenager had been arrested. But neither school officials nor police informed the public that the teen and other boys had fled the park and into the school.
Then-Allentown School District Superintendent John Stanford said at the time that district officials did not notify parents because they did not want to interfere with the police department's handling of the case.
The day before the Senate passed the final version of the bill this week,Innovative Arts Academy in Catasauqua disclosed that a student had brought a firearm to the charter school on Howertown Road.
The school posted an alert on its website about the incident that afternoon. Later that evening, academy CEO Brad Schifko shared more details about the incident on the school's Facebook page.
The legislation does not specifically mandate how schools alert parents, only that officials use "a method of communication likely to reach parents and guardians and school employees [sic]."
Innovative Arts Academy's notifications likely meet the requirements spelled out in the legislation.
