Section 13-1377 - Payment of cost of tuition and maintenance of certain exceptional children(a) To facilitate payments by the several school districts to the schools or institutions in which deaf or blind, or cerebral palsied and/or brain damaged and/or muscular dystrophied, or socially and emotionally disturbed or mentally retarded children are enrolled, of amounts due by such districts for their proportion of the cost of tuition and maintenance of such children, the Secretary of Education shall withhold from any moneys due to such districts out of any State appropriation for the assistance as reimbursement of school districts, the amounts due by such districts to such schools or institutions for the blind or the deaf, or the cerebral palsied and/or brain damaged and/or muscular dystrophied or the socially and emotionally disturbed and/or mentally retarded. Amounts so withheld shall be specifically appropriated to the Department of Education.(b) Payments of the Commonwealth's proportion of the cost of tuition and maintenance of blind or deaf, or cerebral palsied and/or brain damaged and/or muscular dystrophied, or socially and emotionally disturbed and/or mentally retarded pupils enrolled in schools or institutions for the blind or for the deaf, or for the cerebral palsied and/or brain damaged and/or muscular dystrophied, or for the socially and emotionally disturbed and of the cost of instruction of parents of blind pupils less than school entry age, as hereinbefore provided, shall be made quarterly, out of moneys appropriated to the Department of Education for special education. Except for the provisions of section 1376.1 providing for the actual cost of tuition and maintenance of certain exceptional children in the four chartered schools for education of the deaf and of the blind, in no event shall the total payment for the cost of tuition and maintenance of any such child exceed the rates per year allowed under section 1376. The maximum amount payable for the cost of tuition and maintenance of such children shall be subject to review at least once every two years for the purpose of recommending an adjustment thereof.(c) For the purpose of enabling the Department of Education to determine from time to time what amounts are due to schools for the blind or for the deaf or for the cerebral palsied and/or brain damaged and/or muscular dystrophied or for the socially and emotionally disturbed and/or mentally retarded hereunder, such schools shall forward to the department, at such times and in such form as the department shall prescribe, sworn statements setting forth the names, ages, and residences of all pupils enrolled hereunder, specifying the school districts liable for a part of the cost of tuition and maintenance of any such pupils, the per capita cost of and maintenance of pupils, and such other information as the department shall require. For the purpose of providing adequate administration of the program and to carry out the preaudit functions authorized in section 1376(a), one-half of one percent (.50%) of the total appropriations for approved private schools from all funds shall be allocated to the Department of Education.
(d) When, during the course of the 1982-1983 school year, programs for exceptional children are caused to be transferred from schools or institutions for the blind or deaf, or cerebral palsied or brain damaged or muscular dystrophied or mentally retarded, or socially and emotionally disturbed, as provided for in sections 1376 and 1376.1, to school districts or intermediate units, as provided for in sections 2509 and 2509.1, under unanticipated or emergency circumstances, and when such transfers necessitate the transfer of funds from the appropriation to the Department of Education for special education for approved private schools to the appropriation to the Department of Education for payments on account of special education of exceptional children in public schools, the Secretary of Education shall be empowered so to transfer such funds, upon approval of the Secretary of the Budget and written notification to the State Treasurer and the Chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations and Education Committees.1949, March 10, P.L. 30, art. XIII, § 1377. Amended 1949, May 9, P.L. 1027, § 1; 1961, Sept. 12, P.L. 1245, § 6; 1963, Aug. 8, P.L. 610, § 2; 1965, Dec. 6, P.L. 1029, § 2; 1968, Dec. 10, P.L. 1165, No. 369, § 3; 1972, Nov. 15, P.L. 1229, No. 273, § 1, imd. effective; 1975, Dec. 15, P.L. 484, No. 144, § 2, imd. effective; 1979, May 31, P.L. 33, No. 11, § 3, imd. effective; 1982, Dec. 17, P.L. 1378, No. 316, § 5, imd. effective; 1989, July 8, P.L. 253, No. 43, § 8, imd. effective.