Section 1501. Minimum Number of Days; School Month.--All public kindergartens, elementary and secondary schools shall be kept open each school year for at least one hundred eighty (180) days of instruction for pupils. No days on which the schools are closed shall be counted as days taught, and no time shall be counted as a pupil session for any activity to which admission is charged. No school district shall be required to change its graduation schedule or require graduating students to return to school after graduation to make up class days lost due to severe weather conditions or, in the school year 1979-1980 for situations beyond the control of the school district as a result of major construction and renovation to the school building. No district which makes a bona fide effort as determined by the Secretary of Education to provide one hundred eighty (180) days of instruction for graduating students shall receive less subsidy payments or reimbursements than it would otherwise be entitled to receive on account of the school year because of the provisions of this section. Unless otherwise provided by this act, the board of school directors in any district or joint board may keep such other schools or departments as it may establish open during such time as it may direct.
Twenty days of actual teaching shall constitute a school month.
(1501 amended June 30, 1980, P.L.279, No.80)
Compiler's Note: Section 16.1 of Act 16 of 2000 provided that a school district of the first class shall commence the 2000-2001 school year and each school year thereafter no later than the first Wednesday after Labor Day and shall provide school students with a minimum instructional year as required by section 1501 to be completed no later than June 30.
Compiler's Note: See section 26 of Act 46 of 1998 in the appendix to this act for special provisions relating to school districts of the first class.