Section 1501.4. Nuclear Emergency of 1979.--(a) For the school year 1978-79 all public and approved private kindergartens, elementary and secondary schools, vocational-technical schools and intermediate unit programs of instruction, located within five (5) miles of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant, shall make every effort to keep open for at least one hundred seventy-four (174) days of instruction for pupils and for those located more than five (5) miles, one hundred seventy-eight (178) days, and in the alternative, the Secretary of Education shall authorize, without need of application, each school district to have the option of computing the instructional time on an hourly basis, rather than a daily basis, of nine hundred (900) hours for elementary and nine hundred ninety (990) hours for secondary schools. No public or approved private kindergarten, elementary or secondary school, vocational-technical school, or intermediate unit program of instruction which was closed because of the Nuclear Emergency and which makes a good faith effort as determined by the Secretary of Education to keep open for at least one hundred seventy-four (174) days and one hundred seventy-eight (178) days as provided above or the optional hourly basis of instruction for pupils shall receive less subsidy payments or reimbursements than it would otherwise be entitled to receive on account of the school year 1978-79. No employe of any school closed by reason of the Nuclear Emergency of 1979 shall receive more or less compensation than that to which the employe would otherwise have been entitled to from the school district, intermediate unit or vocational-technical school, had the Nuclear Emergency of 1979 not occurred.
(b) An employe shall not receive additional salary for services rendered on days or for hours rescheduled as a result of the Nuclear Emergency of 1979, unless the number of days rescheduled extends the number of days provided for in the original school calendar; in which case, an employe shall receive a pro rata increase for such additional days.
(c) A school district shall not be required to change its high school graduation schedule or require graduating students to return to school after graduation to demonstrate good faith for the purposes of subsection (a).
(1501.4 added May 11, 1979, P.L.26, No.7)