(File Photo of a School Bus Logo)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Montgomery County, PA) According to Montgomery County Republican Pennsylvania State Senator Tracy Pennycuick, school attendance rates in Pennsylvania dropped from 85% before the coronavirus pandemic to about 78% in the 2023-24 school year. Pennycuick is also addressing fighting an “educational crisis” in Pennsylvania, which is a school truancy problem statewide. On August 27th, 2025, Pennycuick introduced Senate Bill 984, which would both assist students before they experience chronic absenteeism at school and increase collection of data on truancy. Senate Bill 984 would direct officials in state education to report and track rates of truancy on a basis that is quarterly and would promote services of early intervention that connect families with local resources of support. Senate Bill 984 would also ask officials of schools to craft an improvement plan of attendance for students that are traunt and to work with the families of truant students until these truant students regularly attend school. Senate Bill 984 would also prohibit families of a child that is chronically truant from switching in the middle of the school year to virtual learning without the permission of a judge.