BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Pennsylvania schools will now be required to alert parents when someone other than law enforcement brings a weapon onto school grounds.
On Friday, Gov. Josh Shapiro signed Act 44 of 2025, which requires public, charter, technical and private schools to alert parents, guardians and school staff of any incidents involving a weapon on school grounds or at a school-sponsored event within 24 hours.
The legislation also applies to school buses or other school-sponsored modes of transportation.
Sen. Jarrett Coleman, R-Lehigh/Bucks, first introduced the bill after a fourth-grade student brought a knife to Schnecksville Elementary School with the intention of hurting another child in April 2023.
The public didn't learn of the event until Pennsylvania State Police issued a report a week later.
A similar incident occurred in Allentown a few months earlier.
In September 2022, officials with the Allentown School District and Allentown police announced that William Allen High School had gone into lockdown after reports of gunshots at a nearby park.
It wasn't until a week later that then-Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin disclosed a 14-year-old was arrested inside the school with a loaded semi-automatic handgun after fleeing the park and going into the school.
"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."Coleman, a former Parkland School Board member, said last month the bill was meant to spur transparency and give communities the information they need to address difficult challenges.
"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.
Bipartisan support in Harrisburg
School officials have previously expressed hesitation about publicizing criminal investigations.
John Stanford, superintendent of the Allentown School District at the time of the 2022 incident, said he feared a statement would interfere with the Allentown Police Department's work.
The bill passed with overwhelming support in both chambers of the divided Pennsylvania General Assembly. The final version of the bill passed the state Senate 48-2, with all Republicans in support. The state House passed the same version of the bill earlier in the month by a 202-1 vote with all Democrats in support.
The new law does not require schools to adopt specific communication methods, only that school officials deploy "a method of communication likely to reach parents and guardians and school employes [sic]."
Last month, 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 charter school's releases would likely fulfill meet the requirements of the law, which goes into effect in early January.
