In February of 2026, Governor Shapiro presented his annual State Budget Proposal and outlined his priorities and goals for the 2026-2027 fiscal year. In addition to the substantial cuts to cyber charter school funding that were enacted in November of 2025, Governor Shapiro is now proposing millions in additional cuts that would take effect in the 2026-2027 school year.

Insight PA is working alongside other cyber charter schools to develop a plan to advocate against any additional funding cuts and protect our school from additional policy changes that would create barriers for families to enroll in a cyber charter school or make it more difficult for our teachers and staff to do their jobs.

We will continue to provide updates on these advocacy activities and the progress we are making, but we also need your help in making sure the voices of our school’s students and families are heard by our elected leaders in Harrisburg. If you are interested in participating in these efforts, please complete this survey.

Background Information

The information below provides a brief overview of Insight PA and our student population, as well as the history of public school choice and cyber charter funding in Pennsylvania.

Our School

Insight PA is an online public school that opened in 2017 and serves students grades K-12. With certified teachers, innovative technology, opportunities for in-person activities and events, and a comprehensive curriculum, Insight PA provides students with a high-quality education that prepares them for success in college, career, and life. Our main offices are located in Exton (Chester County) and we have a Community Connection Center for our students and families in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Our Students

Insight PA currently serves over 3,100 students from across Pennsylvania, from 344 school districts. Our largest student population (39%) comes from the School District of Philadelphia. We educate a diverse student population with over 58% identified as economically disadvantaged, 27.7% requiring special education services, and over 250 students experiencing homelessness. Insight PA employs more than 340 dedicated personnel, including nearly 300 Pennsylvania-certified educators.

School choice has long been a luxury for Pennsylvania families who could afford to choose what school districts they live in or afford to send their students to private schools. It wasn’t until 1997 that “public school choice” became an option for PA families, in the form of public brick-and-mortar charter schools. Despite this monumental step forward, these charter schools primarily served students in urban centers, like Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, and Reading. This still left the majority of PA families without a public school option, until the PA General Assembly authorized the creation of public cyber charter schools in 2002 and made students from all 500 school districts eligible to enroll. Thanks to public charter schools, both brick-and-mortar and cyber, every Pennsylvania family now has educational options available to them at no cost.

Public cyber charter schools are crucial for students who don’t thrive in traditional education settings. For those students and their families, public cyber charter schools have been a lifeline.

There are many reasons why a family may choose to enroll their student in a public cyber charter school, including the desire to take part in a cyber charter school’s specialized course of study, the flexibility cyber charters offer for students who want to advance beyond their assigned grade-level, medical restrictions that make in-person learning a challenge, concerns about safety, bullying or interpersonal challenges, or the need for the student to work to support their family or take care of a sick member of their family.

More often than not, students are enrolling in public cyber charter schools as a final attempt to find an academic home that meets their needs. Pennsylvania’s public cyber charter schools have become experts in giving students the tools and the support to rebuild and rediscover a love of learning.

Unlike school districts, public cyber charter schools lack the power to levy property taxes to supplement the federal and state revenue they are allocated. Public cyber charter schools receive the bulk of their funding through tuition reimbursements, which are unique for each school district. The tuition reimbursements are calculated by taking each school district’s budgeted total expenditures from the previous school year, minus 25+ deductions allowed for by PDE, then divided by the total enrollment of that school district. For students requiring special education services, this rate is supplemented by additional funding to accommodate their educational needs.

Due to the deductions allowed in the tuition reimbursement calculation, public cyber charter schools are already receiving at least 25-35% less funding per student than school districts.

During the 24-25 State Budget negotiations, language was enacted that cut an estimated $100 million in funding for cyber charter students who required special education services. Last year, during the 25-26 State Budget negotiations, lawmakers called for an even greater cut to public cyber charter schools. These elected officials claimed that public cyber charter schools didn’t need the same level of funding as brick-and-mortar schools and, without any data or research to back-up this claim, the largest funding cut to public cyber charter schools ever was enacted as part of the 25-26 State Budget.

At Insight PA, the impact of these cuts have been extremely challenging. Although we have maintained our rigorous academic offerings, student support services, and extracurricular activities, we had to make the difficult decision to lay-off over 200 staff members during the 25-26 school year.

Act 47 Reforms Impacting Public Cyber Charter Schools

Act 47 of 2025, last year’s omnibus School Code bill, enacted significant educational reforms.

While intended to improve the system, certain provisions have caused unintended negative consequences for public cyber charter schools, their educators and staff, and the families who depend on these schools as a vital educational alternative.

  • Act 47 contained changes in how public cyber charter schools are funded. These changes were estimated to result in a $178 million reduction in funding to public cyber charter schools during the 2025-2026 school year.
  • A student categorized as habitually truant (six or more unexcused absences) is now prohibited from transferring during the school year to a public cyber charter school unless a judge determines the transfer is in the child’s best interest.
  • Act 47 ties attendance and academic achievement together for public cyber charter students, which creates accountability inequities between students in school districts and public cyber charter schools.
  • Public cyber charter families are now mandated to submit proof of their student’s residency biannually (November 1 and March 1) to both their home school district and their public cyber charter school.

To read more, download the full version.

Student Wellness Check Implementation at PA’s Public Cyber Charter Schools

Over the last 25 years, Pennsylvania’s public cyber charter schools have been pioneers in ensuring student safety and wellbeing in an online learning environment.

See below for information on how eight public cyber charter schools are implementing the wellness check requirements in Pennsylvania’s Charter School Law.

In 2024, the Charter School Law was amended (Act 55 of 2024) to require that every public cyber charter school conduct wellness checks on students to ensure their health and safety. Per the law, students attending a public cyber charter school must be visibly seen and communicated with once per week by a teacher, administrator, or representative of the school. While these specific requirements were added to the Charter School Law in 2024, public cyber charter schools have been prioritizing their students’ well-being and implementing internal policies to ensure student safety long before the law changed two years ago.

To read more, download the full version.

Advocacy Toolkit

Please feel free to download and share!

Advocacy One-Pager