Along with a $5.2 billion education budget, the state Legislature last week approved an array of changes in education laws, ranging from delaying proposed high school exit exams to requiring schools to have anti-bullying policies.

The omnibus school code legislation was passed along with the education budget, which included a 5.5 percent increase in the basic education subsidy and a new, predictable formula to allocate it.

The legislation stipulates that:

• Changes to high school graduation requirements cannot be made in 2008-09, thus preventing the state board from moving ahead with a proposal for a series of mandatory high school exit exams. The board was expected to take a final vote on the proposal this school year, to be effective with the Class of 2014.

• Public schools will be required to adopt a policy on how to address bullying -- including cyber bullying -- by Jan. 1. The state Office of Safe Schools can make grants for bullying prevention programs.

• A study commission will look at whether Pennsylvania should start a state-run, Internet-based virtual high school. Its recommendations are due by the end of next year.

• Charter or cyber charter schools won't be forced to limit enrollment unless agreed to by the school in a written charter.

• Parents will be able to ask for their preference of whether their twins or higher-order multiples who are in the same grade level in the same school are in the same or different classrooms.

Wythe Keever, spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Education Association, said he thinks the vote to delay testing rules is "indicative of the depth and widespread support for an alternative" to the proposed graduation competency exams.

Some of that opposition was expressed by the Senate when it last month voted to permit only the state Legislature to change graduation requirements. The House Education Committee expressed "serious concerns."

The anti-bullying legislation has been a long time in the making. State Sen. Stewart J. Greenleaf, R-Montgomery, introduced it in 2002 as a response to the Columbine shootings.

Some districts, including North Hills, already have anti-bullying policies, and some do anti-bullying training. In the last few years, the Allegheny Intermediate Unit has provided anti-bullying training to 23 school districts and private schools in the county and eight outside the county.

As for the charter school legislation, Larry Jones, president of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Charter Schools, said the action will result in more spaces in charter schools.

"The fact there are 20,000-some-odd students on waiting lists in charter schools shows there's a demand," he said.

First Published: July 9, 2008, 4:00 a.m.