Combating school lunch shaming and allowing school boards to lay off teachers for economic reasons are among a litany of proposed changes to the laws governing public schools awaiting action in the General Assembly.

A multi-faceted school code bill is part of the series of budget implementation bills that will be considered once an agreement is reached on a revenue plan to fully fund the $32 billion spending package that is now law. When that will be remains in question.

The interest in addressing lunch shaming arose out of reports of children being required to do chores, wear a stamp or wristband, given a subpar lunch or denied food when they don't have enough money in their school lunch fund.

The legislation would bar schools from publicly identifying or stigmatizing students, making students do chores or discard a meal from a student that has already been served if he or she can't pay for it.

It also would require schools to provide a meal to a student who requests one regardless if they can pay for it unless their parent or guardian has given written permission to withhold the meal.

It also defines procedures for notifying parents when a student owes money for five or more school meals and requires schools to direct their communications regarding money owed for school lunches to a parent or guardian and not the student.

Other changes to school laws included in this legislation include:

TEACHER FURLOUGHS: Allowing school districts to furlough teachers for economic reasons in addition to the current permitted reasons of enrollment declines, consolidation of schools or curtailment of an educational programs.

Furloughs for economic reasons must be based on performance evaluations unless teachers have the same performance rating when seniority would serve as the basis for determining which one gets laid off. Reinstatement of furloughed teachers must be done in reverse order in which they were suspended. Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed a similar bill that reached his desk last year.

Rep. Mike Carroll, D-Luzerne County, said this provision alone was reason not to support the bill during the House debate of the proposal that has yet to be voted on by that chamber. He said allowing teachers to be laid off for economic reasons was a bad idea "because school boards have very few choices when it comes to finances" and it could lead to good teachers being let go.

KEYSTONE EXAM DELAY: Delaying the use of the Keystone Exams as a graduation requirement already on hold until 2018-19, for one more year, to 2019-20 although whether this controversial mandate will ever take effect is up in the air. Efforts are afoot to dump the exams entirely.

MORE DOLLARS FOR EITC: Increasing funding for the popular Educational Improvement Tax Credit programs by $20 million, to $145 million. The additional money for tax credits would be made available this way: $12 million for business contributions to K-12 scholarship organizations; $6 million for business donations to educational improvement organizations; and $2 million for contributions to preschool scholarship organizations.

SCHOOL BOARD TRAINING: Requiring all newly elected or appointed school directors and charter school trustees to take four hours of state Department of Education-developed or approved alternative training in the skills and knowledge necessary to serve in those positions. Those who are re-elected or reappointed would be required to take two hours of training. The training is to be at no cost.

OPIOID INSTRUCTION: Mandating that beginning in 2018-19 school year, students in grades six through 12 must receive instruction related to the prevention of opioid abuse, with an emphasis on the prescription drug epidemic and connection between prescribed drugs and addiction to heroin and other drugs.

INPUT ON STATE ESSA PLAN: Requiring the state Department of Education to allow House and Senate education committees to offer input into the state plan for complying with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act. It also orders the department to provide at least 15 days for the committees to review it and comment on it before it or any subsequent plan is submitted to the U.S. education secretary.

CONSTRUCTION FUNDING ON HOLD: Extends the moratorium on the state Department of Education's acceptance of new school construction or renovation projects eligible for partial state reimbursement.

SUPERINTENDENT CONTRACT CHANGES: It reduces the timeframe from 150 days to 90 days of the expiration date for a school board to make a decision about whether to renew a superintendent or assistant superintendent contract, which must be done at a regular public school board meeting. If the renewal deadline is missed, the automatic renewal is limited to one year.