Important Act 48 Updates

The Social Security Number is no longer used to report and retrieve Act 48 continuing education credits and hours.

In June of 2006, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) instituted the use of a 7-digit individual Professional Personnel Identification Number (PPID) to be used as a secure unique identifier for all certified educators.  The intended purpose of the PPID was to create a secure alternative to the use of Social Security Numbers for reporting and retrieving Act 48 continuing professional education credits and hours.

Effective July 1, 2013, the PPID became the sole identifying data element used to identify individual educators when reporting Act 48 professional development credits and hours into PDE's Professional Education Record Management System.  The Social Security Number is no longer used as the key identifier to reference individual educators when uploading Act 48 hours into the Professional Education Record Management System (PERMS).

Effective July 1, 2013, Act 48 providers were no longer able to use the Social Security Number as the identifying data element to upload Act 48 hours to an educator’s continuing professional education record in PERMS.  Providers were advised to cease collecting Social Security Numbers from educators on professional development activity registration forms or sign-in/sign-out sheets at professional development activities.  Educators should be aware of the necessity to know their PPID number and be able to provide it as their individual identifier when participating in Act 48 professional development activities.

Educators can find their PPID by going to PDE's website at www.education.pa.gov (scroll to the bottom of the homepage and click "Act 48 Reporting System" under PDE Online Services).  School districts and LEAs are also advised that PPIDs must be used when generating an Educator's Report in order to ascertain the Act 48 status of their employed educators.

Effective January 1, 2015, PDE began accepting official electronic transcripts (eTranscripts) from out-of-state institutions of higher education for the purpose of documenting completion of Act 48 continuing professional education requirements. eTranscripts must be submitted to PDE by the out-of-state institution via the following email address: ra-edact48etrscrpt@pa.gov. Please note that credits from Pennsylvania institutions of higher education must be uploaded directly into PERMS by the institution. This is typically done by the registrar’s office. PDE continues to accept hard copy official sealed transcripts from out-of-state institutions.

For more information, contact the Division of Planning at ra-edact48@pa.gov.