Jun 20, 2026 By Brad Hundt 2 min read

The Pennsylvania Senate has approved a measure its supporters say will clarify the state’s Sunshine Act and protect the public’s right to know.

Sponsored by Fayette County Republican state Sen. Pat Stefano along with fellow Republican state Sen. Jarrett Coleman of Lehigh County, the bill was approved unanimously in the state’s upper chamber and now heads to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

Pennsylvania’s Sunshine Act requires that local and state government agencies carry out the public’s business in public. That includes giving notice about when a public meeting is going to happen, and that deliberations and votes be taken in public. In 2021, the General Assembly amended the Sunshine Act to require school boards, municipal councils and other entities to post their meeting agendas at least 24 hours before a meeting and that no official action be taken on any items that were not on the posted agendas.

However, last November, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in a 4-3 decision that agenda items could be added and votes could be taken on items that were not on the original agendas by a majority vote of a board. It overturned a Commonwealth Court ruling upholding the 2021 amendment made to the Sunshine Act. The case grew out of a dispute in the Parkland School District in the Lehigh Valley, after the school board added a teacher union contract to a meeting agenda after it had just been ratified.

The measure that was approved by the state Senate would require that the reason an agenda is changed be stated at a meeting and that an amended agenda be posted the next business day.

In a statement, Stefano said, “Sunshine laws only work when the public can actually see what’s coming. A productive government thrives on transparency, and Pennsylvanians deserve significant public notice on what their government is doing before decisions are made.”