ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT HSPO and CE TRAINING

We are pleased to announce the Pennsylvania Academy for Animal Care and Control (formerly the Animal Crime Institute) has been selected and awarded the training contract from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture as the vendor to provide both the Basic Humane Society Police Officer (HSPO) Training and Continuing Education (CE) as required by law.

We understand there have been questions about what to expect moving forward with a new training provider, and we will do our very best to answer those questions in the coming weeks upon the return of the contract from the state with all the necessary signatures. In the meantime, we want to make you aware of a few things.

First, we have been selected as the sole provider for both the Basic HSPO training and Continuing Education to receive and maintain HSPO credentials. We want to make sure you are aware that only the CE training provided by the PAACC will be considered for the mandated CE credit. That being said, as a training provider ourselves, we are advocates for education and professional development, and we hope that HSPO's and other animal welfare professionals continue to seek relevant training of interest wherever it is offered.

Second...dates! Lots of questions about dates. What we can share at this point is there will be a Basic HSPO Part I and Part II in March 2020 in Hershey, PA, with Part I to be held March 16-20 and Part II to be held March 30-April 3, 2020. There will also be another Basic HSPO Part I and Part II offered in the fall of 2020. Continuing Education will be offered throughout the calendar year. The expansion of the training dates is to allow for more opportunities for HSPO's to attend training without the restrictions of a once a year course offering. Due to the requirement of at least one farm visit for both the Basic and CE training, we must limit the spots available and offer more training dates. You will ALL receive training spots; however, PRIORITY FOR SPRING CE TRAINING WILL BE GIVEN TO THOSE WITH CREDENTIALS SET TO EXPIRE IN MAY 2020. We will have at least two CE opportunities in the spring of 2020. We also hope this will ease the burden on shelters from losing too much of their staff at one time to attend mandated training.

Third, regarding the cost for Basic and CE training, we felt it was very important the tuition remain consistent and comparable to years past. The cost for the Basic HSPO Parts I and II will be $1,350.00 per person. An option of taking just Part I or just Part II will be available for those wishing to attend but who are not looking to become credentialed as an HSPO. The cost for the CE training will be $90.00 per person. We worked hard to keep the CE training cost discounted from the cost of our other course offerings as this is mandated training.

We hope this answers a few of the big questions to date. Additional information and course dates are forthcoming in the coming weeks. In the meantime, should you have questions please contact the PAACC at 484-225-8712 or email [email protected].

On behalf of myself and all of the instructors who are working with the PAACC to provide the mandated training and additional courses, we look forward to this opportunity and look forward to seeing you in 2020!

Kindest Regards,

Colleen J. Shelly

CEO/Director of Training