The West Chester Area School District offers a Senior Tax Reduction Incentive Volunteer Exchange Program designed to assist Senior Citizens with the burden of Real Estate Taxes. Seniors may volunteer their services through this program. In return for their services, senior citizens may be entitled to a rebate of property taxes in accordance with the following guidelines.

Tax Credit Guidelines:

• Open to Senior Citizens who are residents of the West Chester Area School District.
• The minimum age limit to qualify for the tax rebate is 60 by December 31" of the year in which you are volunteering service.
• Tax rebates apply only to the property owned by the person volunteering service.
• Property tax rebates will be made at the rate of $8.00 per volunteered hour.
• The maximum rebate allowed per household is $560.00. This is based on 70 hours of volunteered service per household.
• Volunteers may opt to donate the credit to the School District (option on the application).
• Participants may volunteer in excess of 70 hours per year. However, the maximum real estate tax credit is $560.00 or amount of property taxes, whichever is less. Rebate amount cannot exceed the actual amount of taxes paid.

Application Documents:

• Your completed application (all information must be completed including your Tax Parcel Number)
• A copy of your Social Security Card
• Signed confirmation of review of the following Board Policies 104, 352, 352AG3, and 815.4
• A completed WCASD Emergency Information Card
• Results from a tuberculin test taken within the past year (from your private physician)
• Clearance below as outlined

These checks will be required once every five years for volunteers who may have some unsupervised contact with students:

1 & 2 are required for all applicable volunteers:

1. Pennsylvania State Police Criminal Record Check (fees waived)
2. ChildLine (Pennsylvania Child Abuse History Clearance through the Department of Human Services) (fees waived)

In addition to 1 & 2, one of the following is required for applicable volunteers:

3a. If a resident for the past 10 years, a  signed disclaimer affirming no charges in other states that would prohibit selection as a volunteer;

OR

3b. If not a resident for the past 10 years AND the volunteer has received certification at any time since residency established, the volunteer must provide a copy of the certification received since residency established;

OR

3c. If neither 3a or 3b apply, FBI Criminal Background Check required (fingerprint check) for federal criminal history records (fee charged). Our service code is 1KG6XN.

For FBI Clearance - Please check your email within 30 days after fingerprints are taken. You will receive an email with your UEID# and the results. You need to save this email as a file and bring a copy to your child's school. You will only be able to access the email one-time, and you will have a 30-day window to access the email from the date it was sent. 

If you should have any questions regarding this program, please contact our Human Resources Department at 484-266-1007.

Business Office Procedures:

• Volunteers must record their time on the monthly volunteer log (Business Office Manual-Appendix Form H).
• A separate monthly volunteer log must be kept for each volunteer at each building location if duties are performed at more than one location.
• District Administrators must approve the monthly volunteer logs at the end of each month and forward them to the volunteer coordinator by the 3'" business day of the following month.
• Upon receipt of the monthly logs, the volunteer coordinator will enter the hours on a spreadsheet by volunteer name for tracking purposes.
• In January of each year, the volunteer coordinator will confirm with the volunteer the total number of hours of service for the year.
• No later than January 15'" of each year, the volunteer coordinator will provide the real estate tax department with the list of volunteers' from the previous year. The list will include the volunteer's name, home address, parcel number and number of hours of service volunteered for the year.
• The tax department will verify that the real estate tax bill for the volunteers' address was paid.
• After the tax payment has been verified, the tax department will issue a request for payment to the Accounts Payable Department.
• The Accounts Payable Department will process tax rebates by the end of February and mail them to the volunteer.