in may 2015, the pennsylvania department of education (pde) released a report identifying harrisburg high school as among the lowest achieving schools for reading and mathematics in the state. harrisburg high school has been included on this lowest achievement list each year since the list was begun in 2011. one hundred four (104) public school districts had one or more schools on the list. parents and students may be eligible for scholarships to transfer to another public or nonpublic school through the state's opportunity scholarship tax credit program passed in june 2012. the scholarships are limited to those students whose family's income is less than $60,000 annually, with another $12,000 allowed per dependent. maximum scholarship award is $8,500, with special education students receiving up to $15,000 for a year's tuition. parents pay any difference between the scholarship amount and the receiving school's tuition rate. students may seek admission to neighboring public school districts. each year the pde publishes the tuition rate for each individual public school district. fifty-three public schools in allegheny county are among the lowest-achieving schools in 2011. according to the report, parents in 414 public schools (74 school districts) were offered access to these scholarships. for the 2015-16 school year, harrisburg school district had nine of its schools on the lowest achievement list.