SB899 (Reeves) would allow but, due to an amendment, would not require, school board to place a decal on school buses stating that buses stop at railroad crossings. The bill was reported out of the Senate Education and Health Committee.
SB993 (Miller) would require school divisions to provide at least 30 minutes of pyhsical activity per day for students in grades K-8. The bill was reported and referred to Senate Finance 8-6. The VSBA opposes this bill.
Senator Barker had a number of bills up in Senate Education and Health. His kinship care bill, SB960 was reported. His SB1156, which states that it is the Commonwealth's goal that its public school teachers be compensated at a rate competitive with the national average was reported and referred to Senate Finance. Similarly, his SB1157, establishing the Commonwealth Teaching Fellows Program was also reported and referred to Senate Finance. SB1162, which would allow for expedited retakes of certain SOLs was also reported.
Senator Blevins' SB1171, relating to early intervention for reading and math was reported and his SB1172, providing flexibility for certain staffing SOQs was reported and referred to Senate Finance.
SB1175 (Ruff) which allows the Teach for America program to operate in Virginia was reported by the Senate Education and Health Committee.
SB1248 (Black) establishing High School to Work Partnerships was also reported by the Senate Education and Health Committee.
SB1240 (Deeds) would require every school board to have one SRO at each school. The bill was referred to Senate Finance.
SB 1223 (Norment), known as the Educator Fairness Act, was reported from the Senate Education and Health Committee 14-0.
HB1369 (Marshall) which would have required school boards to develop policies for minimizing school bus stops within 500 feet of the residence of a sex offender and to notify parents of any bus stop within 500 feet of a sex offender's residence was tabled by the Teachers and Administration subcommittee of the House Education Committee.
HB1504 (Krupika), establishing a Commonwealth Teaching Fellows Program was reported from the Teachers and Administration subcommittee.
Delegate Bell's virtual school bill, HB1555, was referred to Appropriations.
HB2164 (Morris) which would have defined unexpended funds to exclude funds that had been encumbered failed to report on a vote of 3-3.
Delegate Dickie Bell's bill relating to what must be considered by the IEP teams for deaf and hard of hearing students, HB1344, was amended to make the requirements permissive. The amended bill was recommended for reporting by the Students and Early Education subcommittee of the House Education Committee.
Delegate Rob Bell's bill to allow homeschool students to participate in public school athletics was reported from subcommittee.
Other bills reported from the Students and Early Education subcommittee include: HB1871 (McClellan) defining bullying, HB1498 (Kory) relating to expulsions, HB1858 (Orrock) relating to immunity for CTE providers, HB1497 (Stolle) allowing certain military students to participate in interscholastic activities, and HB2060 (Yancey) relating to truancy were all reported from the Students and Early Education subcommittee of the House Education Committee.
