Today is the
first day post-crossover, meaning that all bills have either passed their respective
body or they failed. This session VSBA has been
working with over 200 bills that are directly or indirectly related to K-12
education. We have had a number of significant successes in defeating unfavorable
legislation and in passing favorable legislation. Below is the first report on
legislation that has passed their respective house and will now be moving through
the process in the other body. We’ll be providing additional updates on bills
that have been defeated and bills of concern.
HB1303 (Farrell)- requires the Department
of Education to make available to school divisions Standards of Learning
assessments typically administered by the middle and high schools by December 1
of the school year in which such assessments are to be administered or when
newly developed assessments are available, whichever is later.
HB1675 (Greason) – permits local school divisions to waive (1) the requirement for students
to receive 140 clock hours of instruction to earn a standard credit or (2) the
requirement for students to achieve a satisfactory score on a SOL assessment
test or Board-approved substitute test to earn a verified credit upon providing
the Board with satisfactory proof, based on Board guidelines, that the students
for whom such requirements are waived have learned the content and skills
included in the relevant Standards of Learning. The Board guidelines will
provide that a satisfactory score on a locally developed alternative assessment
or on an Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate examination is
proof that the student has learned the content. The provisions of clause
(2) have a delayed effective date of July 1, 2016.
HB1338 (Farrell) – requires the Department
of Education, for the purpose of including in the annual School
Performance Report Card for school divisions the percentage of each school
division's operating budget allocated to instructional costs, to allocate to
instructional costs each school division's expenditures on the hardware
necessary to support electronic textbooks.
HB1309 (Cole) – allows local school boards
the option to arm school security officers with batons, stun weapons, or any
spray device designed to incapacitate a person and to allow school security
officers to use such devices under the appropriate circumstances.
HB1490 (Habeeb)/ SB874 (Cosgrove) – directs the Board of
Education to promulgate regulations to provide the same criteria for
eligibility for an expedited retake of any Standards of Learning test, with the
exception of the writing Standards of Learning tests, to each student
regardless of grade level or course.
HB1674 (Greason) – reduces the frequency that a
school's accreditation status is reviewed by the Board of Education. The
bill allows the Board of Education to review the accreditation status of
schools every one, two, or three years, as determined by the Board of Education,
and requires that a school that is not fully accredited be reviewed in the
subsequent year.
HB1612 (Greason)
– requires certain online service providers who contract with school
divisions to meet certain requirements related to data privacy and the use of
student data.
HB1672 (Greason) – repeals the A-F school grading system and requires the Board
of Education, in consultation with the SOL Innovation Committee, to redesign
the School Performance Report Card so that it is more effective in
communicating to parents and the public the status and achievements of the
public schools and local school divisions. A similar bill, SB727 (Black) was passed in the Senate.
HB1615 (Greason) allows the required end-of-course
or end-of-grade assessments for English, mathematics, science, and history and
social science to be integrated to include multiple subject areas. This
bill would not, however, require the use of integrated assessments.
HB1585 (Stolle) - allows a division superintendent, with the approval of the local school board, to (1) establish an alternative school schedule plan to provide for the operation of schools on a year-round basis or determine the opening day of the school year for any school within the local school division that has failed to achieve full accreditation status and (2) establish such an alternative school schedule plan for the entire local school division if more than 15 percent of all public schools within the local school division have failed to achieve full accreditation status.
HB1962 (Landes)
adds several topics to the required annual training for school board members
and further requires that school board members certify their attendance at such
training.
HB1307 (Landes)/ SB1293 (Martin)
prohibits school boards and the DOE from requiring the disclosure of student's
social security numbers of newly enrolled students. The bill also requires the
Department to instead develop a system of unique student identification numbers
and requires each local school board to assign such a number to each student
enrolled in a public elementary or secondary school.
HB1334 (Landes) –requires the
Department of Education to develop and make publicly available on its website
policies to ensure state and local compliance with the federal Family
Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and state law applicable to
students' personally identifiable information, including policies for access to
students' personally identifiable information and the approval of requests for
student data from public and private entities and individuals for the purpose
of research. The bill also requires the Department and each local school
division to notify the parent of any student whose personally identifiable
information contained in electronic records could reasonably be assumed to have
been disclosed in violation of FERPA or state law applicable to such
information, except as otherwise provided in certain other provisions of law. The
notification shall include the date, estimated date, or date range of the
disclosure; type of information that was or is reasonably believed to have been
disclosed; and remedial measures taken or planned in response to the disclosure.
HB1873 (Krupicka)/ SB1320 (Locke) – directs the Board of Education to promulgate
regulations establishing additional accreditation ratings that recognize the
progress of schools that do not meet accreditation benchmarks but have
significantly improved their pass rates, are within specified ranges of
benchmarks, or have demonstrated significant growth for the majority of their
students. These regulations must be implemented by the 2016-2017 school year.
HB1443 (D. Bell)/ SB782 (Favola) –
requires the Board of Education to adopt regulations on the use of seclusion
and restraint in public elementary and secondary schools in the Commonwealth.
These regulations must:
- Be consistent with the Guidelines for the Development of Policies and Procedures for Managing Student Behavior in Emergency Situations and the Fifteen Principles contained in the U.S. Department of Education’s Restraint and Seclusion Resource Document;
- Include definitions, criteria for use, restrictions for use, training requirements, notification requirements, reporting requirements, and follow-up requirements; and
- Address distinctions, including distinctions in emotional and physical development, between the general student population and the special education student population as well as elementary school students and secondary school students.
HB1550 (Greason) – makes local school boards responsible
for setting the school calendar and determining the opening date of the school
year and eliminates the post-Labor Day opening requirement and "good
cause" scenarios for which the Board of Education may grant waivers of
this requirement.
HB1838 (Robinson) - makes local school boards responsible for setting the school calendar and determining the opening date of the school year and eliminates the post-Labor Day opening requirement and "good cause" scenarios for which the Board of Education may grant waivers of this requirement. Additionally, it requires local school boards that set the school calendar with a pre-Labor Day opening date, except those schools that were granted a "good cause" waiver for the 2014-2015 school year, to close all schools in the division from the Thursday immediately preceding Labor Day through Labor Day or from the Friday immediately preceding Labor Day through the Tuesday immediately following Labor Day.
SB1354 (Reeves)
requires DOE to establish a process for school boards to identify students who
have a parent in the military and to report data on such students for the
purposes of enhancing funding and services for those students.
SB866 (Chafin/Vogel) - allows local school
boards and local governments to participate in the state employee health plan.
However, this bill does require the authorization from both the local school
board and local governing body to participate in the plan.
