Below is a summary of some of the most significant education-related legislation that was passed and that was defeated during the 2017 session.
Passed
Legislation
HB1392 (Lingamfelter) permits a school board to authorize
school security officers to carry firearms in the performance of their duties
in certain circumstances. The school
security officer must be a former law enforcement officer and must receive
training and certification from the Department of Criminal Justice
Services. The school board would also be
required to solicit the input of the chief law enforcement officer of the
locality regarding the qualifications of the former officer.
HB1400 (R.P. Bell) / SB1240 (Dunnavant) creates a statewide
Virginia Virtual School that would be open to any student in the Commonwealth.
HB1408 (Ware) permits school boards to have the vision of
students in grade 2 or 3 and in grades 7 and 10 be screened by a qualified
nonprofit vision health organization that uses a digital photoscreening method
pursuant to a comprehensive vision program.
HB1414 (Austin) requires VDOE to review multipart questions
on SOL assessments determine the feasibility of awarding students partial
credit.
HB1437 (Head) eliminates the requirement to test the sight
and hearing of a student who has any
defect of vision or hearing or disease of the eyes or ears that requires the
use of a corrective or supplemental device as set forth in the student's
Individualized Education Program.
HB1490 (Marshall) requires a school board member who
temporarily vacates his seat due to war service in the Armed Forces to submit
to the school board a list of names of suitable persons to serve as an acting
school board member during his absence.
The school board must consider appointing an acting school board member
from such list of names. If the school
board does not appoint an acting member from the list, the school board must
notify the school board member who temporarily vacated his seat of the reason
why the school board did not appoint one of the listed individuals.
HB1552 (Bulova) requires each school board to post on its
website a notice to high school students and parents of the opportunities
available to obtain a nationally recognized career readiness certificate at a
local public high school, comprehensive community college or workforce center.
HB1586 (Campbell) directs courts to require that the
parties to a child custody case provide to the child’s school a copy of any
order that prohibits a parent from picking a child up at school or that affects
a child’s school enrollment. The bill
also clarifies that school staff is not required to interpret of enforce the
custody order.
HB1605 (LaRock) creates Parental Choice Educational Savings
Accounts which will allow parents to receive state SOQ funding to use for
education expenses, including private and sectarian schools. The bill was
passed with a reenactment clause, which means that the bill must pass again in
the 2018 session of the General Assembly in order to become law.
HB1661 (Greason) permits (but does not require) schools to
stock and administer, pursuant to a prescriber's written order, injectable
medication for the treatment of adrenal crisis in students with adrenal
insufficiency. The bill also provides liability protection to school staff who
administer such medications.
HB1708 (Filler-Corn) requires the BOE to consider for
inclusion in the student outcome measures included in the Standards of
Accreditation the number of industry certification credentials obtained by high
school students.
HB1709 (Filler-Corn) requires each school board to have a
policy that directs principals to notify the parent of any student involved in
an alleged incident of bullying of the status of any investigation within 5
school days of the allegation of bullying.
HB1770 (Frietas) / SB1583 (Sutterlein) allows a school
board or superintendent to waive certain requirements for licensure in the area
of career and technical education.
HB1829 (Dudenhefer) requires hands-on CPR training for
teacher licensure and recertification.
HB1924(Bagby) / SB829 (Wexton) directs the Board of
Education to establish guidelines for alternatives to short-term and long-term
suspension for consideration by local school boards.
HB1981 (Greason) requires BOE to promulgate regulations for
the designation of School Divisions of Innovation in the local school
divisions. A School Division of
Innovation would be an opportunity for a school division to innovate and be
exempted from certain regulatory requirements.
HB1982 (Greason) which would require the Board of Education
to allow for the award of verified units of credit for a satisfactory score, to
be determined by the BOE, on the PSAT/ NMSQT and PreACT examinations.
HB2014 (Keam) would change the BOE's biennial review of the
SOQ from even-numbered years to odd-numbered years. This was recommended by the BOE to align with
the budget cycle.
HB2140 (LeMunyon) / SB1523 (Mason) directs VDOE to develop
a pilot program to administer an exist questionnaire for teachers who leave the
profession.
HB2141 (LeMunyon) requires BOE to report on the need to
retain or maintain the frequency of reports that local school divisions are
required to submit.
HB2174 (Murphy) requires school boards to report class size
by school in middle and high school.
HB2191 (Landes) requires each school board's procedures for
handling challenged controversial instructional materials to include procedures
for (i) annually notifying the parent of any student enrolled in a course in
which the instructional materials or related academic activities may include
sexually explicit content of the potential for such sexually explicit content
in such course and (ii) providing, as a replacement for instructional materials
or related academic activities that include sexually explicit content,
nonexplicit instructional materials or related academic activities to any
student whose parent so requests.
HB2218 (Miyares) for school divisions in which half of the
schools receive Title I funding, authorizes BOE to notify the local school
board if the school board denies a charter school application and BOE finds the
school board's rationale for such denial to be insufficient.
HB2257 (Filler-Corn) permits high school family life
education curriculum to incorporate age-appropriate elements of effective and
evidence-based programs on the law and meaning of consent.
HB2282 (Leftwich) requires BOE to develop guidelines for
training school counselors, school nurses, and other relevant school staff on
the prevention of trafficking of children.
HB2290 (Ward) requires that driver's education include
instruction concerning traffic stops, including law-enforcement procedures for
traffic stops, appropriate actions to be taken by drivers during traffic stops,
and appropriate interactions with law-enforcement officers who initiate traffic
stops.
HB2332 (Tyler) states that it is a goal of the Commonwealth
for teacher salaries to be competitive with the national average teacher salary
and defines “competitive” as at or above the national average teacher salary.
HB2341 (Landes) requires at least two of the nine members
of the Board of Education to represent business and industry in the private
sector in the Commonwealth.
HB2342 (Landes) / SB1283 (Obenshain) allow the BOE to
establish regional charter school divisions, consisting of up to 3 underlying
local school divisions that each have an enrollment of 3000 students and that
each have one or more schools that have been denied accreditation for two of
the last three years. The regional
charter school division would be governed by a separate board of eight members
appointed by BOE and one member appointed from each underlying locality (not
school board). The regional charter
school would get the per pupil state funding associated with the jurisdiction
in which each student resides. The
regional charter school would not be entitled to receive any local share for
such students.
HB2352 (Freitas) allows a teacher licensed in another
jurisdiction to be exempt from certain assessments that are required for
licensure, subject to the approval of the superintendent or school board
employing such teacher.
HB2354 (Rush) adds Planning District 4 to the list of
planning districts to which the prohibition against a school board employing or
paying any teacher or other school board employee who is the father, mother,
brother, sister, spouse, son, daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law,
sister-in-law, or brother-in-law of the division superintendent or any member
of the school board applies. The other
exempted Planning Districts are 3, 11, 12, and 13.
HB2355 (Pogge) / SB1414 (Newman) requires school boards to
(i) make Advanced Placement (AP), Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship
Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), and PreACT examinations available to students
receiving home instruction, (ii) adopt written policies that specify the date
by which such students shall register to participate in such examinations, and
(iii) notify such students and their parents of such registration deadline and
the availability of financial assistance to low-income and needy students to
take such examinations.
HB2395 (Cline) / SB1516 (Black) requires that if a school
board employs reading specialists, one such reading specialist must have
training in the identification of and the appropriate interventions,
accommodations, and teaching techniques for students with dyslexia or a related
disorder and to serve as an advisor on dyslexia and related disorders.
HB2431(Bulova) permits a school board to have a retail
fee-based electric vehicle charging stations on school property. The charging station must be limited to
school board employees, students, and authorized visitors.
HB2432 (Bulova) requires BOE to make changes to its
regulations regarding license revocation.
The bill will require that a superintendent investigate all complaints
"immediately," that the school board hold a hearing on a petition for
revocation within 90 days, and that the school board provide a copy of its
investigative file to the Superintendent of Public Instruction before the
hearing is held.
SB 951 (Ruff) requires school service providers to provide
each student or his parent with access to an electronic copy of such student's
personal information in a manner consistent with the functionality of the
school service. Contracts between local school boards and school service
providers may require that such electronic copy be in a machine-readable
format.
SB1098(Newman) requires that the regulations establishing
standards for accreditation adopted by the Board of Education ensure that the
accreditation process is transparent and based on objective measurements and
that any appeal of the accreditation status of a school is heard and decided by
the Board.
SB1116 (McPike) authorizes, but does not require, school
board employees who are registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, or
certified nurse aides and who have been trained in the administration of
insulin and glucagon to assist a student who uses an insulin pump with the
insertion or reinsertion of the pump or any of its parts provided assistance
has been authorized by the prescriber and consented to by the student's
parent.
SB1117 (McPike) requires every person seeking initial
licensure or renewal of a license with an endorsement as a school counselor to
complete training in the recognition of mental health disorder and behavioral
distress, including depression, trauma, violence, youth suicide, and substance
abuse.
SB1159 (Reeves) provides that the career and technical
education credential, when required for high school graduation, adult
education, or an alternative education plan, may be satisfied with the
successful completion of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB).
SB1245 (Dunnavant) requires the Board of Education to
include evaluating the economic value of a postsecondary studies, including the
net cost of attendance, potential student loan debt, and potential earnings, in
the Board's objectives for economics education and financial literacy.
SB1359 (McPike) requires school boards to develop and
implement a plan to test for lead and, if necessary, remediate potable water in
school buildings.
SB1475 (McClellan) makes changes to family life education
curriculum guidelines and curricula, including (i) requiring family life
education curriculum guidelines to include instruction as appropriate for the
age of the student in the benefits, challenges, responsibilities, and value of
family relationships for men, women, children, and communities; (ii) amending
the definition of "abstinence education" for the purposes of such
curriculum guidelines; and (iii) permitting the age-appropriate elements of
effective and evidence-based programs on sexual violence that are required to
be incorporated into any high school family life education curriculum offered
by a local school division to include instruction that increases student
awareness of the fact that consent is required before sexual activity.
Defeated
Legislation
HB1534 (R.P. Bell) would have limited long-term suspensions
to 45 days, unless aggravating circumstances exist, in which case the long-term
suspension may last a maximum of 90 days.
The maximum length of a long term suspension would be 90 days,
regardless of the circumstances. The bill was passed by the House on a 51-46
vote. The bill was amended in the Senate
to conform to Senator’s Stanley’s SB995 and was passed by the Senate 34 to
6. The bill then went back to the House
for approval of the Senate substitute. Although
the bill had initially been passed by the House, the tide had turned by the
time the substitute came back before the House.
The House rejected the Senate substitute. The Senate first insisted on its substitute
and requested a conference committee but then reconsidered that motion and
passed the bill by for several days.
Ultimately the bill was sent back to committee, where it died.
HB1535 (R.P. Bell)/ SB996 (Stanley) would have prohibited
the use of long-term suspensions or expulsions for disruptive behavior unless
the behavior also involved intentional physical injury or credible threat of
physical injury to another person. The
term “disruptive behavior” is defined in the Code as “a violation of school
board regulations governing student conduct that interrupts or obstructs the
learning environment.” The bills were stricken (Stanley) and left in Committee
(Bell) after receiving much opposition.
HB1536 (R.P. Bell) would have limited the length of time
that a student in grades pre-K through 3 can be suspended to 5 days. A student in grades pre-k through 3 could not
be suspended for more than 5 days or expelled, except in limited cases
involving firearms or drugs. The bill narrowly passed the House on a 49-47
vote. (Interestingly, several delegates
changed their votes later in the day but no member moved for a reconsideration
of the bill.) The bill was amended in
the Senate to conform to Senator Stanley’s SB997 and was passed by the Senate
33 to 7. The bill then went back to the
House for approval of the Senate substitute.
The House rejected the Senate substitute. The Senate insisted on its substitute and
requested a conference committee. With
strong opposition to the bill, the conference committee never issued a conference
report, therefore, the bill died.
HB1578 (R.B. Bell) would have required the Virginia High
School League to allow home schooled students to participate in interscholastic
sports and programs. The bill was passed passed by the House on a 60-38 vote. The bill was passed by the Senate on a 22 to
18 vote. The Governor vetoed the bill on
February 20, 2017.
HB1757 (Dudenhefer) would have required one nurse in each
school or a ratio of 1 nurse per 550 students. This bill was left in House
Appropriations.
HB1764 (Bulova) would have required every school division
to offer a full-time virtual program. The bill failed to report out of House
Appropriations.
HB1805 (J.J. Bell) would have required school boards to
develop a plan to fund and phase in full day kindergarten. The bill failed to
report out of House Appropriations.
HB1807 (J.J. Bell) would have reinstated the fact finding
panel as an option for teacher grievances.
It would also have removed the deadline for conducting grievance
hearings which would have resulted in the grievance process being subject to
delays. The bill was defeated in the House Education subcommittee for Education
Innovation.
HB1983 (Greason) would have made local school boards
responsible for setting the school calendar and determining the opening day 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. The bill passed the House on a 75-24 vote. The bill was passed by indefinitely in the
Senate Education and Health Committee on a 9 to 6 vote.
HB2007 (R.B. Bell) requires each school board to permit any
student who receives home instruction and resides in the local school division
to apply for enrollment as a part-time student of the local school division in
any dual enrollment course offered pursuant to an agreement for postsecondary
degree attainment at a public high school in the local school division or at
the comprehensive community college. The bill specifies that no such student
shall be required to pay more in tuition or fees than the tuition or fees paid
by public school students to enroll in such course. The bill passed the House
on a 64-33 vote. The bill was defeated in
the Senate Finance Committee.
HB2142(LeMunyon) delays the implementation of the
redesigned high school graduation requirements by one year and alters the
graduation requirements The bill passed the House on a 56-41 vote. The bill was stricken at the request of the
patron in the Senate Education and Health Committee.
HB2401 (Morris) would have required public bodies to take
minutes of all closed meetings and to record all closed meetings. The bill was
defeated in the House General Laws subcommittee.
HB2402 (Morris) provides that if a court finds that any
officer or employee of a public body (i) receives a request for records that
was sent by a requester by certified mail, return receipt requested, and (ii)
without legal excuse or justification, deliberately, willfully, and knowingly
fails to make a response to such request, such officer or employee may be
terminated for cause by his appointing authority or agency head. The bill
passed the House on a 67-27 vote. The
bill was defeated in the Senate General Laws and Technology Committee.
HJ629 (R.B. Bell) would have allowed the Board of Education
to establish charter schools. The
constitutional amendment was defeated in the subcommittee of the House
Privileges and Elections Committee.
HJ634 (Cole) would have permitted the General Assembly to
authorize an elected school board to impose real property tax. This constitutional amendment was defeated in the subcommittee of
the House Privileges and Elections Committee.
SB795 (Sturtevant) will require localities and school
boards to post of their websites a register of all funds expended, showing
vendor name, date of payment, amount, and a description of the type of expense,
including credit card purchases with the same information. The bill contains exemptions for certain
information. The bill passed the Senate on a 24-16 vote. The bill was tabled in the House Counties,
Cities, and Towns subcommittee.
SB937 (Edwards) would have created the Office of the
Children’s Ombudsman that would have had the authority to, among other things,
investigate complaints regarding child-serving agencies, which would have
included school divisions. The bill was
defeated in the Senate Finance Committee.
SB995 (Stanley) would have prohibited a long-term
suspension from extending beyond 60 days unless the conduct may constitute an
offense contemplated under subsection G of § 16.1-260. The bill also provided that for any long-term
suspension over 60 days, the school board or the superintendent or his designee
shall conduct a review at the end of each grading period to determine whether
the student will be permitted to return to school early. The bill passed the
Senate on a 32-8 vote. In the House
Education Committee, the bill was conformed to Delegate Bell’s HB1534. Despite the fact that the House had passed
Delegate Bell’s bill just two weeks earlier, the bill was defeated on the floor
of the House on a vote of 39 to 56.
SB997(Stanley) would have prohibited expulsions and
suspensions of more than ten days for students in prekindergarten through grade
3, except in cases involving serious bodily injury, inappropriate sexual
behavior, or weapons. The bill passed
the Senate on a 34-6 vote. In the House
Education Committee, the bill was conformed to Delegate Bell’s HB1536. Despite the fact that the House had passed
Delegate Bell’s bill just two weeks earlier, the bill was defeated on the floor
of the House on a vote of 46 to 50.
SB1017(Barker) would have authorized a school attendance
officer or local school division superintendent or his designee acting as an
attendance officer to complete, sign, and file petitions and motions for the
enforcement of certain orders entered by a juvenile and domestic relations
district court. The bill also provided that a nonattorney attendance officer or
local school division superintendent or his designee acting as an attendance
officer performing the powers and duties of an attendance officer is not
considered the practice of law. The bill passed the Senate on a 40-0 vote. The bill was defeated in the House Courts Criminal
Law subcommittee.
SB1082(Wexton) would have eliminated the requirement that
school principals report misdemeanor offenses to law enforcement. Under this
bill, principals would still be required report conduct that may constitute a
felony to law enforcement and they may report misdemeanor offenses. The bill
passed the Senate on a 40-0 vote. The
bill was defeated in the House Elementary and Secondary Education subcommittee.
SB1099(Newman) would have required that school boards use
the term "locally developed assessments," rather than
"alternative assessments" to refer to assessments developed by the
school division. The bill would have also
required local school boards to distinguish between locally developed
assessments and Standards of Learning assessments when administering
assessments. The bill passed the Senate on a 40-0 vote. The bill was tabled in the House Education
Innovation subcommittee.
SB1243 (Dunnavant) would have created Parental Choice
Education Savings Accounts. The bill
failed on the floor of the Senate on a vote of 20 to 21, with Lt. Governor
Northam voting against the bill.
SB1476 (McClellan) would have required the Department of
Education to (i) develop and make available to each local school board a
program of training for hearing officers who preside over teacher dismissal
hearings that includes information on the statutory procedure for teacher
dismissal hearings and (ii) develop, maintain, and make available to each local
school board a list of hearing officers who have completed such program of training.
The bill was stricken at the request of the patron.
SB1556 (Newman) would have required the Board of
Education's graduation requirements to require a student to earn at least one
verified credit in each of the following subjects: mathematics, reading,
writing, science, and history and social science. The bill requires a student
to achieve a passing score on the associated end-of-course Standards of
Learning assessment to earn a verified credit. The bill prohibits the
associated end-of course Standards of Learning assessment from being diluted or
replaced by another assessment. The bill
was passed by indefinitely in the Senate Education and Health Committee.
SJ240 (Obenshain) would have granted the Board of Education
authority, subject to criteria and conditions prescribed by the General
Assembly, to establish charter schools within the school divisions of the
Commonwealth. The bill was stricken by
the patron in Committee when it appeared that there were not enough votes to
pass it.
