On Thursday, the Senate Committee on Education and Health met. Bills
of relevance to VSBA included several bills pertaining to family life
education (SB 101, SB 425, SB 789, and SB 843) and a bill on military children
, SB 775.
The family life education bills were combined into one substitute bill, SB 101.
This bill was then reported by the committee on a 12-3 vote. SB 775 was
reported by the committee unanimously (15-0).
In the afternoon,
the Senate Committee on Education and Health Subcommittee on Public Education
met and took action on several bills of relevance to VSBA listed below:
SB
126 (Cosgrove) – A substitutes was adopted by the subcommittee. The substitute allows school boards outside of Planning District 8 to offer, at their discretion, a parent/student driver education component as part driver education. (School boards in Panning District 8 were already required to offer this component.) The substitute also adds that the parent/student component may be administered in-classroom
or online. The bill was recommended for reporting unanimously (4-0).
SB 169 (Stanley)
– This bill would prohibit public schools from joining interscholastic organizations
such as the Virginia High School League (VHSL) if said organization has not established a varsity level robotics team competition
program that included regional, super-regional, and state championships by July
2020. The subcommittee took no action on the bill. The full committee may still take action on the bill. The patron made statements promising to alter some of the
language.
SB 205
(Stuart) - This bill would expand eligibility for services under the Children's Services
Act to students who transfer from an approved private school special education
program to a public school special education program established and funded
jointly by a local governing body and school division located within Planning
District 16 for the purpose of providing special education and related
services. The bill was recommended for reporting (3-0) with one abstention.
SB 229
(Hanger) - In its original form, this bill would have required an extensive training program on working with students with autism spectrum disorders for all transportation employees, including bus drivers and aides. VSBA worked with Senator Hanger to substantially limit the burden imposed by the bill. Senator Hanger agreed to offer a substitute bill, which was adopted by the subcommittee. The substitute would require the Board of Education
to establish a training program for bus drivers and aides and aides who transport students with autism spectrum disorders. VDOE staff reported that there is a two-hour online training module that meets the requirements of the substitute bill that is available to school divisions free of charge. The substitute was recommended for reporting unanimously (5-0).
SB 273
(Petersen) - This
bill would authorize local school boards to
include and requires the Board of Education to accept, for grades one through
six, unstructured recreational time that is designed to develop teamwork,
social skills, and overall physical fitness in any calculation of total
instructional time or teaching hours. The bill was amended in subcommittee to apply to elementary schools, rather than grades one through six, and was recommended for reporting unanimously (4-0).
SB 303
(Marsden) - This bill would require school boards to (i) develop and
implement a policy to prohibit the use of tobacco products and nicotine vapor
products on a school bus, on school property, or at a school-sponsored activity
and (ii) include in its code of student conduct a prohibition against
possessing tobacco products or nicotine vapor products on a school bus, on
school property, or at a school-sponsored activity. The bill was recommended for reporting on a 3-2 vote.
SB 343 (Peake) -
This bill would allow school boards to employ certain individuals with prior felony convictions if the individual has had his civil rights restored and at least 5 years have passed since the conviction. School boards would still be prohibited from hiring any individuals who have been convicted of a felony offense against a child; certain violent felonies; or
any offense involving the sexual molestation, physical or sexual abuse, or rape
of a child would remain ineligible for employment by school boards. Current law prohibits school boards from employing any individual with a felony, regardless whether the individual has had his civil rights restored. Senator Peake
requested that the bill be amended to add an emergency clause. The bill was recommended for reporting unanimously (3-0).
SB 456
(McClellan) - This
will would require the Superintendent of
Public Instruction to develop and make available annually to teachers a
voluntary and anonymous school climate survey to evaluate school-level teaching
conditions and the impact such conditions have on teacher retention and student
achievement. The bill was recommended for reporting unanimously (5-0).
SB 476
(Reeves) - This bill would give principals flexibility in reporting
misdemeanor, non-felony offenses to law enforcement. It follows a
recommendation in the VSBA's legislative priorities and is intended to reduce
the so-called "school to prison pipeline." VSBA staff spoke in favor
of the bill, which was recommended for reporting unanimously (5-0).
SB 557
(Hanger) - This bill would reduce some training requirements
for certain qualified school bus drivers in effort to address the shortage of
school bus drivers in the Commonwealth. VSBA staff spoke in favor of the bill
which was recommended for reporting unanimously (5-0).
SB 658
(Wagner) - This bill would allow school boards of school divisions
participating in a regional or joint school to jointly apply to the Board of
Education for a loan from the Literary Fund to benefit the regional or joint
school. It was recommended for reporting unanimously (5-0).
SB 713
(Dunnavant) – This
bill would require local school divisions to
identify students in grades 10, 11, and 12 who are at risk of graduating
without the necessary skills to take college-level mathematics coursework and provide mathematics intervention services to such students. It would
also require those intervention services to be aligned with the developmental
math curriculum offered by the Virginia Community College System. VSBA opposes this bill because it is an unfunded mandate. The bill was recommended for reporting on
a 3-2 vote.
