Yesterday in the General Assembly VSBA staff attended a meeting of the Senate Education Health Committee in the morning and a meeting of the Senate Education and Health Subcommittee on Public Education in the afternoon. There were numerous bills under discussion in both meetings, and both ran late. As a result some of the bills in the original docket were passed by for the day. The list of relevant bills discussed and voted on can be found below.
Senate Education and Health Committee
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 committee reported the bill unanimously (14-0).
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 committee reported the bill unanimously (15-0).
SB 238 (De Steph) - As originally drafted, this bill would have prohibited, except for the purposes of
school accountability or as required by state or federal law, local school
boards from requiring a student or his parent to report information related to
the student's race, ethnicity, or religion and would have required that any request
for such information include an option for the student or parent to decline to
answer. A substitute was adopted that requires school boards to give students the reporting option of "other." The committee reported the substitute (12-3).
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. The committee reported the bill unanimously (15-0)
SB 300 (Favola) - This bill would make 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. Due to the similarities with SB 914, this will was rolled into Senator Chase's bill unanimously (15-0).
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. The bill be was previously amended by the patron to
add an emergency clause. The committee reported the bill unanimously (15-0).
SB 440 (Wexton) - This bill would narrow the restriction, to appointed school boards, that a local school board receive
prior authorization from the local governing body prior to instituting any
legal action or proceeding against any other governmental agency in Virginia.
Under current law, the restriction applies to all school boards regardless of
selection method. VSBA spoke in support of the bill. The committee reported the bill (8-7).
SB 456 (McClellan) - This bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to develop and make available annually
to each public elementary and secondary school teacher in the Commonwealth 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 requires such survey to include questions regarding
school leadership, teacher leadership, teacher autonomy, demands on teachers'
time, student conduct management, professional development, instructional
practices and support, new teacher support, community engagement and support,
and facilities and other resources. The committee reported the bill unanimously (15-0).
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 supports the bill. The Committee reported the bill unanimously (15-0).
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 supports this bill, which was reported by the committee unanimously (15-0).
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. The committee reported the bill unanimously (15-0).
SB 787 (Surovell) - This bill would require any academic school Governor's School that has a
focus on math, science, and technology and that has an overall enrollment of
over 1,000 students to accept for enrollment (i) a sufficient number of
students eligible to receive free or reduced price meals such that the total of
such students is at least 50 percent of the weighted average of the
participating divisions' percentage of such students in the previous school
year and (ii) at least five students but no more than 15 students from each
middle school in each school division eligible to matriculate students to such
Governor's school who have completed at least two full years at such middle school. VSBA staff spoke in opposition to the bill. The committee passed the bill by indefinitely (13-1).
SB 914 (Chase) - This bill would make 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 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 2017-2018 school year, to close
all schools in the division from (i) the Thursday immediately preceding Labor
Day through Labor Day or (ii) the Friday immediately preceding Labor Day
through the Tuesday immediately succeeding Labor Day. VSBA staff spoke in support of the bill. The committee passed the bill by indefinitely (8-7).
SB 928 (Obenshain) - This bill would prohibit any
school board from employing any individual who has been convicted of any felony
or crime of moral turpitude, unless such individual (i) was previously employed
in good standing by any school board, has been granted a simple pardon by the
Governor, and, in the case of a felon, has had his civil rights restored by the
Governor or (ii) is employed in good standing by the school board on July 1,
2018. The bill was combined with SB 343 (Peake) and the committee reported and referred the bill to Senate Courts of Justice unanimously (15-0).
There were numerous teacher licensure bills under discussion. The Subcommittee voted unanimously (5-0) to carry them over until next week so that their provisions could be combined into an omnibus bill, SB 723. The VSBA spoke in support of the bills and will review the final product when it is redrafted.
The bills to be included under SB 723 are as follows:
SB 349 (Peake) - This bill would require the Board of Education to provide for the issuance of a provisional license, valid for a period not to exceed five years, to any person who does not meet the requirements for licensure imposed by law but who has the appropriate level of experience or training in a critical teacher subject matter shortage area or agrees to teach in a critical teacher geographic area as defined in the Board's regulations.
SB 409 (McDougle) - This bill would provide that a local school board or division superintendent may waive the requirements to complete professional teacher's assessments for any individual who holds a provisional license and is employed by the local school board. The bill provides that such individual is eligible for a five-year renewable license provided all other requirements are met.
SB 548 (Dunnavant) - This bill would permit the Board of Education to extend, for up to two additional years, the three-year provisional license of any teacher who requires additional time to satisfy the requirements for a renewable license.
SB 549 (Dunnanvant) - This bill would permitteachers with a valid out-of-state license, with full credentials and without deficiencies, to teach in a public elementary or secondary school in the Commonwealth for up to one school year prior to applying for licensure by reciprocity.
SB 551 (Dunnavant) - This bill would eliminate the requirements that teachers seeking initial licensure or renewal of a license (i) demonstrate proficiency in the use of educational technology for instruction and (ii) receive professional development in instructional methods tailored to promote student academic progress and effective preparation for the Standards of Learning end-of-course and end-of-grade assessments.
SB 558 (Dunnanvant) - This bill would allow an individual who seeks a provisional teacher license to satisfy certain licensure requirements, such as demonstrating proficiency in the use of educational technology for instruction and completing study in child abuse recognition and intervention, during the period of provisional licensure. Current law requires that such licensure requirements be met prior to the granting of a provisional teacher license.
SB 723 (Peake) - This bill would extend the term of the waiver of the teacher licensure requirements that a division superintendent may apply to the Board of Education for any individual whom the local school board hires or seeks to hire to teach in a trade and industrial education program and removes the requirement that such individual has at least 4,000 hours of recent and relevant employment experience. The bill also removes requirements that an individual seeking a three-year career and technical license (i) has at least four years of full-time work experience or its equivalent in the specific career and technical education subject area in which the individual seeks to teach and (ii) has obtained qualifying scores on the communication and literacy professional teacher's assessment prescribed by the Board.
SB 863 (Sturtevant) - This bill would require the Board of Education to include in its regulations for teacher licensure an alternate route to licensure for elementary education preK-6 and an alternate route to licensure for special education general curriculum K-12.
Non Teacher Licensure bills discussed included:
SB 361 (Spruill) - This bill would update code by eliminating the cap on the annual salary that the school board of the City of Norfolk may pay its appointed members. This is no longer need because, beginning July 1, 2018, all members of such school board will be elected members. VSBA spoke in support of the bill and the subcommittee recommended the bill for reporting unanimously (4-0).
SB 537 (Hanger) - This bill would require the General Assembly to modify the current standards of quality funding formula
and calculation of composite index of local ability to pay to incorporate
within the real estate indicator of local wealth the land-use assessment value
for those properties located within a land-use plan. The subcommittee voted unanimously (4-0) to refer the bill to the Senate Finance Committee.
SB 785 (Surrovell) - This bill would prohibit local school boards from requiring the use of any electronic textbook in any course in grades six through 12 unless the school board adopts a plan to ensure that by July 1, 2020, (i) each student enrolled in such course will have access to a personal computing device capable of supporting such textbooks and (ii) the relevant school has adequate connectivity, which the bill defines as bandwidth of at least one megabit per second per enrolled student. VSBA expressed concerns over the unfunded mandate and scope of this bill. The patron agreed to make amendments if the subcommittee recommended the bill for reporting, which it did unanimously (5-0).
SB 786 (Surrovell) - This bill would provide that no student shall be charged tuition or fees for enrolling in any online course or virtual program that is required or is offered by the school division in which he resides. The bill provides that no local school board can offer and no student can be required to take any online course or virtual program unless every student enrolled in the course is provided or offered, free of charge, a computer or other electronic device necessary to take the course. Further, the bill provides an exception for the high school graduation requirement to take a virtual course if such requirements are not met. Like the bill before it, VSBA expressed concerns over the unfunded mandate and scope of the bill. The Patron agreed to amend to the bill to require that school boards furnish a computer or device on which to take such courses only to students who qualify for free or reduced lunch. The subcommittee recommended the bill for reporting (3-1).
SB 840 (Favola) - This bill would require each local school board to adopt policies that (i) prohibit school board employees from publicly identifying or stigmatizing a student who cannot pay for a meal at school or who owes a meal debt, including requiring that such student wear a wristband or hand stamp; (ii) prohibit school board employees from requiring a student who cannot pay for a meal at school or who owes a school meal debt to do chores or other work to pay for such meals; and (iii) require school board employees to direct any communication relating to a school meal debt to the student's parent, which may be made by a letter addressed to the parent to be sent home with the student. The subcommittee recommended the bill for reporting unanimously (4-0).
SB 841 (Favola) - This bill would make several changes to the procedures relating to interventions when a pupil fails to report to school for a total of five scheduled school days for the school year, no indication has been received by school personnel that the pupil's parent is aware of and supports the pupil's absence, and a reasonable effort to notify the parent has failed. The subcommittee recommended the bill for reporting unanimously (4-0).
SB 865 (Black) - This bill would require that the first reading diagnostic test administered to a student in kindergarten through grade three include a rapid alphabet naming component and that local school divisions report the results of reading diagnostic tests to parents, including subset scores. The bill was carried over until next year unanimously.
SB 880 (Stuart) - This bill would require that the composite index of local ability to pay for any county within which there is a school division composed of a town be calculated as if there were no such school division composed of a town within the county. The subcommittee voted unanimously (4-0) to refer the bill to the Senate Finance Committee.
SB 960 (Suetterlein) - This bill would permit each local school board to (i) establish High School to Work Partnerships
(Partnerships) between public high schools and local businesses to create
opportunities for high school students to (a) participate in an apprenticeship,
internship, or job shadow program in a variety of trades and skilled labor
positions or (b) tour local businesses and meet with owners and employees or
(ii) delegate the authority to establish Partnerships to the local school
division's career and technical education administrator or his designee, in
collaboration with the guidance counselor office of each public high school in
the school division. The VSBA spoke in support of the bill, which the
SB969 (Newman) - This bill would require the Board of Education to provide for a verified
credit in social studies in high school. The subcommittee recommended the bill for reporting unanimously (4-0).
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