HB410 (Delaney) The bill was
amended in subcommittee to require each local school to adopt a policy to
require written notification to parents when a student undergoes literacy and
Response to Intervention screening and services and when the student does not
meet the benchmark on any assessment used to determine at-risk learners. The notice must
include the scores and subscores and any intervention plan. The substitute was reported
17-0.
HB916 (Sickles) This bill was amended in subcommittee to
require the establishment of a Culturally Relevant and Inclusive Education
Practices Advisory Committee which will provide recommendations to the Board of
Education regarding the Holocaust, slavery, anti-Semitism, and other
subjects. The bill was reported and
rereferred to Appropriations 13-4.
HB975 (Guzman) The bill was amended in subcommittee to amend
the ratio of instructional personnel to limited English proficient students
from 17 per 1000 students to 20 per 1000 students. The substitute was reported and rereferred to
Appropriations 13-4.
HB1316 (Aird) Makes several changes to the Standards of
Quality, including requiring the establishment of units in the Department of
Education to oversee work-based learning and principal mentorship statewide in
Standard 1 and requiring the Board of Education to establish and oversee the
local implementation of teacher leader and teacher mentor programs in Standard
5. The bill also makes several changes relating to school personnel in Standard
2, including (i) establishing schoolwide ratios of students to teachers in
certain schools with high concentrations of poverty and granting flexibility to
provide compensation adjustments to teachers in such schools; (ii) requiring
each school board to assign licensed personnel in a manner that provides an
equitable distribution of experienced, effective teachers and other personnel
among all schools in the local school division; (iii) requiring each school
board to employ teacher leaders and teacher mentors at specified
student-to-position ratios; (iv) requiring state funding in addition to basic
aid to support at-risk students and granting flexibility in the use of such
funds by school boards; (v) lowering the ratio of English language learner
students to teachers; (vi) requiring each school board to employ reading
specialists and establishing a student-to-position ratio for such specialists;
(vii) requiring school boards to employ one full-time principal in each
elementary school; (viii) lowering the ratio of students to assistant
principals and school counselors in elementary, middle, and high schools; and (ix)
requiring each school board to provide at least four specialized student
support positions, including school social workers, school psychologists,
school nurses, and other licensed health and behavioral positions, per 1,000
students. The bill was reported and
rereferred to Appropriations 14-3.
HB1508 (McQuinn) Requires
school boards to employ school counselors in accordance with the following
ratios: (i) effective with the 2020-2021 school year, in elementary schools,
one hour per day per 60 students, one full-time at 300 students, one hour per
day additional time per 60 students or major fraction thereof; in middle and
high schools, one period per 55 students, one full-time at 275 students, one
additional period per 55 students or major fraction thereof and (ii) effective
with the 2021-2022 school year, in elementary, middle, and high schools, one
hour per day per 50 students, one full-time at 250 students, one additional
hour per day per 50 students or major fraction thereof. Under current law,
school boards are required to employ school counselors in accordance with the
following ratios: in elementary schools, one hour per day per 75 students, one
full-time at 375 students, one hour per day additional time per 75 students or
major fraction thereof; in middle schools, one period per 65 students, one
full-time at 325 students, one additional period per 65 students or major
fraction thereof; in high schools, one period per 60 students, one full-time at
300 students, one additional period per 60 students or major fraction thereof. The bill was reported
and rereferred to Appropriations 17-0.
HB257 (Mullin) Eliminates the requirement that school principals report certain
enumerated acts that may constitute a misdemeanor offense to law
enforcement. The bill was amended in subcommittee. The bill was reported 16-2.
HB271 (VanValkenburg) Requires the Department
of Criminal Justice Services, in coordination with the Department of Education
and the Department of Juvenile Justice, to annually collect, report, and
publish data related to incidents involving students and school resource
officers or school security officers. The bill also requires the Virginia
Center for School and Campus Safety to analyze and disseminate submitted
data. The bill was amended in
subcommittee to remove school security officers. The bill was reported 17-1.
HB273 (VanValkenburg) Requires each local
school board to ensure that each elementary school teacher has an average of
one 45-minute period per school day of planning time and that each middle and
high school teacher is provided one planning period per school day or the
equivalent, which shall be at least 45 minutes or one class period, whichever
is longer. The bill permits local school boards and teachers to enter into an
appropriate contractual arrangement providing for compensation in lieu of such
planning time or period. Under current law, public elementary school teachers
are guaranteed at least an average of 30 minutes of planning time per school
day during a school week. The bill was reported
15-1.
HB292 (VanValkenburg) Shortens from every five
years to every two years the frequency of the review period for memorandums of
understanding between school boards and local law-enforcement agencies. The
bill also requires local school boards to conspicuously publish the current
division memorandum of understanding on its division website and provide notice
and opportunity for public input during each memorandum of understanding review
period. The bill was reported 13-2.
HB308 (Hope) Requires the
Department of Education to establish and distribute to each school board no
later than August 1, 2020, guidelines for the granting of excused absences to
students who are absent from school due to mental or behavioral health and
requires any student who is absent from school due to his mental or behavioral
health to be granted an excused absence, subject to such guidelines. The bill was reported 9-3.
HB365 (Carroll Foy) Removes (i) the option for local school
boards to extend the three-year probationary term of service for teachers by up
to two additional years and (ii) the prohibition against school boards
reemploying any teacher whose performance evaluation during the probationary
term of service is unsatisfactory. The
bill was reported 10-3.
HB368 (Carroll Foy) Specifies,
for the purpose of several provisions of law relating to the public school
enrollment of children placed in foster care, that a child or student placed in
foster care includes a pupil who was in foster care when he reached age 18 but
such pupil has not yet reached age 22. A
substitute was adopted by the subcommittee.
The bill was reported and rereferred to Appropriations 13-0.
HB376 (Willett) Requires (i)
each school board to report to the Department of Education annually the number
and type of teacher and support staff vacancies in the school division and (ii)
each education preparation program to report to the Department of Education
annually the number of individuals who graduated from the program during the
current calendar year, by endorsement area. The bill requires the Department of
Education to (a) establish deadlines for and the format of the reporting of
such data and (b) aggregate and report such data annually on the Department's
website. The bill was reported and
rereferred to Appropriations 10-3.
HB392 (Ward) Prohibits each
school board from employing or accepting the volunteer service of any
individual who has been convicted of a violent felony set forth in subsection C
of § 17.1-805 of the Code of Virginia or any offense involving the sexual
molestation, physical or sexual abuse, or rape of a child. The bill permits
each school board to employ or accept the volunteer service of any individual
who has been convicted of any felony or crime of moral turpitude that is not
set forth in subsection C of § 17.1-805 of the Code of Virginia and does not
involve the sexual molestation, physical or sexual abuse, or rape of a child,
provided that in the case of a felony conviction, such individual has had his
civil rights restored by the Governor. The bill contains parallel provisions
for contractors and their employees who have direct contact with students on
school property during regular school hours or during school-sponsored
activities. Current law provides that any felony conviction is a bar to
employment and contract work in public schools.
The bill was amended in subcommittee remove all references to volunteers
and to update the list of barrier crimes to refer to Va. Code § 19.2-392.02. The bill was reported 10-2.
HB405 (Keam) Requires each
school board to make tampons and pads available at all times and at no cost to
students in the bathrooms of each facility that it owns, leases, or otherwise
controls that houses a public school at which any student in grades five
through 12 is enrolled. The bill was reported
8-5.
HB415 (Delaney) Requires school
boards to adopt policies and procedures to ensure suspended students are able
to access and complete graded work during the suspension. The bill was reported 13-1.
HB501 (Krizek) Permits each
school board to designate another entity or individual to participate on its
behalf in the annual review of its written school crisis, emergency management,
and medical emergency response plan. The
bill was reported 14-0.
HB570 (Guzman) Removes receipt of one or more unsatisfactory
performance evaluations from the list of factors that "incompetency"
may be construed to include for the purpose of establishing grounds for the
dismissal of public school teachers. The
bill was amended to eliminate the definition of incompetency from the
Code. The bill was reported 9-6.
HB797 (Askew) Requires each
local school board to submit its plan to test and remediate certain potable
water sources and report the results of any such test to the Department of
Health. The bill also requires local school boards to take all necessary steps
to notify parents if testing results indicate lead contamination that exceeds
the maximum contaminant level goals set by the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency. The bill was amended in
subcommittee to require parental notification if lead contamination exceeds 10
parts per billion. The bill was reported
15-0.
HB836 (Carroll Foy) Requires
the Department of Education to develop and adopt standards for microcredentials
earned by public school teachers in the Commonwealth, including
microcredentials used toward add-on endorsements, initial licensure, renewal of
licensure, and professional development points in science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, that align with nationally-accepted
standards for microcredentials, such as those utilized by the nonprofit
organization Digital Promise. Such standards shall include (i) educator
microcredentials focused on discrete competencies based upon relevant,
peer-reviewed research in the specific domain or discipline; (ii) educator
microcredentials that rely upon demonstrable evidence from the submission of
artifacts, such as student projects and teacher lesson plans, that are then
objectively scored against existing rubrics; and (iii) educator
microcredentials that focus on interrelated competencies leading to logical
teacher professional development pathways and stacks of educator
microcredentials. The bill requires any entity that issues microcredentials to
public school teachers in the Commonwealth to comply with such standards. A substitute was adopted by the
subcommittee. The bill was reported with
substitute 17-0.
HB1081 (Guzman) Provides that
an attendance officer, or a division superintendent or his designee when acting
as an attendance officer, may complete, sign, and file a petition for a
violation of a school attendance order in response to the filing of a petition
alleging the pupil is a child in need of supervision with the intake officer of
the juvenile and domestic relations district court on a form approved by the
Virginia Supreme Court. The bill was reported
15-0.
HB1174 (Lopez) Requires each
local school board to adopt and implement policies for the possession and
administration of undesignated stock albuterol inhalers in every school in the
local school division, to be administered by any school nurse, employee of the
school board, employee of a local governing body, or employee of a local health
department who is authorized by a prescriber and trained in the administration
of albuterol inhalers for any student believed in good faith to be in need of
such medication. The bill limits the liability of (i) any such individual who
provides, administers, or assists in the administration of an albuterol inhaler
for a student believed in good faith to be in need of such medication and (ii)
the prescriber of such medication. The
bill was amended in subcommittee to be permissive. The bill was reported 13-0.
HB1177 (Poindexter) Requires
each school board to establish a policy to prohibit any teacher in the school
division from assigning to any student a homework assignment that requires the
use of an Internet connection that is capable of transmitting information at a
rate that is not less than 256 kilobits per second in at least one direction
when such student lacks access to such an Internet connection. The bill was amended to permit but not
require school boards to adopt such policies.
The bill failed to report 8-9.
HB1208 (Tran) Requires each
school board to establish a process for assisting any student whose family
members have one or more medical conditions that preclude them from providing
transportation for the student to attend school to apply for and obtain a pass
to ride a regionally operated or locally operated bus to school. The bill was amended in subcommittee to
require school boards to establish a waiver process by which students who are
not eligible for transportation (because, for example, they live within the
walking zone) to receive transportation in certain instances. The bill was reported 13-0.
HB1344 (Askew) Provides that
when adopting regulations regarding the issuance of written reprimands of
teachers and other school personnel required to hold a license, the Board of
Education shall establish in such regulations the grounds for such written
reprimands and provides that for a teacher who breaches his contract, the local
board of education or division superintendent, in addition to a written
reprimand or revocation of the teacher's license as in current law, may issue a
suspension of the teacher's license.
This bill was reported 13-0.
HB1355 (Rasoul) Requires the
Department of Education to establish an interagency task force composed of
state and local agencies and entities in the areas of early childhood
development, health, social services, community engagement, family engagement,
higher education, communities in schools, and workforce development for the
purpose of developing a program for the establishment of community schools
whereby public elementary and secondary schools serve as centers for the
provision of such community programs and services to students and their families
as may be necessary on the basis of the unique needs of the student population
to be served. The bill requires such program to include a process by which
school boards and community partnerships may apply to the Department of
Education to designate an elementary or secondary school in the local school
division as a community school. The bill also establishes a special
nonreverting fund in the state treasury for the purpose of providing planning
grants for school boards and community partnerships that seek to apply to the
Department of Education through such program for community school
designation. The bill was amended in
subcommittee with a substitute. The bill
was reported and referred to Appropriations 9-8.
HB1469 (Gooditis) Requires the Board of Education to extend for
at least one additional year, but for no more than two additional years, the
three-year provisional license of a teacher employed in an accredited private
elementary or secondary school upon receiving from the school administrator of
such school (i) a recommendation for such extension and (ii) satisfactory
performance evaluations for such teacher for each year of the original
three-year provisional license. The provisions of the bill mirror current law
relating to the extension of provisional licenses for public school
teachers. The bill was reported 15-0.
HB1568 (Rush) Directs the State
Board of Education to amend its regulations to require that persons seeking a
technical professional license with an endorsement to teach military science
have either the appropriate credentials issued by the United States military or
a recommendation from a Virginia employing educational agency. The bill was reported 17-0.
HB1613 (Brewer) Requires the Board of Education, pursuant to
regulation, to permit any individual who seeks a technical professional license
to substitute the successful completion of an intensive, job-embedded,
three-year program of professional development for the nine semester hours of
professional studies required for such license.
The bill was reported 17-0.
HB1630 (Kilgore) Permits any school board and division
superintendent to extend from three months to six months the period within
which the provisional license of an individual seeking initial teacher
licensure who has not completed professional assessments will expire for the
purpose of establishing such individual's eligibility for initial licensure,
provided that such individual has received a satisfactory mid-year performance
review in the current school year and meets all other eligibility criteria. The bill was reported 17-0.
HB1633 (Edmunds) Requires the
Board of Education to establish a program to use Literary Fund proceeds to
subsidize interest payments on certain loans made by the Virginia Public School
Authority to local governing bodies and school boards for the design and
construction of new school buildings and facilities or the modernization and
maintenance of existing school buildings and facilities as follows: for school
divisions in localities determined to have above-average or high fiscal stress
by the Commission on Local Government in its most recent version of such
report, the Board shall subsidize up to 100 percent of the interest due on such
loan. Under current law, eligibility for such interest rate subsidy payment is
based on the local composite index of ability to pay. The bill was reported and rereferred to
Appropriations 17-0.
