HB197 (Orrock) Requires the Department of Education to
determine and report to the General Assembly no later than December 1, 2020,
the feasibility of incorporating the Board of Education's student financial
literacy objectives into the appropriate pre-high school mathematics Standards
of Learning. The bill failed to report
3-4.
HB233 (Mugler) Requires public school teachers to be
compensated at a rate that is at or above the national average. Under current
law, compensation at such rate is aspirational. The foregoing provisions of the
bill have a delayed effective date of July 1, 2025. The bill requires funding
to be provided on an incremental basis pursuant to the general appropriation
act to implement such teacher compensation rate by the effective date. The bill was recommended to be reported and
rereferred to Appropriations 5-3.
HB272 (VanValkenburg) Directs the Department of Education to
coordinate with the Department of Environmental Quality to update the
"Window into a Green Virginia" curriculum developed by the
Departments for sixth grade science to include a unit on the benefits,
including the energy benefits, of recycling and reuse. The bill was recommended to be reported 7-0.
HB332 (Hope) The bill was substantially amended in subcommittee
to require each student in kindergarten and grade one to participate in reading
diagnostic tests that include all components of a normed rapid automatized naming
test. The bill requires any student who
enrolls in a public elementary school in the Commonwealth for the first time in
grade two or grade three to participate in the reading diagnostic tests
required for students in grade one. The
bill requires each local school division to provide evidence-based, structured
literacy instruction, including instruction to students in kindergarten through
grade three who fall below the benchmark on any such reading diagnostic test
and requires that such structured literacy instruction be overseen and
monitored by the local school division's advisor on dyslexia and related
disorders, when applicable. The bill
requires the Virginia Department of Education to develop and administer a two
year pilot program to administer reading diagnostic tests that include all components
of a normed rapid automatized naming test.
The amended bill also includes a reenactment clause so that the
requirements of the bill do not go into effect unless and until the General
Assembly reenacts it after the two year pilot is completed. The bill was recommended to be reported and
rereferred to Appropriations 8-0.
HB399 (Keam) Requires, for the purposes of ensuring state
accountability pursuant to relevant federal law and publicly reporting the
assessment scores of student subgroups, the minimum student subgroup size to be
10. The bill was tabled.
HB522 (Kory) Requires the Department of Education to develop
and adopt a common statewide definition for the term "students with
limited or interrupted formal education" and to require school boards to
report on the number of students who fall under such definition as part of the
required data collection and reporting on average daily membership for the
purposes of documenting any changes in such numbers over time and allowing for
comparisons of such numbers across local school divisions. The bill provides
that in developing and adopting such common statewide definition, the
Department of Education shall consider and may adopt existing definitions of
"students with limited or interrupted formal education." The subcommittee adopted a substitute, which
failed to report 3-3.
HB694 (Simonds) Requires each student in grades six, seven,
and eight, starting in the 2025–2026 school year, to complete at least one
semester-long or year-long computer science elective course or introduction to
technology course that is aligned with the appropriate Standards of Learning
and may include the following content: examining systems and resources of
technology, solving problems in technology, introducing microcontrollers,
exploring the designed world, computing systems, networks and the Internet,
cybersecurity, data and analysis, algorithms and programming, and the impacts
of computing. The bill provides that no such student shall be required to
complete an end-of-course assessment for any such course. The bill requires the
Board of Education to amend or create Standards of Learning as necessary to
implement the foregoing provisions and requires the Department of Education to
confer with certain organizations to ensure that the proper training is
available to the teachers of such courses.
The bill was continued to 2021.
HB1122 (Robinson) Requires local school boards to offer as
an elective in grades nine through 12 with appropriate credits toward
graduation a course, either in a traditional classroom setting or in a virtual
classroom setting, on the Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament of the Bible or the
New Testament of the Bible or a combined course on both. The bill requires the
Board of Education to develop Standards of Learning and curriculum guidelines
for such courses. The bill provides that the purpose of such courses is to
introduce students to biblical content, characters, poetry, and narratives that
are prerequisites to understanding contemporary society and culture, including
literature, art, music, mores, oratory, and public policy. The bill prohibits
students from being required to use a specific translation of a religious text
when taking the courses and provides that such courses shall maintain religious
neutrality and shall not endorse, favor, promote, disfavor, or show hostility
toward any particular religion or nonreligious perspective. The bill was tabled 4-3.
HB1123 (Davis) Requires the Board of Education, in
establishing high school graduation requirements, to provide for the
substitution of computer coding course credit for any foreign language course
credit required to graduate with a standard or advanced diploma for children
with disabilities. The bill was carried
over to 2021.
HB1139 (Keam) The
bill was substantially amended in subcommittee to require the Board of
Education to consider, in its review of regulations, revisions to the process for
screening and identifying students for gifted and talented programs to improved
the identification of underrepresented students, including economically
disadvantaged students, English language learner students, and students with
disabilities. The amended bill was
recommended to be reported 7-0.
HB1143 (Tran) Includes licensed behavior analysts as support
services positions in a local school division for the purposes of Title 22.1
(Education). The bill was amended in subcommittee
to also include licensed assistant behavior analysts as support staff. The amended bill was recommended to be
reported and rereferred to Appropriations 8-0.
HB1276 (O’Quinn) Requires each school board to include, as
part of each student's academic and career plan in the career and technical
education curricula, a list of (i) the top 100 professions in the Commonwealth
by median pay and the education, training, and skills required for each such
profession and (ii) the top 10 degree programs at institutions of higher
education in the Commonwealth by median pay of program graduates. The bill requires
the Department of Education to annually compile such lists and provide them to
each local school board. The bill was
recommended to be reported 8-0.
HB1277 (O’Quinn) Reduces the total number and type of
required Standards of Learning assessments to the minimum requirements
established by the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as
amended. The bill was carried over to
2021.
HB1388 (Adams) Eliminates the ability of a school that only
maintains a passing rate on Virginia assessment program tests or additional
tests approved by the Board of Education of 95 percent or above in each of the
four core academic areas for two consecutive years to apply for and receive a
waiver of accreditation from the Department of Education, which waiver confers
full accreditation for a three-year period. Current law provides
high-performing schools a separate pathway to obtain three-year accreditation. The bill was recommended to be reported 8-0.
HB1400 (Willett) Requires the Board of Education, in
establishing high school graduation requirements, to permit English as a second
language (ESL) courses to satisfy credit requirements for graduation. The bill was carried over to 2021.
HB1419 (Jones) Requires school resource officers and school
security officers to receive training specific to the role and responsibility
of a law-enforcement officer working with students in a school environment that
includes training on (i) relevant state and federal laws; (ii) school and
personal liability issues; (iii) security awareness in the school environment;
(iv) mediation and conflict resolution, including de-escalation techniques; (v)
disaster and emergency response; (vi) awareness of cultural diversity and
implicit bias; (vii) working with students with disabilities, mental health
needs, substance abuse disorders, or past traumatic experiences; and (viii)
student behavioral dynamics, including current child and adolescent development
and brain research. The bill was
recommended to be reported 6-0.
HB1653 (Wilt) The bill was amended in subcommittee to
require the Department of Education to collect data regarding school board’s
ability to fill school counselor positions.
The amended bill was recommended to be reported and rereferred to Appropriations
5-2.
HB1680 (Tyler) Requires the Board of Education to review and
revise, in consultation with certain stakeholders and no later than December 1,
2020, its Career and Technical Education Work-Based Learning Guide to expand
the opportunities available for students to earn credit for graduation through
high-quality work-based learning experiences or in the case of agricultural
education, supervised agricultural experiences, such as job shadowing, mentorships,
internships, and externships. The bill
was recommended to be reported 8-0.
HB1722 (Roem) Requires the Department of Education to
develop and publish no later than November 16, 2020, guidance and resources
relating to the provision of applied behavior analysis services in public
schools for students who are in need of such services. The bill was recommended to be reported 6-0.
