House Education Committee update

This morning the House Education Committee held one of its final meetings of the 2015 session. The members took action on the last batch of K-12 education bills which will now go to the House floor for a vote. Below is a summary of actions taken at today’s committee meeting.

SB727 (Black) requires the Board of Education, in consultation with the SOL Innovation Committee to redesign the School Performance Report Card by July 1, 2016 so that it is more effective in communicating to parents and the public the status and achievements of the public schools and local school divisions in the Commonwealth. The bill also repeals the A-F school grading system created in the 2013 Session and amended in the 2014 Session. VSBA worked extensively with Senator Black and Delegate Greason on the substitute bill language that fully repeals the A-F school grading system and works with the Board of Education on a redesign of the School Performance Report Card. SB727 was reported with the substitute on a 21-1 vote.

SB821 (Miller) repeals the Opportunity Educational Institution. The bill reported on a 21-1 vote.

SB982 (Garrett) allows local school divisions to waive the requirements for students to receive 140 clock hours of instruction to earn a standard unit of credit upon providing satisfactory proof to the Board of Education. The bill reported on a 19-3 vote.

SB1105 (Miller) establishes the School Health Advisory Board to advise the General Assembly on health policy that affects elementary and secondary schools and students. This bill was reported and referred to the Appropriations Committee on a 17-5 vote.

SB1286 (McDougle) was reported unanimously from the committee. The bill requires each local school division to publish the annual school budget in line item form on its website. Current law does not require the published budget to be in line item form.

SB1383 (Black) prohibits a division superintendent or local school board from disclosing to the Department of Education or any other person or entity outside of the local school division information provided by a student or parent for the purpose of notifying the superintendent that the student will be receiving home instruction or for claiming a religious exemption from school attendance. The bill was reported unanimously from the committee.

Check back tomorrow for updates from the Senate Education and Health Committee where they will take action on 30 education-related bills. 

Crossover Report - Passed Legislation

Today is the first day post-crossover, meaning that all bills have either passed their respective body or they failed. This session VSBA has been working with over 200 bills that are directly or indirectly related to K-12 education. We have had a number of significant successes in defeating unfavorable legislation and in passing favorable legislation. Below is the first report on legislation that has passed their respective house and will now be moving through the process in the other body. We’ll be providing additional updates on bills that have been defeated and bills of concern.

HB1303 (Farrell)- requires the Department of Education to make available to school divisions Standards of Learning assessments typically administered by the middle and high schools by December 1 of the school year in which such assessments are to be administered or when newly developed assessments are available, whichever is later.

HB1675 (Greason) – permits local school divisions to waive (1) the requirement for students to receive 140 clock hours of instruction to earn a standard credit or (2) the requirement for students to achieve a satisfactory score on a SOL assessment test or Board-approved substitute test to earn a verified credit upon providing the Board with satisfactory proof, based on Board guidelines, that the students for whom such requirements are waived have learned the content and skills included in the relevant Standards of Learning. The Board guidelines will provide that a satisfactory score on a locally developed alternative assessment or on an Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate examination is proof that the student has learned the content. The provisions of clause (2) have a delayed effective date of July 1, 2016.

HB1338 (Farrell) – requires the Department of Education, for the purpose of including in the annual School Performance Report Card for school divisions the percentage of each school division's operating budget allocated to instructional costs, to allocate to instructional costs each school division's expenditures on the hardware necessary to support electronic textbooks. 

HB1309 (Cole) – allows local school boards the option to arm school security officers with batons, stun weapons, or any spray device designed to incapacitate a person and to allow school security officers to use such devices under the appropriate circumstances.

HB1490 (Habeeb)/ SB874 (Cosgrove) – directs the Board of Education to promulgate regulations to provide the same criteria for eligibility for an expedited retake of any Standards of Learning test, with the exception of the writing Standards of Learning tests, to each student regardless of grade level or course.

HB1674 (Greason) – reduces the frequency that a school's accreditation status is reviewed by the Board of Education.  The bill allows the Board of Education to review the accreditation status of schools every one, two, or three years, as determined by the Board of Education, and requires that a school that is not fully accredited be reviewed in the subsequent year.  

HB1612 (Greason) – requires certain online service providers who contract with school divisions to meet certain requirements related to data privacy and the use of student data.

HB1672 (Greason) – repeals the A-F school grading system and requires the Board of Education, in consultation with the SOL Innovation Committee, to redesign the School Performance Report Card so that it is more effective in communicating to parents and the public the status and achievements of the public schools and local school divisions. A similar bill, SB727 (Black) was passed in the Senate.

HB1615 (Greason) allows the required end-of-course or end-of-grade assessments for English, mathematics, science, and history and social science to be integrated to include multiple subject areas.  This bill would not, however, require the use of integrated assessments.  

HB1585 (Stolle) - allows a division superintendent, with the approval of the local school board, to (1) establish an alternative school schedule plan to provide for the operation of schools on a year-round basis or determine the opening day of the school year for any school within the local school division that has failed to achieve full accreditation status and (2) establish such an alternative school schedule plan for the entire local school division if more than 15 percent of all public schools within the local school division have failed to achieve full accreditation status.

HB1962 (Landes) adds several topics to the required annual training for school board members and further requires that school board members certify their attendance at such training.  

HB1307 (Landes)/ SB1293 (Martin) prohibits school boards and the DOE from requiring the disclosure of student's social security numbers of newly enrolled students. The bill also requires the Department to instead develop a system of unique student identification numbers and requires each local school board to assign such a number to each student enrolled in a public elementary or secondary school. 

HB1334 (Landes) –requires the Department of Education to develop and make publicly available on its website policies to ensure state and local compliance with the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and state law applicable to students' personally identifiable information, including policies for access to students' personally identifiable information and the approval of requests for student data from public and private entities and individuals for the purpose of research. The bill also requires the Department and each local school division to notify the parent of any student whose personally identifiable information contained in electronic records could reasonably be assumed to have been disclosed in violation of FERPA or state law applicable to such information, except as otherwise provided in certain other provisions of law. The notification shall include the date, estimated date, or date range of the disclosure; type of information that was or is reasonably believed to have been disclosed; and remedial measures taken or planned in response to the disclosure.

HB1873 (Krupicka)/ SB1320 (Locke) – directs the Board of Education to promulgate regulations establishing additional accreditation ratings that recognize the progress of schools that do not meet accreditation benchmarks but have significantly improved their pass rates, are within specified ranges of benchmarks, or have demonstrated significant growth for the majority of their students. These regulations must be implemented by the 2016-2017 school year.

HB1443 (D. Bell)/ SB782 (Favola) – requires the Board of Education to adopt regulations on the use of seclusion and restraint in public elementary and secondary schools in the Commonwealth. These regulations must: 

• Be consistent with the Guidelines for the Development of Policies and Procedures for Managing Student Behavior in Emergency Situations and the Fifteen Principles contained in the U.S. Department of Education’s Restraint and Seclusion Resource Document;
• Include definitions, criteria for use, restrictions for use, training requirements, notification requirements, reporting requirements, and follow-up requirements; and
• Address distinctions, including distinctions in emotional and physical development, between the general student population and the special education student population as well as elementary school students and secondary school students. 

HB1550 (Greason) – makes local school boards responsible for setting the school calendar and determining the opening date 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.

HB1838 (Robinson) - makes local school boards responsible for setting the school calendar and determining the opening date 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. Additionally, it 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 2014-2015 school year, to close all schools in the division from the Thursday immediately preceding Labor Day through Labor Day or from the Friday immediately preceding Labor Day through the Tuesday immediately following Labor Day.

SB1354 (Reeves) requires DOE to establish a process for school boards to identify students who have a parent in the military and to report data on such students for the purposes of enhancing funding and services for those students. 

SB866 (Chafin/Vogel) - allows local school boards and local governments to participate in the state employee health plan. However, this bill does require the authorization from both the local school board and local governing body to participate in the plan.

Another very busy day in the Education Committees.

It’s been another busy day at the General Assembly with several committee and subcommittee meetings. This morning, the bills below were reported from the full House Education committee. Additionally, there were two bills before the Senate Finance committee that the committee reported and VSBA offered their support. 

SB866 (Chafin) and SB1075 (Vogel), relating to the option for localities to participate in the state employee health plan, reported unanimously with a substitute. The substitute bill allows local school boards and local governments to participate in the state employee health plan. However, it does require the authorization from both the local school board and local governing body to participate in the plan. 

Report from the House Education committee: 

HB1672 (Greason) was reported and referred from the committee on a 20-2 vote. This legislation repeals the A-F school grading system and requires the Board of Education, in consultation with the SOL Innovation Committee, to redesign the School Performance Report Card so that it is more effective in communicating to parents and the public the status and achievements of the public schools and local school divisions. HB1313, HB1566, and HB2180 were all tabled in lieu of HB1672 which will be the vehicle used for A-F school grading moving forward. The bill has been referred to the Committee on Appropriations due to the potential fiscal impact of redesigning the School Performance Report Card

HB1675 (Greason) was reported from committee with amendments. The new bill incorporates components of HB1491, HB1592 and HB1684. The bill permits local school divisions to waive 1) the requirement for students to receive 140 clock hours of instruction to earn a standard credit or 2) the requirement for students to achieve a satisfactory score on a SOL assessment test or Board-approved substitute test to earn a verified credit upon providing the Board with satisfactory proof, based on Board guidelines, that the students for whom such requirements are waived have learned the content and skills included in the relevant Standards of Learning. The Board guidelines will provide that a satisfactory score on a locally developed alternative assessment or on an Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate examination is proof that the student has learned the content.

HB2238 (LaRock) which creates Parental Choice Education Savings Accounts failed to report from the full committee on a 10-10 vote. It is expected that this legislation may be brought back up for consideration at another committee meeting. This bill will allow parents of qualified students to apply to the Department of Education for the Savings Account to consist of the student’s state per pupil funding and certain special education funds. Those funds may be used for certain expenses of the student including tuition, fees, or required textbooks at a private school, preschool, or program of home instruction, educational therapies or services, tutoring services, curriculum, tuition or fees for a private online learning program, fees for a nationally standardized norm-references achievement test, contributions to a qualified tuition program, or tuition, fees, or required textbooks at a public two-year or four-year higher education institution or an accredited private higher education institution in the Commonwealth. A qualified student means a resident of the Commonwealth and who:

• Has a 504 or IEP plan;
• Has a parent who is a member of the armed forces of the United States;
• Lives in a permanent foster care placement; or
• Was accepted for placement for foster care and was adopted.

HB2318 (Orrock) reported with a substitute 18-4. This bill would require the Board of Education’s formula for assessing high school graduation rates, as used for the Standards of Accreditation, to exclude from rates of on-time graduates each student who fails to graduate on time based on extenuating circumstances that are outside of the control of the local board in extenuating circumstances.

House Education Elementary and Secondary Education Subcommittee:

In addition to the full House Education Committee (reported below), the Elementary and Secondary Education Subcommittee also met today.  The subcommittee recommending reporting HB 1351 (Ramadan) related to biliteracy diploma seals, HB 1627 (R. Bell)m which allows an alternative assessment for economics education and financial literacy, and HB 1952 (Poindexter) related to the sale or transfer of school buses.

In addition, HB 1443 (Bell), which would require the Board of Education to adopt regulations on the use of seclusion and restraint was also recommended for reporting unanimously.  An identical bill has already been passed by the Senate. 

HB 1612 (Greason) was amended in subcommittee and would require certain online service providers who contract with school divisions to meet certain requirements related to data privacy and the use of student data.  The amended bill was recommended for reporting.

Senate Subcommittee on Public Education:

Finally, the Public Education Subcommittee of the Senate Education and Health Committee also met today.  The subcommittee reported SB 900 (Barker) related to the dates for administering SOL assessments, SB 1116 (Barker) related to alternative assessments for students with limited English proficiency, and SB 1021 (Puller), which allows school boards to count as instructional time up to 15 minutes per day of recess. 

The subcommittee also considered SB 1145 (Alexander), which is related to training for school board members.  SB 1145 was amended earlier this week to be identical to HB 1962 (Landes), which VSBA supports.  Today, however, the subcommittee further amended SB 1145 to remove many of the important provisions, including the listing of topics that would be the subject of training.  The subcommittee reported the amended bill. 

And we saved a bit of good new for last ... Senator Favola's SB 980 was scheduled to be heard today in the Senate subcommittee This bill would have reversed much of the good work that was accomplished - and to which VSBA contributed greatly - in the 2013 session when the teacher grievance procedure statutes were rewritten.  SB 980 would have restored the three-person fact finding panel process to the grievance procedure.  VSBA is strongly opposed to SB 980 and we have been lobbying Senator Favola to change her mind about this bill.  Today, Senator Favola withdrew SB 980 - a huge win for VSBA and school boards across Virginia.     
 

Update from Senate Education and Health and House Appropriations

The Senate Education and Health Committee met Thursday morning for its final meeting of session. Chairman Lucas moved quickly through the docket taking the recommendations from the subcommittee reports.  VSBA had a few successes in defeating bills unwanted bills and a defeat with the School Calendar “Labor Day” bills. Below is a report of the committee’s actions.

HB197 (Landes) directs the Board of Education to develop guidelines for supplementary written materials used to teach the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United State, the Bill of Rights, the Virginia Statue of Religious Freedom, the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the charters of the Virginia Company of April 10, 1606, May 23, 1609 and March 12, 1612. It further requires that all teachers ensure that supplementary written materials contain accurate restatements of the principles contained in the documents. The bill was reported from the full committee.

HB324 (D. Bell) was carried over to 2015. VSBA strongly opposed the bill due to significant problems including funding concerns. The bill established the Board of the Virtual Virginia School and requires that the School be open to any student in the Commonwealth. The bill would result in federal, state, and local funds, up to $6,500 per pupil, being transferred from local school boards to the Virtual Virginia School. Chairman Lucas will send a letter to the Chairman of the Finance Committee requesting that they examine the funding provisions in the bill.

HB515 (Minchew) was significantly amended in the House but VSBA still had concerns. The bill required principals to attempt to notify the parents of any student who violates a school board policy or compulsory school attendance requirement if the violation could result in a student’s suspension, long-term suspension or expulsion. VSBA had concerns with the language of the amended legislation because it could be construed to place a significant burden on principals to notify parents of minor infractions even when the teacher or principal has decided not to suspend the student. The bill was passed by indefinitely and failed to report from the committee due to the concerns raised by VSBA.

HB751 (Rust) was amended and unanimously reported by the committee. The bill clarifies that school administrators and the local school board have discretion in disciplining students for certain drug offenses. Current law requires school boards to expel students for these offenses but does allow school boards to impose another sanction if warranted by special circumstances. Under this legislation, a school board may still expel a student for drug offenses, but is not required to do so. 

HB754 (Rust) was stricken at the request of the patron. The bill allowed the school board or a committee thereof to change a disciplinary decision made by a Superintendent or designee or hearing officer in certain circumstances. It was VSBA's position that school boards can already take such actions.

HB786 (Wilt) prohibited the dismissal or probation of an employee on the grounds that they possessed an unloaded firearm in a closed container in their vehicle or in a locked trunk, a knife with a metal blade in their vehicle or an unloaded shotgun in a firearms rack. The possession of a firearm on school property in these limited circumstances is not prohibited by law but, currently, a school board may choose to prohibit it. This bill effectively prevented school boards from exercising their authority to prohibit firearms on school property in these circumstances. Due to the work of VSBA and other stakeholder groups, the bill was passed by indefinitely by the committee on a close 8-7 vote.

HB887 (Peace) requires the Board of Education to develop model criteria and procedures for establishing a Governor’s Career and Technical Education School. The bill was reported by the committee.

HB930 (Greason) was slightly amended by the patron and committee to clarify the specific stakeholder groups that will be involved in the Standards of Learning Innovation Committee, which will be led by the Secretary of Education. The committee is tasked to make recommendations on the Standards of Learning assessments, authentic individual student growth measures and alignment between the Standards of Learning and assessments and the School Performance Report Card. Additionally, the bill requires local school boards to certify instruction and the completion of local assessments in the other Standards of Learning subject areas. The bill also allows the Board of Education to make future further reductions in the number of SOL assessments in grades 3 through 11. VSBA has worked extensively with Delegate Greason on this legislation and strongly supports the bill. 

HB1086 (D. Bell) provides that when a student with a disability who lives in one school division enrolls in a full time virtual program offered by another a school division, the school division in which the student is enrolled must provide special education services to the student. The bill was reported by the committee.

HB1115 (Greason) expands Virtual Virginia by authorizing DOE to contract with local school boards that have developed virtual courses to make those virtual courses available to other school boards through Virtual Virginia. VSBA has been working with Delegate Greason on this legislation and strongly supports the bill. The full committee unanimously reported HB1115.

HB1229 (Landes) was conformed to SB324 to delay implementation of the A-F grading scale by three years. SB324 (Miller) has passed the House floor which delays implementation by one year. Both bills will go to conference to work on a compromise.

Unfortunately, the School Calendar “Labor Day” bills were not placed on the docket for a hearing by the committee. Without an action on HB333, HB610 and HB577, the bills will be left in committee indefinitely.

Thursday afternoon the Elementary and Secondary Education subcommittee of House Appropriations met to act on the final bills assigned to them. As expected, the majority of the bills were tabled due to the fiscal impact.

SB388 (Barker) required the Board of Education to promulgate regulations providing local school boards maximum flexibility to determine the date for administering SOL assessments. The bill was tabled.

SB389 (Barker) directed the Board of Education to promulgate regulations for eligibility of expedited retakes of SOL assessments for each student regardless of grade level or course. The bill was tabled.

SB291 (Carrico) imposed certain evaluation requirements, including evaluation by a Teacher of the Visually Impaired, for students with visual impairment. VSBA had concerns about the fiscal impact this legislation would have on school divisions. The bill was tabled due to those concerns.

SB305 (Deeds) required that the Board of Education promulgate regulations to (1) increase the number of students and grade levels that are eligible for expedited retakes  and (2) allow students in grade 3 through 5 who score 390 to 399 on a SOL assessment to receive remediation and retake the assessment. The bill was tabled.

SB144 (Edwards) required all revisions to SOL assessments be finalized by December 31 of the school year prior to the school year in which the revised assessment will be administered. Due to the same fiscal impact concerns of HB365, the bill was tabled.

SB532 (Stuart) was conformed to HB134 (Cole) and reported from the subcommittee since it doesn’t have any fiscal impact to school divisions. The bill requires that a student with diabetes, with written parental and prescriber consent, be allowed to carry and use supplies and equipment for immediate treatment of their diabetes.

Mid-week report

The subcommittee and committee dockets have been fairly light this week. Lots of legislation has either passed or been defeated and much of the focus has been on the recently released budget proposals.

On Monday, SB291 (Carrico) was unanimously reported and referred to the Appropriations Committee. This legislation imposes certain evaluation requirements, including evaluation by a Teacher of the Visually Impaired, for students with visual impairment.

Tuesday morning the House Education Reform subcommittee met to discuss SB172, SB276, SB324, SB499 and SB539.

SB172 (Stuart) was conformed to HB410 (Anderson) and unanimously reported. The legislation requires each non-interscholastic youth sports program utilizing public school property to either establish policies and procedures based on either the local school division's policies and procedures or the Board of Education's guidelines regarding the identification and handling of suspected concussions in student-athletes or follow the policies and procedures regarding the identification and handling of suspected concussions required of local school divisions in existing law.

SB276 (Favola) allows the local school board to require that current students of an existing public school that is to be converted and their siblings be given enrollment priority over the open enrollment lottery. This legislation was reported.

SB324 (Miller) relating to A-F school grading was conformed to HB1229 (Landes) to delay the implementation of school grading by one year. The bill was reported 5-2.

SB499 (Hanger) was tabled by the subcommittee on a 5-2 vote. This legislation allowed for the delay of transfer to the Opportunity Educational Institution by one year.

Finally, SB539 (Howell) was unanimously tabled by the subcommittee. The legislation required the Secretary of Education to report on the Commonwealth’s activities relating to Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Career Readiness.

Tuesday afternoon the Senate Committee on Local Government met and discussed a few bills of interest to VSBA.

HB594 (BaCote) and HB1080 (Garrett) were rolled together and conformed to SB163. This legislation extends the Commission on Local Government Mandates Review to July 1, 2018. Additionally, it expands the membership to seven members and adds two non-government appointees with a background in business.

HB1011 (Byron) also reported from the committee. It extends the Commission on Local Government Mandates Review to July 1, 2018.

This morning the full House Education committee briefly met to act on items from Tuesday’s subcommittee.

SB172 (Stuart) was reported unanimously with the substitute.

SB324 (Miller) was reported unanimously with the substitute.

SB276 (Favola) was reported 21-1 with the substitute.

Immediately following the full committee the Elementary and Secondary Education subcommittee met for its final meeting.

Due to concerns from stakeholders SB588 (Black) was stricken from the docket by the patron.

SB107 (Stanley) was reported and referred to the Appropriations committee. This bill establishes a STEM grant program. The donations must be used by the qualified schools to support STEM programs. Qualified schools are public elementary and secondary schools where at least 40 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch. Grants are capped at $50,000 per organization per year.

SB168 (Stanley) was reported and referred to the Appropriations committee. This bill provides a grant of $5,000 to new and experienced teachers who relocate to either a school where at least 40 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch or to a school in a locality with a population of 50,000 or less.

SB672 (Favola) allows the Board of the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind (VSDB) to create criteria and procedures for all out-of-state students to attend VSDB. There will be a tuition charged to these out-of-state students.  This bill was reported unanimously from the subcommittee.

SB155 (Miller) was tabled by the subcommittee. This legislation required at least 20 minutes of physical activity per day or an average of 100 minutes per week for students in grades kindergarten through five. 

SB562 (Locke) reported unanimously from the subcommittee. This bill allows the school board that partners with a college partnership laboratory school to charge tuition to students enrolled in the college partnership laboratory school who do not reside within the partnering division.

SB153 (Stuart) was reported 8-1 from the subcommittee. This bill only impacts Planning District 16 that includes Stafford, Fredericksburg, Caroline, King George and Spotsylvania. It expands eligibility for services through the Comprehensive Services for At-Risk Youth and Families program to students who transfer from an approved private school special education program to a public school special education program for the purpose of providing special education and related services when the public school special educational program is able to provide services comparable to those of an approved private school special educational program.            

Crossover Report

This session VSBA has been working with nearly 200 bills that are directly or indirectly related to K-12 education. We have had a number of significant successes in defeating or amending unfavorable legislation and in passing favorable legislation. Below is a summary of some of the VSBA’s most significant successes thus far this session. As you will read below, however, there is much work still to do.

Defeated Legislation

Lots of legislation was defeated through the committee processes, often due to high fiscal impact. We’ve outlined just a handful of the hot topic bills that were defeated.

HB66 (Ramadan) – This legislation would have required that each school board place at least one school resource officer in every elementary and secondary school. The cost of this legislation would have been paid by the Lottery Fund with a fiscal impact of $243 million in FY15 and a recurring cost of $130 million per year. Due to the major fiscal impact, the legislation was tabled in the House Appropriations Elementary and Secondary Education subcommittee.

HB173 (Farrell) – House Bill 173 would have prohibited a law enforcement officer or other persons to search a cell phone, tablet, laptop or computer without a search warrant. This legislation was problematic for VSBA especially given the impact it would have on school-issued tablets, laptops and desktop computers. The Courts of Justice Criminal subcommittee tabled the bill.

HB207 (D. Bell) – There was much debate and discussion about House Bill 207 in the Education and Courts of Justice subcommittees. This bill would have required the Board of Education, local school boards and school board employees to create an environment that encourages students to explore scientific controversies in the classroom and assist teachers to find effective ways to present scientific controversies in science class. Due to constitutional concerns, the bill was reported and referred by the House Education committee to the Courts of Justice committee. The bill was left in the Courts of Justice committee.

HB228 (Cole) – The amended version of this legislation would have required that a local school division provide instruction in Braille or the use of Braille to visually impaired students unless the IEP or 504 team, after an evaluation, deemed it not appropriate to meet the student’s educational needs. Additionally it would have required that the evaluation be conducted by a certified Teacher of the Visually Impaired (TVI). Due to the potential fiscal impact, the House Appropriations Elementary and Secondary Education subcommittee tabled the bill.

HB513 (Morris) – This legislation would have allowed the local governing body to remove any appointed board, commission or committee member at any time for any reason. This bill was extremely problematic for our appointed school boards. Through the work of our appointed school board members and VSBA, the bill failed to report from the Counties, Cities and Towns subcommittee #1.

SB240 (Carrico) – Senate Bill 240 would have made it a misdemeanor for a principal, assistant principal or supervisor to refuse to release a student to the custodial parent. VSBA and many other groups opposed this legislation. The bill was carried over to 2015.

SB509 (Barker) – This bill would have required all school boards to offer full day kindergarten instruction of at least 5.5 hours. The bill failed in the Senate Education and Health committee on a close 7-8 vote.

HB113 (Bob Marshall) – House Bill 113 would have completely repealed last year’s Opportunity Educational Institution legislation. VSBA as well as many education stakeholder groups supported this legislation. Ultimately the bill was tabled in the House Education Reform subcommittee.

HB463 (Yost/Kilgore) – House Bill 463 was strongly supported by VSBA, VASS, VEA as well as VML and VaCo. The bill would have allowed local school boards to join the state employee health plan. After three years, the local school board would be required to make an irrevocable election whether to participate in the state employee health plan. All costs of participation would be borne by the local school board and employee of the school division. Even with strong support from all stakeholder groups, the bill failed to report from the House Appropriations Compensation and Retirement subcommittee due to the indeterminate fiscal impact.

Amended Legislation

Often problematic legislation has so much support or momentum that we cannot defeat it. This happens often with hot issues, such as student health, bullying and school safety. Below are some of the bills on which we worked for significant amendments because we did not believe they could be defeated.

HB515 (Minchew) – This legislation was significantly amended in committee and now requires principals to attempt to notify the parents of any student who violates a school board policy or compulsory school attendance requirement if the violation could result in a student’s suspension, long-term suspension or expulsion. VSBA has concerns with the language of the amended legislation because it could be construed to place a significant burden on principals to notify parents of minor infractions even when the teacher or principal has decided not to suspend the student. VSBA will continue to work to amend the legislation to avoid these unintended consequences. House Bill 515 unanimously passed the House 99-0.

HB134 (Cole) – The original House Bill 134 permits parents of public school student with diabetes to designate in a diabetes care plan a delegated care aide to provide diabetes care for the student, including the administration of insulin and glucagon, when a school nurse or physician is not present in the school or at a school-sponsored activity. The bill also required the delegated care aide to receive training in diabetes care and every school employee to receive basic training in responses to emergency situations and changes from one to two the minimum number of employees in a school that must be trained with regard to a student with diabetes who attends the school. With significant work and input from VSBA, we were able to amend the bill. The amended bill requires that a student with diabetes, with written parental and prescriber consent, be allowed to carry and use supplies and equipment for immediate treatment of their diabetes. House Bill 134 passed the House 87-12.

SB532 (Stuart) is very similar to Del. Cole’s HB134. SB532 requires training for certain staff in the administration of insulin and glucagon and the certification of the Superintendent that the requirements of Board’s Manuel for Training Public School Employees in the Administration of Insulin and Glucagon have been met. Additionally the bill requires that a student with diabetes, with written parental and prescriber consent, be allowed to carry and use supplies and equipment for immediate treatment of their diabetes. VSBA has worked with the patron to offer amendments to the bill. While some have been accepted, we still have concerns with the legislation. We will continue to work with the patron and hope to have the bill amended to conform with HB134).

HB198 (Landes) – House Bill 198 which was amended at VSBA's request, clarifies that in cases of weapons and drug offenses, the school board may, but is not required to expel the student. The bill was reported from House Education and unanimously passed the House.

SB441 (Garrett) – The amended version of Senate Bill 441, which is identical to House Bill 198, clarifies that in cases of weapons and drug offenses, the school board may, but is not required to expel the student. This bill unanimously passed the Senate.

HB449 (R. Bell) – VSBA worked with Delegate Rob Bell to amend House Bill 449. The amended version of the bill prohibits school board members or employees or the Department of Education from transmitting personally identifiable information from a student’s record to the federal government except as required by federal law or regulation. The amended House Bill 449 unanimously passed the House.

Passed Legislation

While we have spent a lot of time amending or opposing legislation, there are many bills that VSBA actively supported during the first half of session. Here are a few of the bills that passed the house of origin and are headed to the other house.

HB754 (Rust) allows the school board or a committee thereof to change a disciplinary decision made by a Superintendent or designee or hearing officer in certain circumstances. It is VSBA's position that school boards can already take such actions. The patron of the bill and the House Education committee indicated that they thought this bill would clarify existing law. House Bill 754 passed the House on a 96-2 vote.

HB751(Rust) clarifies that local school board have discretion in disciplining students for certain drug offenses. Current law requires school boards to expel students for these offenses but does allow school boards to impose another sanction if warranted by special circumstances. Under this legislation, a school board may still expel a student for drug offenses, but is not required to do so. HB752 (Rust) removes the possession of a pneumatic weapon on school grounds from the list of weapons offenses that carry a mandatory sanction of expulsion (unless, again, special circumstances exist). This bill still allows school boards to prohibit the possession of pneumatic weapons and to expel students for violating such a policy, but expulsion would no longer be required in these cases. VSBA supports both HB751 and HB752 because these bills give local school boards flexibility to decide appropriate disciplinary sanctions and to avoid the confusion of the "mandatory" expulsion that was not actually mandatory. HB751 and HB752 have passed the House and are on their way to the Senate.

HB720 (McClellan) requires local school boards to set aside a non-restroom location that is shielded from public view to be designed as an area for any mother, who is employed by the local school board or enrolled as a student, to take breaks during the school day to express milk to feed her child until the child reaches the age of one. This bill passed the House 87-9.

HB333 (Greason) is just one of the Labor Day bills before the General Assembly. This bill would repeal the so-called “King’s Dominion law” and allow local school boards to set their own calendars and determine the opening date of the school year. House Bill 333 passed the House 75-24. House Bill 610 (Robinson) is a different take on the Labor Day bill. It will allow a local school board to set their school calendar and opening date. However, the division must close schools from the Thursday before through Labor Day or Friday before through the Tuesday after Labor Day. House Bill 610 passed the House 75-24.

HB930 (Greason) reduces SOL assessments in grade 3 through 8 from 22 to 17 assessments. It requires local school boards to certify instruction and the completion of local assessments in the other Standards of Learning subject areas. Further, the bill creates the Standards of Learning Innovation Committee. The committee, led by the Secretary of Education, will include a variety of stakeholders that are tasked to make recommendations on the Standards of Learning assessments, authentic individual student growth measures and alignment between the Standards of Learning and assessments and the School Performance Report Card. The bill also allows the Board of Education to make future further reductions in the number of SOL assessments in grades 3 through 11. House Bill 930 unanimously passed the House 99-0.

HB1115 (Greason) expands Virtual Virginia by authorizing DOE to contract with local school boards that have developed virtual courses to make those virtual courses available to other school boards through Virtual Virginia. VSBA has been working with Delegate Greason on this legislation and strongly supports the substitute language. House Bill 1115 unanimously passed the House 99-0.

HB1054 (Loupassi) requires the Board of Education to consider all computer science course credits earned by students to be science course credits, mathematics course credits, or career and technical education credits in establishing course and credit requirements for a high school diploma. This bill passed the House 65-33.

HB977 (Rust) and SB43 (Favola) extend from five business days to ten business days the deadline for a teacher to request a hearing after receiving written notice of a recommendation of dismissal. These bills extend the total time to process a teacher dismissal grievance by about a week, but do not otherwise alter new the grievance process that was created by legislation that VSBA supported last session. HB977 has passed both the House and Senate. SB43 unanimously passed the House and is on the way to the Senate.

HB1229 (Landes) delays the implementation of the A-F school grading system to October 1, 2015. Delegate Jackson Miller offered a floor amendment last week to extend the delay to October 1, 2017 as outlined in SB324. On Monday he withdrew the amendment due to the risk of the patron striking the bill. House Bill 1229 passed 97-2.

Similar to HB1229, SB324 (Miller) delays the implementation of the A-F school grading system to October 1, 2017 and further outlines certain factors that need to be included in the grading system. The bill has passed the Senate 23-17.

SB305 (Deeds) requires the Board of Education to promulgate regulations to increase the number of students and grade levels that are eligible for expedited retakes of the Standards of Learning assessments. Additionally, the regulations must permit students in grade three through five who score between 390 and 399 to receive focused remediation and retake the assessment. Senate Bill 305 passed the Senate unanimously.

SB562 (Locke) allows school boards that partner with a college partnership laboratory school to charge tuition to students enrolled in the lab school who do not reside within the partnering division. This bill unanimously passed the Senate.

HB324 (D. Bell) establishes the Board of the Virtual Virginia School and requires that the School be open to any student in the Commonwealth. The bill would result in federal, state, and local funds, up to $6,500 per pupil, being transferred from local school boards to the Virtual Virginia School. There are also other significant problems with this legislation and VSBA strongly opposes it. House Bill 324 passed the House 64-34.

SB236 (Carrico) is a very problematic bill that passed the Senate before control of that chamber shifted from Republican to Democrat. This bill requires that each school division adopt a policy that creates a limited public forum at any school event at which a student is permitted to speak and provides that the limited public forum does not discriminate or regulate against a student’s voluntary expression of religious viewpoint. Additionally, students may organize prayer groups or religious groups before, during or after school and shall have the same access to school facilities as other student-organized groups. If this bill passes, we believe that a constitutional challenge against a school board implementing the legislation is extremely likely. VSBA offered an amendment to the legislation that would authorize the Attorney General to advise and defend school boards implementing the legislation. This proposed amendment was rejected by the patron. The bill, without the amendment proposed by VSBA, passed the Senate 20-18. Fortunately, similar legislation that was introduced in the House, HB493 (Lingamfelter) was killed in the House Courts of Justice committee. VSBA will continue to oppose SB236 and it will hopefully suffer the same fate as HB493.

HB388 (Davis) requires each local school board to reimburse each public charter school in the school division in an amount equal to the difference between (i) the proportionate share of all state and federal resources allocated for students with disabilities and school personnel assigned to special education programs in the public charter school and (ii) the actual cost to the public charter school to educate such students, as determined by the local school board. House Bill 388 passed 61-37. VSBA has concerns with this bill because it takes away a school board’s ability to negotiate these terms with a charter school operator. VSBA will continue to seek amendments to this legislation or, alternatively, to defeat it in the Senate.

HB786 (Wilt) prohibits the dismissal or probation of an employee on the grounds that they possessed an unloaded firearm in a closed container in their vehicle or in a locked trunk, a knife with a metal blade in their vehicle or an unloaded shotgun in a firearms rack. The possession of a firearm on school property in these limited circumstances is not prohibited by law but, currently, a school board may choose to prohibit it. This bill would effectively prevent school boards from exercising their authority to prohibit firearms on school property in these circumstances. VSBA opposes this bill because it limits school boards authority on what should be a local decision. HB786 passed the House 67-32.

HB63 (R. Bell) prohibits a public school from joining an organization governing interscholastic activities that does not allow student receiving home school instruction to participate in such activities. Effectively it forces VHSL to deem home school students eligible to participate in interscholastic activities. As expected, House Bill 63 passed the House 60-39. VSBA will continue to oppose the bill and we are hopeful that it will be defeated in the Senate Education and Health committee as it has in prior years.

Immediate Action Needed – Contact your legislators to delay A-F school grading

On Thursday, Delegate Jackson Miller made a floor amendment to House Bill 1229, relating to A-F school grading. HB1229, sponsored by Delegate Steve Landes would delay the implementation by one year to October 1, 2015. Delegate Miller’s floor amendment would delay implementation by three years to October 1, 2017. The bill has been passed by for the day and will be up for a final vote on Monday.

The 3 year delay proposed by Delegate Miller better aligns with the Senate version (SB324) sponsored by Senator John Miller. Senate Bill 324 passed the floor last week on a 23-17 vote.

We urge you to call and email your legislators by Monday at 11am and ask them to SUPPORT Delegate Miller’s floor amendment to DELAY A-F school grading until October 1, 2017. You can find the contact information for your legislators here.

Thank you for your support.

House Education Reform Subcommittee: A-F grading, school calendar and electronic textbooks

This morning the House Education Reform Subcommittee met to discuss a variety of bills ranging from A-F school grading and electronic textbooks to local control of the school calendar.

HB318 (Kory) would abolish the A-F grading system. This bill was laid on the table and will not move forward. Additionally HB553 (Krupicka) would change A-F grading from a single letter grade to five letter grades starting in the 2015-2016 school year . This bill was laid on the table. HB618 (Mason) would delay A-F grading for three years and HB1262 (Miller)would delay A-F for three year and outlined factors that needed to be included in the grades. Both of these bills were tabled. However, HB1229 (Landes) was reported from the subcommittee. This bill delays the A-F grading system from October 1, 2014 to October 1, 2015 unanimously passed the subcommittee.

There were several local control of the school calendar bills again this year. HB35, HB42, and HB386 were all tabled and rolled into HB333. HB333 makes local school boards responsible for setting the school calendar and determining the opening date of the school year. Additionally, HB577 was reported. This legislation is different than most of the school calendar bills. It will allow a division Superintendent and local school board to set the school calendar for any school within the division that has failed to achieve full accreditation status or any division if more than 15 percent of the schools within the division failed to achieve full accreditation status. HB610 was reported by the subcommittee. It will allow a local school board to set their school calendar and opening date. However, the division must close schools from the Thursday before through Labor Day or Friday before through the Tuesday after Labor Day. Finally, HB34 was tabled by the subcommittee. This bill would prohibit high schools from starting programs of instruction prior to 8:00a.m.

There were two bills dealing with electronic textbooks, HB742 patroned by Delegate Kory and HB936 patroned by Delegate Surovell. HB742 requires that all local school board’s textbook contracts and purchase orders include printed textbooks, printed textbooks with electronic files or electronic textbooks version in grades kindergarten through grade 12. Currently it is only required in grades 6 through 12. Additionally, it requires the Department of Education to report annually to General Assembly on the level of broadband connectivity of each local school board and the ability for each student to access electronic textbooks at school and at home. HB936 prohibits school boards from using electronic textbooks in their residence unless the school board adopts a plan to ensure that by July 1, 2017 every student will have access to a personal computing device and access to the internet. Both HB742 and HB936 were carried over for the year for the committee to discuss in the interim.