The Week Before Crossover

Even though it's only Tuesday, it's already been a busy week since it's the last before Crossover. The committees and subcommittees have had long dockets and extra meetings to finish their work by next Tuesday. In the House Education committee, they held several meetings of the Education Innovation subcommittee and Elementary and Secondary Education subcommittee yesterday and today. Here’s are the highlights from those meetings. All bills that reported from the subcommittee will now be considered before the full committee on Wednesday morning. 

Education Innovation subcommittee – Monday morning meeting

HB895 (Greason) removes existing provisions related to standard and advanced studies diplomas and standard and verified units of credit. Additionally, it requires the Board of Education, in establishing high school graduation requirements to: (1) Develop and implement a Profile of a Virginia Graduate that identifies the knowledge and skills that students should attain during high school in order to be successful contributors to the economy of the Commonwealth, giving due consideration to critical thinking, creative thinking, collaboration, communication, and citizenship; (2) emphasize the development of core skill sets in the early years of high school; and (3) establish and require students to follow in the later years of high school alternative paths toward college and career readiness that include internships, externships, and credentialing. The bill was unanimously reported from the subcommittee.

HB831 (Greason) requires the Board of Education to include computer science and computational thinking, including computer coding in the Standards of Learning and program of instruction. Several other Delegates had similar computer science bills and were all incorporated into HB831. With a substitute the bill was unanimously reported from the subcommittee.

Elementary and Secondary Education subcommittee – Monday morning meeting

HB167 (Cole) permits local school boards to allow any school board employee who is a former law-enforcement officer and ceased or retired from serving in such capacity while in good standing to possess a firearm in (i) any public elementary or secondary school in the school division, including buildings and grounds; (ii) that portion of any property open to the public and then exclusively used for school-sponsored functions or extracurricular activities while such functions or activities are taking place; and (iii) any school bus owned or operated by the local school board. The subcommittee recommended tabled the bill.

HB187 (Taylor) requires the plans or blueprints for the construction of a new public school building to include an indoor active shooter gunshot detection and alerting system. The subcommittee recommended reporting and referring the bill to the Appropriations committee on a 4-3 vote.

HB682 (Peace) allows a superintendent to apply to the Department of Education for an annual waiver of the teacher licensure requirements for an individual whom the local school board hires or seeks to hire to teach in the area of career and technical education. The individuals must have at least 4,000 hours of recent and relevant employment experience. The subcommittee recommended reporting on a 7-2 vote.

HB864 (Hugo) allows a school board to conduct a teacher grievance hearing before a three-member fact-finding panel. Under current law, the school board has the option of appointing a hearing officer or conducting such hearing itself. The subcommittee recommended tabling the bill.

HB1234 (Lingamfelter) authorizes a school security officer to carry a firearm in the performance of his duties if he is a retired law-enforcement officer and the local school board grants him the authority to carry a firearm in the performance of his duties. The subcommittee recommended reporting the bill on a 7-2 vote.

HB1279 (Anderson) requires public schools to hold a fire drill at least once every week during the first 10 school days of each school session and at least two additional fire drills during the remainder of the school session. Under current law, every public school is required to hold a fire drill at least once every week during the first 20 school days of each school session and at least once every month during the remainder of the school session. The bill also requires every public school to hold a lock-down drill at least once every week during the first 20 school days of each school session and at least two additional lock-down drills during the remainder of the school session. Under current law, every public school is required to hold at least two lock-down drills every school year. The bill was reported on an 8-1 vote from the subcommittee.

Education Innovation subcommittee – Tuesday morning meeting

HB436 (Austin) requires the Department of Education to award recovery credit to any student in grades three through eight who fails a Standards of Learning assessment in English, reading, or mathematics, receives remediation, and subsequently retakes and passes such assessment, including expedited retakes. The subcommittee unanimously recommends reporting with amendments.

HB520 (LeMunyon) requires each school division that provides for the redistricting of school boundaries to permit any enrolled student who is assigned to a different school in the school division as a result of such redistricting to remain, at the request of his parent, at the school at which he is currently enrolled until he completes the highest grade level at such school. While the bills includes several other provisions relating to the redistricting process and included a substitute bill, the subcommittee recommended tabling the bill.

HB1377 (LeMunyon) requires local school divisions to notify the parents of each student where the number of students in a class exceeds the prescribed class size limit no later than 10 days after the date on which the classes exceed the limits. The bill was unanimously reported from the subcommittee.

HB565 (Lingamfelter) rewrites the required elements of a charter application and the charter contracting process. The bill does not restrict the Board of Education’s authority to authorize a charter school pursuant to the passage of the constitutional amendment. The subcommittee recommends reporting the substitute on a 5-4 vote. 

We look forward to seeing you at the VSBA Capital Conference tomorrow and Thursday! 

A busy Monday at the General Assembly

We started the day with the House Education committee where a handful of public education bills were on the docket. Below is a quick summary of the committee’s actions.

HB279 (Byron) directs the Board of Education to establish a Virginia career and technical education adjunct faculty provisional license and a Virginia STEM adjunct faculty renewable license for qualified individuals to teach high school career and technical education courses on a part-time basis. The bill prescribes requirements for such licenses. HB279 was unanimously reported from the committee with a substitute.

HB357 (Loupassi) requires at least 20 minutes of physical activity per day or an average of 100 minutes per week during the regular school year for students in grades kindergarten through five beginning with the 2018-2019 school year. The current requirement for a program of physical activity available to all students in grades six through twelve with a goal of at least 150 minutes per week remains unchanged. The committee recommended reporting the bill on an 18-4 vote.

HB942 (Wilt) requires local school boards to provide reasonable access to school property to any youth group listed as a patriotic and national organization in 36 U.S.C. Subtitle II, Part B, such as the Boy Scouts of America and the Girl Scouts of the United States of America, to provide written materials and speak to students at times other than instructional time during the school day to encourage such students to participate in the activities and programs provided by such organization. The bill was reported from the subcommittee on a 16-6 vote.

HB516 (Landes) requires the Board of Education to establish a policy to require each public elementary or secondary school to (i) notify the parent of any student whose teacher reasonably expects to provide instructional material that includes sexually explicit content, (ii) permit the parent of any student to review instructional material that includes sexually explicit content upon request, and (iii) provide, as an alternative to instructional material and related academic activities that include sexually explicit content, nonexplicit instructional material and related academic activities to any student whose parent so requests. The bill was unanimously reported from the committee.

HB487 (McClellan) removes language in § 9.1-110. pertaining to school resource officers employed by the School Resource Officer Grants Program from the obligation to enforce school board rules and codes of student conduct as a condition of their employment. The committee reported the bill on a 20-2 vote.

After the committee meeting the education team was diligently meeting with legislators to share VSBA's opposition to the charter school constitutional amendment. On the House side, it is anticipated that the constitutional amendment will be on the floor tomorrow for a vote. In the Senate, the constitutional amendment will be taken up tomorrow afternoon (Tuesday) in the Privileges and Elections committee at 4:00p.m. If you have not reached out to your legislators yet we would encourage you to do so.

The afternoon was busy with several committee meetings and legislators meetings for bills coming up later in the week.

In Senate General Laws, SB500 (Sturtevant) was heard by the committee. The bill requires every locality and school division to post on the public government website of the locality a register of all funds expended, showing vendor name, date of payment, amount, and a description of the type of expense, including credit card purchases with the same information. The bill also provides for the Commonwealth Data Point website administered by the Auditor of Public Accounts to include the same information for each state agency and institution, including each independent agency. Currently, the website includes such information for major state agencies. The bill will not be moving forward as it was passed by indefinitely on an 11-4 vote.

On the House side, the Courts Civil Law subcommittee was scheduled to hear HB168 (LaRock). However the bill was taken by for the day and will be heard on Wednesday. The bill allows a locality that has authorized the installation and operation of a video-monitoring system on school buses for recording violations of unlawfully passing a stopped school bus to execute a summons for such violation by mailing a copy of the summons to the owner of a vehicle that unlawfully passed a stopped school bus.

Thank you for your continued advocacy on behalf your board and VSBA. Check back tomorrow for more updates from Richmond! 

Highlights from the House Education Committee and House ESE Subcommittee

It was another busy day at the General Assembly with back to back committee and subcommittee meetings. Both meetings had very full dockets. I’ve included the highlights from the House Education committee and House Elementary and Secondary subcommittee meetings below. Check back tomorrow for updates from the Senate Education and Health committee and Senate Public Education subcommittee. 

House Education committee

HB166 (Cole) requires that a local school division school division provide instruction in Braille or the use of Braille to visually impaired students unless the IEP or 504 team, after an evaluation by a certified Teacher of the Visually Impaired (TVI), determines that it is not appropriate to meet the student’s educational needs. The Committee voted to report and refer the bill to the Appropriations committee.

HB365 (Davis) establishes the Adaptive Learning Tools Grant Fund where the Department of Education awards grants on a competitive basis to local school divisions that demonstrate the effective use of adaptive learning tools. The bill was reported and referred to the Appropriations committee.

HB753 (Greason) is another school calendar bill similar to HB571 but does not require an extended break over the Labor Day weekend. This bill 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. The bill was reported from the committee on a 16-6 vote.

HB353 (Greason) authorizes local school boards to enter into agreements with nonpublic schools to provide student transportation to and from school field trips. Current law authorizes such agreements for transportation to and from school. The bill was unanimously reported from the full committee.

HB196 (Lingamfelter) requires the Board of Education to adopt policies to ensure that the Department of Education does not require public elementary or secondary schools or local school divisions to provide certain duplicate information or certain information that is not necessary or required pursuant to state or federal law. It also requires the Board to permit public elementary and secondary schools and local school divisions to submit all information and forms to the Department electronically and annually evaluate and determine the continued need for the information that it collects from local school divisions. The bill was unanimously reported from the full committee.

HB571 (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. However, 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 2015-2016 school year, to close all schools in the division (i) from the Thursday immediately preceding Labor Day through Labor Day or (ii) from the Friday immediately preceding Labor Day through the Tuesday immediately succeeding Labor Day. The bill was reported from the committee on a 16-6 vote.

House Elementary and Secondary Education subcommittee

HB279 (Byron) directs the Board of Education to establish a Virginia STEM adjunct faculty provisional license and a Virginia STEM adjunct faculty renewable license for qualified individuals to teach high school science, technology, engineering, or mathematics courses on a part-time basis. The bill prescribes requirements for such licenses. HB279 was unanimously reported from the subcommittee.

HB306 (O’Quinn) permits local school boards to display advertising material on the sides and rear of school buses, provided that no such material obstructs the name of the school division or the number of the school bus or pertains to alcohol, gambling, or tobacco. After much discussion and concerns from stakeholder groups the bill was tabled by the subcommittee.

HB357 (Loupassi) requires at least 20 minutes of physical activity per day or an average of 100 minutes per week during the regular school year for students in grades kindergarten through five beginning with the 2018-2019 school year. The current requirement for a program of physical activity available to all students in grades six through twelve with a goal of at least 150 minutes per week remains unchanged. The subcommittee recommended reporting the bill on a 6-3 vote.

HB942 (Wilt) requires local school boards to provide reasonable access to school property to any youth group listed as a patriotic and national organization in 36 U.S.C. Subtitle II, Part B, such as the Boy Scouts of America and the Girl Scouts of the United States of America, to provide written materials and speak to students at times other than instructional time during the school day to encourage such students to participate in the activities and programs provided by such organization. The bill was reported from the subcommittee on a 6-3 vote.

HB516 (Landes) requires the Board of Education to establish a policy to require each public elementary or secondary school to (i) notify the parent of any student whose teacher reasonably expects to provide instructional material that includes sexually explicit content, (ii) permit the parent of any student to review instructional material that includes sexually explicit content upon request, and (iii) provide, as an alternative to instructional material and related academic activities that include sexually explicit content, nonexplicit instructional material and related academic activities to any student whose parent so requests. The bill was unanimously reported from the subcommittee.

HB487 (McClellan) removes language in § 9.1-110. pertaining to school resource officers employed by the School Resource Officer Grants Program from the obligation to enforce school board rules and codes of student conduct as a condition of their employment. The subcommittee recommended reporting the bill on a 7-2 vote.

VSBA Advocacy in Action at the General Assembly

This morning, the co-chairs of the VSBA Task Force on Workforce Readiness, Mr. Bill Kidd (VSBA President; School Board Member, Wythe County) and Dr. Tom Brewster (Superintendent, Pulaski County) presented to the House Education Committee to update the committee on their work and share the results of the recently completed statewide survey of Virginia school divisions on workforce readiness programs and initiatives.

Task Force co-chairs Bill Kidd and Tom Brewster present to the House Education Committee 

Since its creation, the task force has worked diligently to develop their mission, create the statewide survey, and analyze the results of the survey to offer key findings and recommendations. Some of the key findings outline the need for increased funding to sustain current programs, develop new programs, update equipment and resources, and obtain the highest quality instructors and greater collaboration between business/industry leaders and CTE. They also found that the ability to employ the most qualified personnel for CTE instruction is an ongoing issue and that increased collaboration with business and industry, the community college system, and the core school setting is necessary.

Task Force co-chairs respond to questions from legislators. 

The legislators were very receptive to the information shared by the task force co-chairs and were very engaged with thoughtful questions and comments. After the presentation, the co-chairs along with task force member, Dr. Greg Smith (Superintendent, Richmond County) met with additional members of the General Assembly. We came away from the meetings encouraged and energized. We heard genuine interest in working together to help students better prepare for the new economy. VSBA will continue to capitalize on this momentum throughout the session and into the coming months.

Members of the Task Force meet with state Senator Bill Carrico to discuss their survey results and key findings. 

For more information about the VSBA Task Force on Workforce Readiness please visit the VSBA website.