Several VSBA Regional Chairs and
Vice-Chairs traveled to Richmond today to advocate on behalf of their regions
and VSBA. The VSBA members attended the House Education committee meeting, the Senate
Public Education subcommittee meeting, met with their legislators, and watched
the floor session of the Senate. It was another successful day for
#VSBAadvocacy at the General Assembly. Thank you to those members who traveled
near and far to participate in the political process. Your direct advocacy had
an impact on the decisions our legislators made today!
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| VSBA Regional Chairs and Vice-Chairs watch the floor session of the Virginia Senate from the gallery. |
In House Education they took up a
handful of bills that were in the Elementary and Secondary subcommittee last
week. Below are the actions the full committee took on those bills.
SB805 (Stanley) establishes a grant
program administered by the Board of Education for donations made by STEM
organizations to qualified schools. The donations must be used by qualified
schools to support STEM programs. The bill defines qualified schools as those
public elementary and secondary schools at which at least 40 percent of the
students qualify for free or reduced lunch. Grants are capped at $50,000 per
organization per year. The bill was reported and referred to the Appropriations
Committee as the provisions of the bill are contingent on funding in a 2015
general appropriation act.
SB1021
(Puller) was unanimously reported. This bill allows the Board of Education to
grant a waiver to a school division that is unable to meet the required 990
instructional hours in a school year because of severe weather conditions or
other emergency situations.
SB1236
(Favola) was unanimously reported. This bill eliminates the term "special
diploma" and specifies that students identified as disabled, who complete
the requirements of their individualized education programs and meet certain
requirements prescribed by the Board pursuant to regulations but do not meet
the requirements for any named diploma, shall be awarded Applied Studies
diplomas by local school boards.
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. The
bill was reported unanimously from the full committee.
SB1339
(Smith) allows the clerk of each school board to keep volumes of meeting
minutes and receipt and disbursement records, vouchers, contracts, and other official
papers electronically. The bill was reported unanimously
from the committee.
SB1354
(Reeves) was reported with a substitute. This bill requires
DOE to establish a process for school boards to identify students who have a
parent in the military. Non-identifiable, aggregate data collected will be made
available to local, state, and federal entities for the purposes of eligibility
for federal grant funding.
SB1386
(Vogel) requires every person
seeking initial teacher licensure or renewal of a teaching license with an
endorsement in elementary education to receive professional development
training on the screening, intervention, accommodation, and use of technology
for students with dyslexia. This
bill was reported and referred to the Appropriations Committee.
On the Senate floor today the Home
School Sports bill, HB1626
(R. Bell), was scheduled for a final vote. Instead of a vote the bill was taken
by for the day. That means it could be brought up for a final vote at any time.
We encourage you to continue to contact your Senators to express opposition to
the bill. However, HB1490 (Habeeb)
and HB2114
(D. Bell) both passed the Senate this afternoon. HB1490 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. HB2114 requires the regulations
setting nutritional guidelines for competitive foods permit each public school
to conduct no more than 30 school sponsored fundraisers per school year on
school grounds during regular school hours, during which food that does not
meet the nutrition guidelines for competitive foods may be sold to students.
Check back tomorrow for additional updates from a very snowy General
Assembly.
