This morning there were dueling
meetings of the House Education committee and Senate Finance committee followed
by the House Elementary and Secondary Education subcommittee. The VSBA team
split our time between the two meetings to ensure we shared your positions and
priorities.
The House Education committee took up
several bills from yesterday’s Education Innovation subcommittee.
HB525
(LeMunyon) requires the SOL Innovation Committee
to review and make recommendations to the Chairs of the House Education and
Senate Education and Health committees on the number, subjects, and question
compositions of standardized tests administered to public high school students
in the Commonwealth by November 1, 2016. The bill was unanimously reported from
the committee 21-0.
HB241
(Lingamfelter) directs the Board of Education to consider assessments aligned
to the Standards of Learning that are structured and formatted in a way that
measures the content knowledge of students who are English language learners and
that may be administered to such students as Board of Education-approved
alternatives to the SOL end-of-course English reading assessments. The bill was
unanimously reported from the committee 21-0.
HB842
(Cline) requires every person seeking initial licensure or renewal of a license
to receive professional development in the indicators of dyslexia and the
scientific methods of teaching a student who is dyslexic. It also requires the
Department of Education to collaborate with the State Council of Higher
Education for Virginia (SCHEV) to ensure that all teacher preparation programs
offered at public higher education institutions in the Commonwealth convey
information on the identification of students at risk for dyslexia and related
disorders.
HB954
(Keam) requires each local school division’s policies and procedures regarding
the identification and handling
of suspected concussions in student-athletes to include a "Return to Learn
Protocol" that requires school personnel to be alert to cognitive and
academic issues that may be experienced by a student who has suffered a
concussion or other head injury. The bill also broadens the scope of the
"Return to Learn Protocol" in the Board of Education's guidelines for
school division policies and procedures on concussions in student-athletes to
require school personnel to (i) be alert to cognitive and academic issues that
may be experienced by any student who has suffered a concussion or other head
injury and (ii) accommodate the gradual return to full participation in
academic activities of all students who has suffered a concussion or other head
injury. Under current law, the "Return to Learn Protocol" only
imposes such requirements on school personnel with respect to student-athletes.
In the Senate Finance
committee it was anticipated that the statewide health insurance bills, SB384
(Vogel) and SB675
(Chafin) would be heard and voted on. However, the bills were taken by for the
day as the patrons along with Delegates Jones and Kilgore and the Director of
the Virginia Department of Human Resource Management work on an agreement
between the House and Senate. We continue to strongly support this legislation
which would give local school boards the option to join the state employee
health plan and are appreciative of the efforts to reach a compromise.
The day was capped
off with the House Courts of Justice Civil Law subcommittee where HB168
(LaRock) was on the docket. This bill allows a locality who 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 these violations by mailing a copy of the summons to the owner of
the vehicle. Current law requires that the summons be delivered by a law
enforcement officer. HB168 was unanimously reported from the subcommittee and
will now move on to the full House Courts committee.
