The House Education Committee met today. Below is a summary of the actions the committee took on the bills related to K-12 education.
HB1605 (LaRock), which creates the Parental Choice Educational Savings Accounts, was reported and referred to House Appropriations Committee on a vote of 12 to 9.
HB1408 (Ware), which would require school boards to have the vision of students in grade 2 or 3 and in grades 7 and 10 be screened by a qualified nonprofit vision health organization that uses a digital photoscreening method pursuant to a comprehensive vision program. The bill was reported and referred to House Appropriations Committee on a vote of 20 to 1.
HB1757 (Dudenhefer), was amended to require school boards to employ one school nurse in each school or one school nurse per 550 students. The amended bill was reported and referred to House Appropriations Committee on a vote of 19 to 2.
HB1982 (Greason), which would require the Board of Education to allow for the award of verified provide for the award of verified units of credit for a satisfactory score, to be determined by the BOE, on the PSAT examination, was reported unanimously.
HB2014 (Keam) would change the BOE's biennial review of the SOQ from even-numbered years to odd-numbered years. This was recommended by the BOE to align with the budget cycle. The bill was reported unanimously.
HB2173 (Murphy), which limits class size in science laboratory classes in grades six through 12 to 24 students, was reported and referred to the Appropriations Committee on a vote of 19 to 2.
HB2174 (Murphy), which requires school boards to report actual pupil teacher ratios in middle and high school by subject, school, and course and to report any class that exceeds to maximum pupil teacher ratio to be reported by subject, school and course.
HB1498 (LeMunyon) would reduce the maximum class size to 28 in grades K-3 and to 29 in grades 4-6. The bill was reported and referred to the Appropriations Committee on a vote of 20 to 1.
The Subcommittee on Elementary and Secondary Education also met today. Below is a summary of the actions taken by the subcommittee:
HB1661 (Greason), which would permit (but not require) schools to stock and administer, pursuant to a prescriber's written order, injectable medication for the treatment of adrenal crisis in students with adrenal insufficiency. The bill also provides liability protection to school staff who administer such medications. The subcommittee unanimously recommended that the bill be reported.
HB1690 (Dudenhefer), which eliminates the requirement that local governing bodies to commit to providing the required matching funds in order to qualify for grants under the Virginia Preschool Initiative, was recommended for reporting unanimously.
HB 1805 (J. Bell) would require every school boards that does not currently provide full-day kindergarten to all kindergarten students to develop and submit to the General Assembly by January 2018 a plan to phase-in full day kindergarten for all kindergarten students. The subcommittee recommended that the bill be referred to the Appropriations Committee.
HB2395 (Cline), which establishes a dyslexia advisor, was recommended for reporting.
HB2406 (Filler-Corn), would require that any family life education curriculum that is offered must include instruction on the importance of the personal privacy and personal boundaries of other individuals and tools for a student to use to ensure that he respects the personal privacy and personal boundaries of other individuals. The bill was recommended for reporting.
HB2257 (Filler-Corn) would have required any high school family life education curriculum offered by a local school division to incorporate age-appropriate elements of effective and evidence-based programs on consent. The subcommittee recommended tabling the bill.
