Today VSBA staff attended the full committee meeting of Senate Education and Health. There was a large docket of bills and many that were of interest to VSBA:
HB 2 (Bell, Richard P.) – This bill would require the Board of
Education to provide for teacher licensure by reciprocity for a period of one
year for any spouse of an active duty member of the Armed Forces of the United
States or the Commonwealth, provided that such spouse has obtained a valid out-of-state
license, with full credentials and without deficiencies, that is in force at
the time the application for such a one-year reciprocal license is received by
the Department of Education. The bill would provide that any such individual
who receives a satisfactory evaluation at the conclusion of the year of
employment under such one-year reciprocal license is eligible for a renewable
license. VSBA supports the bill. The committee reported the bill (14-0).
HB 45 (Filler-Corn) – This
bill would require any family life education curriculum offered in any
elementary school, middle school, or high school to incorporate age-appropriate
elements of effective and evidence-based programs 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 committee reported the bill (13-1).
HB 50 (Hope) – This bill would require each local school board to adopt
policies that (i) prohibit school board employees from requiring a student who
cannot pay for a meal at school or who owes a school meal debt to do chores or
other work to pay for such meals or wear a wristband or hand stamp and (ii)
require school board employees to direct any communication relating to a school
meal debt to the student's parent, which may be made by a letter addressed to
the parent to be sent home with the student. The committee reported the bill
(15-0).
HB 80 (Krizek) – This
bill would require the Board of Education, in its regulations providing for
teacher licensure by reciprocity, to permit applicants to submit third-party
employment verification forms. VSBA supports this bill. The committee reported
the bill (15-0).
HB 84 (Bell, Richard P.) – This
bill would require any local school board that does not offer any elective
course in American Sign Language to (i) grant academic credit for successful
completion of an American Sign Language course offered by a comprehensive
community college or a multidivision online provider approved by the Board on
the same basis as the successful completion of a foreign language course and
(ii) count completion of any such American Sign Language course toward the
fulfillment of any foreign language requirement for graduation. The committee
reported the bill (14-0).
HB 215 (Knight) – This bill
would declare eligible for a renewable one-year license to teach in public high
schools in the Commonwealth any individual who has (i) received a graduate degree
from a regionally accredited institution of higher education; (ii) completed at
least 30 credit hours of teaching experience as an instructor at a regionally
accredited institution of higher education; (iii) received qualifying scores on
the professional teacher's assessments prescribed by the Board, including the
communication and literacy assessment and the content-area assessment for the
endorsement sought and (iv) completed certain other licensure requirements. VSBA
supports this bill. The committee reported the bill (15-0).
HB 231 (Hope) – This bill would clarify that in a county with the county
manager plan of government (Arlington County), the county may have an elected
school board notwithstanding the default method of school board appointment as
set out in the Code. VSBA supports this bill. The committee reported the bill
(15-0).
HB 330 (Yancey) – This bill
would permit any public elementary or secondary school student to possess and
use unscented topical sunscreen in its original packaging on a school bus, on
school property, or at a school-sponsored event without a note or prescription
from a licensed health care professional if the topical sunscreen is approved
by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for nonprescription use for the
purpose of limiting damage to skin caused by exposure to ultraviolet light. The
bill contains an emergency clause. The committee carried the bill over to 2019
(8-6).
HB 438 (Bulova) – This bill would require the Board of Education to adopt
regulations that prohibit any school board or any individual who is an
employee, contractor, or agent of such school board from assisting another
employee, contractor, or agent in obtaining a new job if such school board or individual
knows or has probable cause to believe that such other employee,
contractor, or agent engaged in sexual misconduct regarding a minor or student.
The committee reported the bill (14-0).
HB 544 (Freitas) – This bill
would permit each local school board to (i) establish High School to Work
Partnerships (Partnerships) between public high schools and local businesses to
create opportunities for high school students to (a) participate in an apprenticeship,
internship, or job shadow program in a variety of trades and skilled labor
positions or (b) tour local businesses and meet with owners and employees or
(ii) delegate the authority to establish Partnerships to the local school
division's career and technical education administrator or his designee, in
collaboration with the guidance counselor office of each public high school in
the school division. The bill requires such local school boards to educate high
school students about opportunities available through such Partnerships. The
bill would also require the Board of Education, the Department of Labor and
Industry, and the State Board for Community Colleges to identify Partnerships
that may be eligible for exemptions from certain federal and state labor laws
and regulations and establish procedures by which such exemptions may be
obtained for such Partnerships. VSBA supports the bill. The committee reported
the bill (14-0).
HB 670 (Kilgore) – This bill
would permit any local school board that governs a school division (i) in which
the locality is designated as fiscally at-risk or fiscally distressed by the
Appalachian Regional Commission in the most recent fiscal year or is determined
to have above-average fiscal stress or high fiscal stress by the Virginia
Commission on Local Government in its most recent "Report on the
Comparative Revenue Capacity, Revenue Effort, and Fiscal Stress of Virginia
Counties and Cities" and (ii) for which the composite index of local ability
to pay is less than or equal to 0.2000 to expend up to 25 percent of the
required local effort for basic aid for debt service on school building
capital renovation or construction projects. The bill would provide that in the
event that the school division no longer meets such criteria, the local school
board shall develop and implement a plan to readjust expenditures of the
required local effort for basic aid over the course of no more
than four fiscal years. The bill also provides that in the event that a
school division that no longer met such criteria and that developed such plan
subsequently meets the criteria again, the local school board may seek the
approval of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to amend such plan. The
bill has an expiration date of July 1, 2030. The committee reported and rereferred
the bill to Senate Finance (15-0).
HB 676 (Pogge) – This bill would declare it the goal of the Commonwealth
that each child who is deaf or hard of hearing is (i) as linguistically ready
for kindergarten as his peers who are not deaf or hard of hearing and (ii)
receptively and expressively literate in English and literate in written
English by the end of third grade. The bill would require each agency of the
Commonwealth that is responsible for providing services to children who are
deaf or hard of hearing to collaborate to provide unified and seamless services
for each such child from the onset of the Early Hearing Detection and
Intervention process through the end of his elementary and secondary school
career. The bill would also establish a 14-member Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing
Children's Advisory Subcommittee within the Disability Commission to advise the
Commission on the provision of services in the Commonwealth for children who
are deaf or hard of hearing. The committee carried the bill over to 2019
(15-0).
HB 810 (O'Quinn) – The
bill would require any school bus operator applicant who does not possess an
commercial driver's license to receive (i) a minimum of 24 hours of classroom
training and (ii) six hours of behind-the-wheel training on a school bus that
contains no pupil passengers and requires any school bus operator applicant who
possesses a commercial driver's license to receive (a) a minimum of four hours
of classroom training and (b) three hours of behind-the-wheel training on a
school bus that contains no pupil passengers. Current law leaves the setting of
such hourly requirements to the Department of Education. The bill contains
technical amendments. The VSBA supports this
bill. The committee reported the bill (15-0).
HB 1000 (Gilbert) – This bill would permit any school board to employ any
individual who was employed by a school board as of December 17, 2015, and who
(i) has been convicted of a felony, with the exception of certain enumerated
felonies, and (ii) has been granted a simple pardon by the Governor and has had
his rights restored by the Governor. The committee reported the bill with a
substitute (conforming to Peake’s bill) (13-1).
HB 1085 (Yancey) – This bill
would require any local school board of a school division in which a military
installation or other military housing is located to establish and implement
policies to provide for the enrollment to any school of any military student
residing on a military installation or in military housing within the school
division, upon the request of his parent. The bill would permit such policies
to include certain conditions. The bill would require a copy of such policies
to be posted on the division's website and to be available to the public upon
request. The committee reported the bill (15-0).
HB 1156 (Wilt) – This
bill would require the Board of Education, in its regulations governing
licensure, to provide for licensure of teachers with an endorsement in dual
language instruction pre-kindergarten through grade six. The bill would define
"dual language instruction" as instruction in English and in a second
language. The bill would require the Board, in establishing the requirements
for such endorsement, to require, at minimum, coursework in dual language
education; bilingual literacy development; methods of second language
acquisition; theories of second language acquisition; instructional strategies
for classroom management for the elementary classroom; and content-based
curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The bill would provide that (i) each
teacher with such an endorsement is exempt from the Virginia Communication and
Literacy Assessment requirement but is subject to the subject matter-specific
professional teacher's assessment requirements and (ii) no teacher with such an
endorsement is required to obtain an additional endorsement in early/primary
education pre-kindergarten through grade three or elementary education
pre-kindergarten through grade six in order to teach in pre-kindergarten
through grade six. VSBA supports the bill. The committee reported the bill
(15-0).
HB 1419 (Delaney) – This bill
would require local school
boards to provide (i) a minimum of 680 hours of instructional time to students
in elementary, except for students in half-day kindergarten, in the four
academic disciplines of English, mathematics, science, and history and social
science and (ii) a minimum of 375 hours of instructional time to students
in half-day kindergarten in the four academic disciplines of English,
mathematics, science, and history and social science. The bill would authorize
local school boards to include and require the Board of Education to accept,
elementary school, unstructured recreational time that is intended to develop
teamwork, social skills, and overall physical fitness in any calculation of
total instructional time or teaching hours. The committee conformed the bill to
match SB
273 (Petersen). The committee reported the bill (15-0).
HB 1485 (Filler-Corn) – This bill would
make several changes to the procedures relating to interventions when a pupil
fails to report to school for a total of five scheduled school days for the
school year, no indication has been received by school personnel that the
pupil's parent is aware of and supports the pupil's absence, and a reasonable
effort to notify the parent has failed, including (i) removing the appointed
attendance officer as a party to the plan to resolve such nonattendance, (ii)
permitting but not requiring the attendance officer to participate in the
conference necessitated by additional absences subsequent to the development of
the plan, and (iii) permitting but not requiring the attendance officer to file
a complaint with the juvenile and domestic relations court alleging the pupil
is a child in need of supervision or to institute criminal proceedings against
the parent pursuant to relevant law. Under current law, the attendance officer
is required to participate in such conference and is also required to file such
complaint and institute such proceedings in cases in which the pupil is absent
for an additional school day without indication that the pupil's parent is
aware of and supports the pupil's absence. The committee reported the bill
(14-0).
HB 1504 (Cline) – This bill would require enrollment in the Virtual
Virginia online learning program during the school year to be open, on a
space-available basis, to each public high school student in the Commonwealth
and each high school student in the Commonwealth who receives home instruction.
VSBA opposed this bill as originally written and approached the patron with amended language. The committee amended the bill to
address enrollment and reported and rereferred to Senate Finance (15-0).
HB 1600 (Bourne)
– This
bill would reduce the
maximum length of a long-term suspension from 364 calendar days to 45 school
days. The bill would permit a long-term suspension to extend beyond a
45-school-day period but would prohibit such a suspension from exceeding 364
calendar days if (i) the school board or division superintendent or his
designee finds that aggravating circumstances exist, as defined by the local
school board in a written policy, or (ii) the long-term suspension is preceded
by another long-term suspension in the same school year. VSBA supported the
bill as amended. The committee reported the bill (13-1).
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