HB953 (Ayala) would establish the STEAM Education Fund for
the purpose of awarding grants in amounts not to exceed $50,000 annually to any
public elementary or secondary school in the Commonwealth at which at least 25
percent of students qualify for free or reduced lunch that provides an academic
class, curriculum, or activity focused on a science, technology, engineering,
arts, or mathematics (STEAM) discipline. The bill was reported
and rereferred to Appropriations 14-1.
HB1012 (Bulova) would require the
Board of Education to establish a statewide unified public-private system for
early childhood care and education in the Commonwealth to be administered by
the Board of Education, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the
Department of Education. The bill transfers the authority to license and
regulate child day programs and other early child care agencies from the Board
of Social Services and Department of Social Services to the Board of Education
and Department of Education. The bill maintains current licensure, background
check, and other requirements of such programs. Such provisions of the bill
have a delayed effective date of July 1, 2021. The bill requires the Superintendent
of Public Instruction to establish a plan for implementing the statewide
unified early childhood care and education system and requires the Department
of Social Services and the Department of Education to enter into a cooperative
agreement to coordinate the transition. The bill also requires the Board of
Education to establish, no later than July 1, 2021, a uniform quality rating
and improvement system designed to provide parents and families with
information about the quality and availability of certain publicly funded early
childhood care and education providers and to publish the initial quality
ratings under such system in the fall of 2022. The substitute was reported
and rereferred to Appropriations 14-1.
HB928 (Coyner) would permit the Chesterfield County School
Board, with such funds as may be appropriated for such purpose pursuant to the
general appropriation act, to establish a recovery high school in the school
division as a year-round high school (i) for which enrollment is open to any
high school student who resides in Superintendent's Region 1 and is in the
early stages of recovery from substance use disorder or dependency and (ii) for
the purpose of providing such students with the academic, emotional, and social
support necessary to make progress toward earning a high school diploma and
reintegrating into a traditional high school setting. The bill was reported
and rereferred to Appropriations 15-0.
HB999 (Bell) would require each school board's policies on
the possession and administration of epinephrine in every school in the local
school division to require that at least one school nurse, employee of the
school board, employee of a local governing body, or employee of a local health
department who is authorized by a prescriber and trained in the administration
of epinephrine has the means to access at all times during regular school hours
any such epinephrine that is stored in a locked or otherwise generally
inaccessible container or area. The bill was reported 14-1.
HB15 (Krizek) would require the Board of Education to make
regulations to require each new public school bus purchased for the
transportation of students to be equipped with a seat belt consisting of a lap
belt and shoulder strap or harness in every seat. The bill requires each school
board to ensure that no later than July 1, 2038, each school bus that it uses
for the transportation of students is equipped with a seat belt in every
seat. The bill was passed by for the day.
HB156 (Sickles) would establish the Critical National
Security Language Grant Fund and the Critical National Security Language Grant
Program within the Department of Education for the purpose of awarding grants
on a competitive basis to any school division that provides a foreign language
course in a foreign language that is currently identified as critical by the
National Security Language Initiative for Youth scholarship program. Such
grants are limited to $5,000 per student who successfully completes a critical
foreign language course per school year. The bill was reported
and rereferred to Appropriations 13-2.
HB270 (VanValkenburg) would Requires every public school to
provide the parents of enrolled students with at least 24 hours' notice before
the school conducts any lock-down drill. The bill specifies that no such notice
is required to include the exact date and time of the lock-down drill. The bill was reported
15-0.
HB351 (Bell) would require the Superintendent of Public
Instruction, with the assistance of each school board or division
superintendent, to survey each local school division to identify critical
shortages of school bus drivers by geographic area and local school division
and to report any such critical shortage to each local school division and to
the Virginia Retirement System. The bill permits any school bus driver in any
geographic area or school division in which a critical shortage of school bus
drivers has been so identified to elect to continue to receive a service
retirement allowance if the driver meets certain other conditions. The bill was
reported and rereferred to Appropriations 15-0.
HB1301 (Adams) would require the funding transferred from
the Department of Education to the relevant school divisions in support of a
regional alternative education program to be based on each such school
division's need for the current school year. Under current law, such funding is
transferred based on data accumulated during the prior school year. The bill was reported
and rereferred to Appropriations 15-0.
HB1073 (Kory) would require each school board to annually
provide parents of pupils in grades kindergarten through 12 information
regarding the health dangers of tobacco and nicotine vapor products. The bill
requires that the information provided be consistent with guidelines set forth
by the Department of Education. The bill was reported 14-3.
HB1274 (O’Quinn) would establish the School Construction
Fund as a special nonreverting fund in the state treasury and requires the
Department of Education to establish the School Construction Program for the
purpose of providing grants from the Fund, subject to certain conditions, to
school boards that leverage federal, state, and local programs and resources to
finance the design and construction of new school buildings and facilities or
the modernization and maintenance of existing school buildings and facilities. The bill was reported
and rereferred to Appropriations 15-1.
HB402 (Keam) would require every
public school at which sixth grade is the highest grade taught to hold at least
one lock-down drill after the first 60 days of the school session and every
public school at which seventh grade or any grade above seventh grade is taught
to hold at least two lock-down drills after the first 60 days of the school
session, in addition to the two lock-down drills required to be held during the
first 20 days of the school session at each such school. Current law requires
each public school to hold at least two lock-down drills after the first 20
days of the school session. The bill requires kindergarten students to be
exempt from mandatory participation in lock-down drills during the first 60
days of the school session and requires the principal at each relevant school
to implement such exemption by either (i) conducting teacher-only drills or
otherwise providing suitable training for kindergarten teachers or (ii)
notifying each parent of a kindergarten student at least five school days in
advance of each planned lock-down drill and permitting each such parent to opt
his child out of participation in such lock-down drill. The bill was
amended in Committee so that all schools will be required to hold the same
number of lockdown drills: two in the first 20 days and only one more after the
first 60 days. This is an overall
reduction in the number of lockdown drills required. The amended bill was reported 15-0.
HB1394
(Leftwich) would require the summary of each family life education program that
is provided to the parents of students who participate in such program to
include a complete description of the process for parental review of program
materials. The bill requires each local school board to post for public viewing
on the local school division's official website each such summary, a complete
copy of all noncopyrighted printed family life education program materials, and
a description of all family life education program audio-visual materials. The
bill requires each local school board to implement the foregoing provisions no
later than the start of the 2021-2022 school year. The bill was
reported 11-4.
HB634 (LaRock) would allow a local school board, when applying for its school division to be designated as a School Division of Innovation, to apply to the Board of Education to replace the Virginia Studies and Civics and Economics Standards of Learning assessments with performance-based assessments. The bill requires any such application to (i) demonstrate that the proposed performance-based assessment requires that students demonstrate the knowledge and skills required by the relevant Standards of Learning and that students demonstrate one or more of the skills and qualities of critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication, or citizenship and (ii) provide evidence of the local school board's capacity to administer and score performance-based assessments. The bill was reported and rereferred to Appropriations 9-5.
