House Committee on Education Meeting, February 17, 2020

The House Committee on Education met February 17, 2020 and considered the following bills.

SB98 (Locke) Removes(i) the option for local school boards to extend the three-year probationaryterm of service for teachers by up to two additional years and (ii)the prohibition against school boards reemploying any teacher whoseperformance evaluation during the probationary term of service isunsatisfactory. The bill reported 11-3.

SB167 (Favola) Removes the definition of "incompetency" for the purpose of establishing grounds for the dismissal of public school teachers. The bill reported 9-6.

SB170 (Locke) Requires the Department of Criminal Justice Services, in coordination with the Department of Education and the Department of Juvenile Justice, to annually collect, report, and publish data related to incidents involving students and school resource officers. The bill also requires the Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety to analyze and disseminate submitted data. The bill reported 15-0.

SB186 (Dunnavant) Requires the Department of Education to establish guidelines for individualized education program (IEP) teams to utilize when developing IEPs for children with disabilities to ensure that IEP teams consider the need for age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate instruction related to sexual health, self-restraint, self-protection, respect for personal privacy, and personal boundaries of others. The bill requires each local school board, in developing IEPs for children with disabilities, in addition to any other requirements established by the Board of Education, to ensure that IEP teams consider such guidelines.

SB221 (Locke) Shortens from every five years to every two years the frequency of the review period for memorandums of understanding between school boards and local law-enforcement agencies. The bill also requires local school boards to conspicuously publish the current division memorandum of understanding on its division website and provide notice and opportunity for public input during each memorandum of understanding review period. The bill reported 12-2.

SB237 (Barker) Provides that an attendance officer, or a division superintendent or his designee when acting as an attendance officer, may complete, sign, and file a petition for a violation of a school attendance order in response to the filing of a petition alleging the pupil is a child in need of supervision with the intake officer of the juvenile and domestic relations district court on a form approved by the Virginia Supreme Court. The bill provides that the filing of such a petition by a nonattorney school attendance officer, or a school division superintendent or his designee, does not constitute the practice of law. The bill reported 14-0.

SB324 (Deeds) Requires 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 also provides that any person receiving a service retirement allowance who is hired by a local school board as a school bus driver may elect to continue to receive the retirement allowance during such employment, provided that certain conditions are met. The bill was reported and referred to the House Committee on Appropriations on a 14-0 vote.

SB897 (DeSteph) Requires all members of governing boards of public institutions of higher education to participate in educational programs designed to address the role, duties, and responsibilities of the governing boards at least once within the first two years of membership and at least once within every two years of membership thereafter. Under current law, new members are required to participate in such programs at least once during their first two years of membership. The bill directs the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia to develop educational materials for board members with more than two years of service on a governing board and develop criteria by which such members shall demonstrate compliance. The bill reported 15-0.

SB978 (Edwards) Directs the State Board  of Education to amend its regulations to require that persons seeking a technical professional license with an endorsement to teach military science have either the appropriate credentials issued by the United States military or a recommendation from a Virginia employing educational agency. The bill reported 14-0.

SB1087 (Pillion) Establishes the School Construction Fund as a special non reverting 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 referred to the House Committee on Appropriations on a 14-2 vote.

SB112 (Suetterlein) Requires the Board of Education to include in its graduation requirements the options for students to complete a dual-enrollment course or high-quality work-based learning experience. The bill reported with amendment 16-0.

SB134 (Stuart) Requires each local school board to ensure that each elementary school teacher has an average of one 45-minute period per school day of planning time and that each middle and high school teacher is provided an average of one planning period per school day or the equivalent, which shall be at least 45 minutes or one class period, whichever is longer. The bill permits local school boards and teachers to enter into an appropriate contractual arrangement providing for compensation in lieu of such planning time or period. Under current law, public elementary school teachers are guaranteed at least an average of 30 minutes of planning time per school day during a school week. The provisions of the bill are contingent on funding in a general appropriation act. The committee conformed the bill to HB273. The bill was reported and referred to the House Committee on Appropriations on a 15-1 vote.

SB275 (Barker)  Provides for the immediate enrollment of any student who was in foster care upon reaching 18 years of age but who has not yet reached 22 years of age for whom the local department of social services or child-placing agency is unable to produce documents normally required for enrollment. Under current law, an exception to the requirement for such documentation is provided only to students currently in foster care. The committee conformed the bill to HB368. The bill was reported as amended 16-0.

SB728 (McClellan) Makes several changes to the Standards of Quality, including requiring the establishment of a unit in the Department of Education to oversee work-based learning statewide in Standard 1 and requiring the Board of Education to establish and oversee the local implementation of teacher leader and teacher mentor programs and the establishment of a unit in the Department of Education to oversee principal mentorship statewide in Standard 5. The bill also makes several changes relating to school personnel in Standard 2, including (i) establishing schoolwide ratios of students to teachers in certain schools with high concentrations of poverty and granting flexibility to provide compensation adjustments to teachers in such schools; (ii) requiring each school board to assign licensed personnel in a manner that provides an equitable distribution of experienced, effective teachers and other personnel among all schools in the local school division; (iii) requiring each school board to employ teacher leaders and teacher mentors at specified student-to-position ratios; (iv) requiring state funding in addition to basic aid to support at-risk students and granting flexibility in the use of such funds by school boards; (v) lowering the ratio of English language learner students to teachers; (vi) requiring each school board to employ reading specialists and establishing a student-to-position ratio for such specialists; (vii) requiring school boards to employ one full-time principal in each elementary school; (viii) lowering the ratio of students to assistant principals and school counselors in elementary, middle, and high schools; and (ix) requiring each school board to provide at least four specialized student support positions, including school social workers, school psychologists, school nurses, and other licensed health and behavioral positions, per 1,000 students. The provisions of the bill are contingent on funding in a general appropriation act. The committee conformed the bill to HB1316. The bill was reported and referred to the House Committee on Appropriations on a 10-6 vote.

SB853 (Boysko) Requires the Department of Education to establish and appoint such members as it deems appropriate to a Culturally Relevant and Inclusive Education Practices Advisory Committee for the purpose of providing (i) standards recommendations to the Department of Education which shall be considered by the Board of Education during the 2021-2022 review of the history and social science Standards of Learning and (ii) recommendations on meaningful professional development with school personnel related to culturally relevant and inclusive education practices. The bill requires the Committee to report its recommendations to the Board of Education, the Governor, and the Chairpersons of the House Committee on Education and the Senate Committee on Education and Health no later than July 1, 2021. The bill was reported with amendment 10-6.

SB937 (Surovell) Directs the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) to establish and administer a two-year Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Scholarship Pilot Program, beginning in 2020, for the purpose of providing access to postsecondary educational opportunities to students living in poverty. The Program would provide scholarships to select comprehensive community colleges in the maximum amount of $4,000 per year to 200 selected students who meet TANF eligibility requirements. The Program would be funded by the unexpended balance in federal TANF block grant funds. The bill directs VCCS to report to the Governor and the General Assembly no later than December 1 of each year of the Program regarding the effectiveness of and other information about the Program. The provisions of the bill are contingent on funding in a general appropriation act. The committee conformed the bill to HB455. The bill was reported and referred to the House Committee on Appropriations 12-4.

SB142 (Dunnavant) Requires that the Virtual Virginia Program, the statewide electronic classroom established by the Department of Education, be made available to all public schools. Currently, the program is available only to high schools. The bill requires the Department to utilize a learning management system for the purposes of implementing The bill also authorizes the Department to charge a per-student, per-course fee to school divisions for each student enrolled in a full-time Virtual Virginia program beyond an initial allotment of 15 such students per course, per school. The bill prohibits the Department from limiting the total number of such students by school division. The bill requires the Department to annually report on the Virtual Virginia Program to the General Assembly. The bill was reported and referred to the House Committee on Appropriations 16-0.

SB161 (Boysko) Requires the Department of Education to develop and make available to each school board, no later than December 31, 2020, model policies concerning the treatment of transgender students in public elementary and secondary schools that address common issues regarding transgender students in accordance with evidence-based best practices and include information, guidance, procedures, and standards relating to (i) compliance with applicable nondiscrimination laws; (ii) maintenance of a safe and supportive learning environment free from discrimination and harassment for all students; (iii) prevention of and response to bullying and harassment; (iv) maintenance of student records; (v) identification of students; (vi) protection of student privacy and the confidentiality of sensitive information; (vii) enforcement of sex-based dress codes; and (viii) student participation in sex-specific school activities and events, excluding athletics, and use of school facilities. The bill requires each school board to adopt, no later than the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year, policies that are consistent with but may be more comprehensive than such model policies developed by the Department of Education. The bill reported 12-5.

SB171 (Locke) Requires school resource officers and school security officers to receive training specific to the role and responsibility of a law-enforcement officer working with students in a school environment that includes training on (i) relevant state and federal laws; (ii) school and personal liability issues; (iii) security awareness in the school environment; (iv) mediation and conflict resolution, including de-escalation techniques, such as physical alternatives to restraint; (v) disaster and emergency response; (vi) awareness of cultural diversity and implicit bias; (vii) working with students with disabilities, mental health needs, substance abuse disorders, or past traumatic experiences; and (viii) student behavioral dynamics, including current child and adolescent development and brain research. The bill reported 14-1-1.

SB232 (Boysko) Requires each school board to make tampons and pads available at all times and at no cost to students in the bathrooms of each public school at which any student in grades five through 12 is enrolled. The bill reported with substitute on a 10-7 vote.

SB578 (Howell) Requires 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 2023. The committee conformed the bill to HB1012. The bill was reported with substitute on a 15-2 vote.

SB619 (Deeds) Requires each local school board to adopt and implement policies that require each school board employee deemed to be in need of such training to complete mental health awareness training once every 10 years. The bill requires the Department of Education to make mental health awareness training available to employees in need of such training. The bill reported and was referred to the House Committee on Appropriations 15-3.

SB680 (Mason) Requires the Board  of Education to extend for at least one additional year, but fo rno more than two additional years, the three-year provisional license of a teacher employed in a school for students with disabilities that is licensed by the Board upon receiving from the school administrator of such school (i) a recommendation for such extension and (ii) satisfactory performance evaluations for such teacher for each year of the original three-year provisional license. The provisions of the bill mirror current law relating to the extension of provisional licenses for public school teachers. The bill reported 15-1.

SB729 (McClellan) Eliminates the requirement that school principals report certain enumerated acts that may constitute a misdemeanor offense to law enforcement. The bill reported 15-4.

SB880 (Locke) Requires local school boards to employ school counselors in accordance with the following ratios, effective with the 2020-2021 school year: in elementary schools, one hour per day per 75 students, one  full-time equivalent at 375 students, one hour per day addition one full time per 75 students or major fraction thereof; in middle schools, one period per 65 students, one full-time equivalent at 325 students, one additional period per 65 students or major fraction thereof; and in high schools, one period per 60 students, one full-time equivalent at 300 students, one additional period per 60 students or major fraction thereof. The bill also requires local school boards to employ one full-time equivalent school counselor position per 250 students in grades kindergarten through 12, effective with the 2021-2022 schoolyear. The bill was reported and amended and referred to the House Committee on Appropriations on a 18-1 vote.

SB910 (Hashmi) Requires state funding to be provided pursuant to the general appropriation act to support 20 full-time equivalent instructional positions for each 1,000 students identified as having limited English proficiency. Current law requires state funding to support 17 such positions for each 1,000 such students. The provisions of the bill are contingent on funding in a general appropriation act. The bill was reported and referred to the House Committee on Appropriations on a 12-7 vote.

SB935 (Boysko) Provides that any student is eligible for in-state tuition who (i) attended high school for at least two years in the Commonwealth and either (a) graduated on or after July 1, 2008, from a public or private high school or program of home instruction in the Commonwealth or (b) passed, on or after July 1, 2008, a high school equivalency examination approved by the Secretary of Education; (ii) has submitted evidence that he or, in the case of a dependent student, at least one parent, guardian, or person standing in loco parentis has filed, unless exempted by state law, Virginia income tax returns for at least two years prior to the date of registration or enrollment; and (iii) registers as an entering student or is enrolled in a public institution of higher education in the Commonwealth. The bill states that students who meet these criteria shall be eligible for in-state tuition regardless of their citizenship or immigration status, except students with currently valid visas issued under 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(15)(F), 1101(a)(15)(H)(iii), 1101(a)(15)(J) (including only students or trainees), or 1101(a)(15)(M). Information obtained in the implementation of the provisions of the bill shall only be used or disclosed to individuals other than the student for purposes of determining in-state tuition eligibility. The bill was reported and referred to the House Committee on Appropriations on a 12-7 vote.