S.B. 249 (Favola) Allows
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 committee voted to
pass the bill by for the year on 13-2 vote.
S.B.
323 (Barker) Requires the Board of
Education, in establishing high school graduation requirements, to permit any
student who is pursuing an advanced studies diploma to substitute two standard
units of credit in computer science for two standard units of credit in a
foreign language. The bill was reported with a substitute on a 13-2 vote.
S.B.
390 (McPike) Reduces the total number and type
of required Standards of Learning assessments to the minimum requirements
established by the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as
amended. The bill was passed by for the year on a 11-4 vote.
S.B.
515 (McDougle) Permits the school board of any
school division from which students attend Northern Neck Technical Center to
set the school calendar so that the first day that students are required to
attend school is earlier than Labor Day, including earlier than 14 days before
Labor Day. The bill was reported on a 15-0 vote.
S.B.
551 (Ruff) Requires the Board of
Education, in establishing high school graduation requirements, to permit any
student who has successfully completed during high school at least two years of
workforce skills training as evidenced by written certification from the
training provider to graduate with a standard diploma without completing the
remaining credit requirements for such diploma. The bill was stricken at the
request of the patron.
S.B.
594 (Hanger) Classifies
security-related devices located outside of the school building on school
property and security-related devices located on school buses as eligible
security equipment under the Public School Security Equipment Grant Act of
2013. The bill reported by a vote of 15-0.
S.B.
595 (Hanger) Classifies vaping
detectors as eligible security equipment under the Public School Security
Equipment Grant Act of 2013. The bill reported on a 15-0 vote.
S.B.
619 (Deeds) Requires the Board of Education to
amend its regulations related to teacher licensure to require that every person
seeking initial licensure complete a Mental Health First Aid training or
similar program and every person seeking renewal of a license complete an online
module on mental health developed or approved by the Department of Education.
The bill requires the Department of Education, in collaboration with the
Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, to develop or
approve one or more online modules on mental health by November 30, 2020.
S.B.
680 (Mason) Requires the Board of
Education to extend for at least one additional year, but for no 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 was reported on a 15-0 vote.
S.B.
691 (Obenshain) Establishes the School
Guardian Fund and requires the Virginia Center for School and Campus safety to
establish and administer the School Guardian Program for the purpose of
providing grants from the Fund on a competitive basis to school boards for the
appointment or hiring of school guardians, which the bill defines as any
individual, including any school resource officer, school security officer, or
other school board employee, who is hired or appointed by a school board to
carry a firearm on school property during normal school hours for school
security purposes. The bill requires each such school guardian to receive an
annual stipend of $500 for the performance of his duties. The bill requires the
Center to (i) establish training and screening standards for such school
guardians that include, at minimum, a requirement to receive a psychological
screening and a drug screening prior to the commencement of school guardian
duties and (ii) adopt such other rules and policies as it deems necessary for
the administration of the Program, including rules and policies for grant
applications and awards. The bill was passed by indefinitely by a vote of 9-6.
S.B.
728 (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 bill was reported and
referred to finance on a 15-0 vote.
S.B.
729 (McClellan) Eliminates the requirement
that school principals report certain enumerated acts that may constitute a
misdemeanor offense to law enforcement. The bill was reported on a 10-2-1 vote.
S.B.
832 (Ebbin) Requires the governing boards or
administrators of private elementary and secondary schools accredited on behalf
of the Board of Education by the Virginia Council for Private Education to
adopt and implement policies prohibiting any individual who is a governing
board member, administrator, employee, contractor, or agent of such school to
assist a governing board member, administrator, employee, contractor, or agent
of such school in obtaining a new job if such individual knows or has probable
cause to believe that the individual seeking new employment engaged in sexual
misconduct regarding a minor or student in violation of law. The bill was reported
by a 15-0 vote.
S.B.
847 (Pillion) Reduces the total number and
type of required Standards of Learning assessments to the minimum requirements
established by the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as
amended. The bill requires the Department of Education to annually report on
the estimated projected and actual savings from the implementation of the bill
and report the amount of such savings to the Governor and the Chairmen of the
House Committee on Appropriations and the Senate Committee on Finance no later
than the first day of each Regular Session of the General Assembly. The bill
also requires that such amount be included in the total for Direct Aid to
Public Education in any general appropriation act. The bill was passed by
indefinitely on a 14-1 vote.
S.B.
910 (Hashmi) Requires state funding, pursuant
to the general appropriation act, to be provided pursuant to Standard 2 of the
Standards of Quality to support divisionwide ratios of English language learner
students in average daily membership to full-time equivalent teaching positions
as follows: (i) for each English language learner identified as proficiency
level one, one position per 25 students; (ii) for each English language learner
identified as proficiency level two, one position per 30 students; (iii) for
each English language learner identified as proficiency level three, one
position per 40 students; and (iv) for all other English language learners, one
position per 58 students. Current law requires 17 full-time equivalent
instructional positions for each 1,000 students identified as having limited
English proficiency. The substitute bill was reported and referred to finance
by a vote of 12-2-1.
S.B.
933 (Favola) Requires the Department of
Education to develop and adopt a common statewide definition for the term
"students with limited or interrupted formal education" and to
require school boards to report on the number of students who fall under such
definition as part of the required data collection and reporting on average
daily membership for the purposes of documenting any changes in such numbers
over time and allowing for comparisons of such numbers across local school
divisions. The bill provides that in developing and adopting such common
statewide definition, the Department of Education shall consider and may adopt
existing definitions of "students with limited or interrupted formal
education." The substitute bill was reported with a vote of 13-2.
S.B.
978 (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 was
reported on a 15-0 vote.
S.B.
1020 (Stanley) Allows a
school board to adopt an alternative accountability process to provide a
principal and parties involved in an incident involving assault, or assault and
battery without bodily injury, that occurs on a school bus, on school property,
or at a school-sponsored event an option to enter into a mutually agreed-upon
process between the involved parties as an alternative to reporting such
incident to law enforcement. The bill provides that a principal in a school
division with such an alternative accountability process may attempt to engage
the parties involved in such an incident in the process prior to reporting such
incident to the local law-enforcement agency and prohibits, if provided for by
the school board, a principal from reporting a party who successfully completes
the alternative accountability process. The substitute bill was reported by a
14-0-1 vote.
S.B.
1040 (Vogel) Authorizes the
City of Winchester to compensate its school board members with an annual salary
not to exceed $4,500. The bill was reported and referred to finance on a 15-0
vote.
S.B.
1080 (Morrissey) Establishes
the Urban Teacher Fund and Program, to be administered by the Superintendent of
Public Instruction, for the purpose of providing grants to persons employed in
urban school divisions with teacher shortages who remain employed by the urban
school division for a period of at least five years. The bill was reported and
referred to finance on a 15-0 vote.
S.B.
1087 (Pillion) Establishes
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 referred to finance
on a 14-0-1 vote.
S.B.
1091 (Stanley) Would provide for
the authorization of volunteer school security officers by local school boards
and private or religious schools. The bill was passed by indefinitely on a 9-6
vote.
