H.B. 134
(Runion) 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, to ensure that IEP
teams consider such guidelines. The bill reported 13-0.
H.B. 145 (Simon) 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,
events, and 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 was conformed
to Senate bill. The bill was reported 9-5.
H.B. 257 (Mullin) Eliminates the requirement for reports to
be made to division superintendents and school principals on incidents
involving assault or assault and battery, without bodily injury, of any person
on a school bus, on school property, or at a school-sponsored activity. The
bill also eliminates the requirement that school principals report certain
enumerated acts that may constitute a misdemeanor offense to law enforcement.
This bill incorporates HB 695. The bill was reported 12-2.
H.B. 271 (VanValkenburg) 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 was reported and referred to the Senate Finance
and Appropriations Committee 13-0.
H.B. 273 (VanValkenburg) 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 bill was reported and referred to the Senate Finance and
Appropriations Committee 11-2-1.
H.B. 292 (VanValkenburg) 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. This bill
incorporates HB 897 and HB 1135. The bill was reported 13-0.
H.B. 365 (Carroll Foy) Removes (i) the option for local
school boards to extend the three-year probationary term of service for
teachers by up to two additional years and (ii) the prohibition against school
boards reemploying any teacher whose performance evaluation during the
probationary term of service is unsatisfactory. This bill incorporates HB 1169
and HB 1326. The bill was reported 7-5.
H.B. 405 (Keam) Requires each school board to make tampons or
pads available at all times and at no cost to students in the bathrooms of each
facility that it owns, leases, or otherwise controls that houses a public
school at which any student in grades five through 12 is enrolled. The bill was
conformed to the Senate bill and reported 14-0-1.
H.B. 516 (Bulova) 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. This bill
incorporates HB 112. The bill was reported 14-0.
H.B. 634 (LaRock) 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 local assessments that
include performance-based assessments. The bill requires any such
application to (i) demonstrate that the proposed local 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 carried over until 2021 on a 13-0 vote.
H.B. 797 (Askew) Requires each local school board's plan to test and
remediate certain potable water sources to be consistent with guidance
published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or the Department of
Health. The bill require each local school board to submit such testing
plan and report the results of any such test to the Department of Health.
The bill also requires local school boards to take all necessary steps to
notify parents if testing results indicate lead contamination that exceeds 10
parts per billion. The bill was reported and referred to the Senate Finance and
Appropriations Committee 14-0.
H.B. 973 (VanValkenburg) Repeals several Acts of Assembly from
1901 to 1960 that contain provisions relating to the racial segregation of
students in elementary and secondary schools and institutions of higher
education in the Commonwealth. The bill was reported 13-0.
H.B. 1081 (Guzman) Provides that an attendance officer, or a division
superintendent or his designee when acting as an attendance officer, to
complete, sign, and file with the intake officer of the juvenile and domestic
relations district court, on forms approved by the Supreme Court of Virginia, a
petition for a violation of a school attendance order entered by the juvenile
and domestic relations district court in response to the filing of a petition
alleging the pupil is a child in need of supervision. The bill provides that
such actions do not constitute the unauthorized practice of law. The bill was
reported 13-0.
H.B. 1568 (Rush) 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 13-0.
