The House Education Pre-K - 12 Subcommittee met on Friday, January 22, 2021 and considered the following legislation:
HB 1918 (Mugler) Adopts measures aimed at improving student driver safety. The bill requires curriculum for tenth grade health at public schools to include instruction on the dangers of distracted driving and speeding, to be developed by the Department of Education. Finally, the bill requires that a student show proof of a valid driver's license or driver privilege card before being issued a school parking pass at a public high school and that schools use a common application for such parking passes. The subcommittee recommended reporting 8-0.
HB 1998 (Murphy) Reduces from three to two the minimum number of mandatory annual lock-down drills in each public elementary and secondary school in the Commonwealth. The subcommittee recommended reporting 8-0.
HB 2013 (Roem) Requires each school board to adopt a policy that prohibits the board from filing a lawsuit against a student's parent because the student cannot pay for a meal at school or owes a school meal debt. The subcommittee recommended reporting 5-3.
HB 2019 (McQuinn) Requires each local school board to adopt and implement policies for the possession and administration of undesignated stock albuterol inhalers and valved holding chambers in every public school in the local school division, to be administered by any school nurse, employee of the school board, employee of a local governing body, or employee of a local health department who is authorized by the local health director and trained in the administration of albuterol inhalers and valved holding chambers for any student believed in good faith to be in need of such medication. The subcommittee recommended reporting 6-2.
HB 2105 (Bulova) Delays until the 2022-2023 school year the requirement for all publicly funded early childhood education providers to participate in a quality rating and improvement system to be established by the Board of Education by July 1, 2021. The bill also delays from the fall of 2023 to the fall of 2024 the publication of initial quality ratings for such providers. The bill reinstates the School Readiness Committee and alters the composition and scope of the work of the School Readiness Committee. The subcommittee recommended reporting 8-0.
HB 2119 (Keam) Exempts students who are (i) at least 18 years old, (ii) emancipated minors, or (iii) unaccompanied minors who are not in the physical custody of their parent or guardian from the requirement that the student's parent participate in the parent/student component of a school's driver education program. This parent/student component is required in Planning District 8, where the component must be in-person training. In the other school divisions that choose to offer this optional parent/student component, the parent/student component may be administered either in person or online. The subcommittee recommended reporting 8-0.
HB 2135 (Roem) Requires each school board that governs a local school division that has a student population that qualifies for free and reduced-price meals at a minimum percentage of 50 percent in the prior school year and simultaneously offers educational or enrichment activities and is consequently eligible to participate in the Afterschool Meal Program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) Child and Adult Care Food Program to apply to the Department of Education to participate in the Afterschool Meal Program for each such school to subsequently and simultaneously serve federally reimbursable meals and offer an afterschool education or enrichment program, pursuant to FNS guidelines and state health and safety standards. The bill requires the Department of Education to administer the Afterschool Meal Program on behalf of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The bill provides that the Superintendent of Public Instruction shall issue a waiver to this requirement upon determination that participation is not financially viable for a school or group of schools. The bill requires the Department of Education to develop a process and criteria for evaluating such waivers. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2022. The subcommittee recommended reporting 7-1.
HB 2176 (Torian) Defines, for the purposes of mandatory school board policies relating to abusive work environments, the terms "abusive conduct," "abusive work environment," "physical harm," and "psychological harm." The subcommittee recommended reporting 5-3.
HB 2182 (Wilt) Requires the Board of Education to amend its regulatory definition of "traumatic brain injury," for the purpose of the provision of special education for children with disabilities, to include an acquired injury to the brain caused by a medical condition, including stroke, anoxia, infectious disease, aneurysm, brain tumors, and neurological insults resulting from medical or surgical treatments. The current regulatory definition of "traumatic brain injury" includes only an acquired brain injury caused by an external physical force. The subcommittee recommended reporting 8-0.
HB 2090 (Cox) Establishes the Reimbursement for Education Access Decisions (READ) Fund (the Fund); permits any school board to establish a READ program to provide, during the state of emergency declared by the Governor in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, funds to any parent or legal guardian who meets compulsory attendance requirements by having his child taught by a tutor or teacher of qualifications prescribed by the Board of Education and approved by the division superintendent in lieu of enrollment in the local school division to cover certain costs of such education; and permits any such school board to apply to the Department of Education for an award from the Fund to reimburse the school board for half of the cost of making reimbursements to parents pursuant to its READ program. The bill provides that the school board is responsible for covering the remaining half of the cost of its READ program with such federal and local funds as may be available for such purpose. The bill permits the Department of Education to establish such rules and procedures as it deems necessary for receiving applications for reimbursement and making awards from the Fund. The bill also provides that if federal funding is provided pursuant to an Act of Congress with regard to relief from the COVID-19 pandemic and such Act does not preclude such federal funding from being used to make awards from the Fund, the Governor shall reserve a reasonable amount of such federal funding to be credited to the Fund to fully support reimbursement requests from such school boards. The subcommittee recommended tabling the bill 5-3.
HB 2184 (Wilt) Establishes the 22-member Pandemic Remediation Task Force (the task force) as an advisory task force in the executive branch of state government, to be administered by the Department of Education, for the purpose of making recommendations on strategies for improving public education in the Commonwealth in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that can be implemented in each region and local school division in order to achieve a measure of uniformity in such improvements across the Commonwealth. The bill requires the task force to (i) develop recommendations for policies and funding that would assist public elementary and secondary school students impacted by school closures and the remote learning environment during the COVID-19 pandemic to adequately obtain core educational material that they may not have otherwise successfully retained during the course of such pandemic; (ii) develop a uniform strategy for public elementary and secondary schools to effectively identify students in need of remediation as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and provide remediation coursework and resources to such students; (iii) consider the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student achievement gaps and make recommendations on the interventions and additional services, such as tutoring, mentoring, and services from private educational service providers, that may be necessary to ensure that such gaps do not widen further beyond pre-pandemic levels; and (iv) submit to the Governor and the General Assembly, no later than December 1, an annual report on its work. The task force has a sunset date of July 1, 2024. The subcommittee recommended tabling the bill 5-3.
HB 2225 (Davis) Permits the parents of certain children to apply to the school division in which the child resides for a one-year, renewable Empowerment Scholarship Account that consists of an amount that is equivalent to a certain percentage of all applicable annual Standards of Quality per pupil state funds appropriated for public school purposes and apportioned to the resident school division in which the student resides, including the per pupil share of state sales tax funding in basic aid and any state per pupil share of special education funding for which the student is eligible. The bill permits the parent to use the moneys in such account for certain education-related expenses of the student, including tuition and fees at a private elementary school or secondary school that is located in the Commonwealth. The bill also contains provisions relating to auditing, rescinding, and reviewing expenses made from such accounts. The subcommittee recommended tabling the bill 5-3.
