The SOL/SOQ Subcommittee met this morning and considered the following bills:
HB 1826 (Austin) Requires the nine-member Board of Education to include at least one member with experience or expertise in local government leadership or policymaking, at least one member with experience or expertise in career and technical education, and at least one member with experience or expertise in early childhood education, all of whom are appointed by the Governor. The bill failed 3-5.
HB 1827 (Austin) Requires the nine-member Board of Education to include at least five members, appointed by the Governor, who each reside in different superintendent's regions in the Commonwealth. The bill was recommended for reporting 7-1.
HB 1947 (Davis) Requires the Board of Education, in establishing high school graduation requirements, to provide for the substitution of computer coding course credit for any foreign language course credit required to graduate with a standard or advanced diploma for children with disabilities. Such requirement replaces a narrower provision in current law that requires the Board to permit a student who is pursuing an advanced diploma and whose individualized education program specifies a credit accommodation for world language to substitute two standard units of credit in computer science for two standard units of credit in a world language. The bill failed 3-5.
HB 2093 (O'Quinn) 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 recommended to be reported and referred to Appropriations 7-1.
HB 2094 (O'Quinn) 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 failed 4-4.
HB 2247 (Aird) Removes several conditions on the Board of Education's constitutional duty to determine school division boundaries and requires the Board, in fulfilling such duty, to consider equity in educational programs within and between school divisions. The bill was stricken at the request of the patron.
HB 2277 (Bell) Requires any child with a disability who receives special education and related services, reaches age 22 after September 30, 2020, and is scheduled to complete high school in the spring of 2021 to be given the option for an extension to attend high school for the duration of the 2021-22 school year. The bill was recommended for reporting 8-0.
HB 2314 (Mugler) Requires the Board of Education to amend a certain regulation relating to special education to remove the word "component" following the word "evaluation," thereby ensuring compliance with the relevant federal regulation and clarifying that the parent of a child with a disability has the right to an independent educational evaluation at public expense if the parent disagrees with an evaluation obtained by the local educational agency. The bill was recommended for reporting 8-0.
HB 2316 (Mundon King) Requires the Department of Education to update its special education eligibility worksheets as necessary, including clarifying any ambiguity or vagueness in eligibility criteria, and provide to each local school division the appropriate level of guidance on eligibility determinations for special education and related services. The bill requires the Board of Education to amend its regulations to ensure that each education preparation program graduate in a K-12 general education endorsement area demonstrates proficiency in understanding the role of general education teachers on the individualized education program (IEP) team. The bill was recommended for reporting 8-0.
