The House Education Committee met Wednesday, January 26, 2022 and took the following actions on legislation before the committee.
HB 127 (Davis) Prohibits any academic year Governor's School or governing board member, director, administrator, or employee thereof from (i) discriminating against or granting preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin; (ii) engaging in proxy discrimination, as defined in the bill, in student admissions; or (iii) seeking information on students' race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin during the application process for admission to such school unless expressly required by federal law, and to the extent it is required by federal law, the bill requires such information to be withheld to the maximum extent practicable from any individual involved in admissions decisions to the end that admissions decisions are blind as to the applicants' race, sex, color, ethnicity, and national origin. The bill permits any academic year Governor's School or governing board member, director, administrator, or employee thereof to use traditional academic success factors, as defined in the bill, in student admissions and provides that such use presumptively does not constitute proxy discrimination. The bill also contains provisions relating to evidentiary burdens of proof in certain causes of action involving such proxy discrimination or traditional academic success factors. The bill reported 12-9.
HB 236 (Orrock) Permits the Board of Education to grant a two-year extension of the license of any individual licensed by the Board of Education pursuant to its statutory authority whose license expires on June 30, 2022, in order to provide the individual with sufficient additional time to complete the requirements for licensure renewal. The bill reported with amendment on a 21-0 vote.
HB 246 (Kilgore) Provides that students who miss a partial or full day of school while participating in 4-H educational programs and activities shall not be counted as absent for the purposes of calculating average daily membership and shall receive course credit in the same manner as they would for a school field trip. The bill directs each local school board to develop policies and procedures for students to make up missed work and may determine the maximum number of school days per academic year that a student may spend participating in 4-H educational programs and activities to not be counted absent. The bill reported 21-0.
HB 294 (Freitas) Declares eligible for a scholarship from a scholarship foundation that receives an education improvement scholarship tax credit, on the same basis as any other eligible student, eligible students in need of a safer school environment, defined in the bill as any student who, while enrolled in a public elementary or secondary school in kindergarten through grade 12, was the victim of assault, battery, bullying, harassment, hazing, kidnapping, or robbery on school property, on a school bus, or at a school-sponsored activity, as substantiated by an investigation and written report by the school principal. The bill provides that (i) eligible students in need of a safer school environment are permitted to use such scholarships to cover the expenses associated with attending another public school within or outside of his school division of residence and (ii) there are no family income restrictions on scholarships for eligible students in need of a safer school environment. The bill was passed by for the day.
HB 363 (Freitas) Prohibits school board employees who are not required to hold a valid license issued by the Board of Education and public school teachers from being dismissed based on a last-hired, first-fired dismissal policy or any other similar policy that mandates that, when considering more than one such employee for dismissal, the seniority of each such employee shall be the sole determinative factor in the dismissal decision. The bill also requires the Board of Education, the House Committee on Education, and the Senate Committee on Education and Health, in consultation with local school boards, to study and make recommendations to the General Assembly no later than November 1, 2022, regarding effective, alternative ways in which the performance of teachers may be evaluated for the purpose of awarding or rescinding continuing contract status. The bill was continued to 2022.
HB 433 (Bulova) Requires (i) the reading and mathematics Standards of Learning assessments in grades three through eight and the science assessments administered to students in grade five and after the student receives instruction in the grade six science, life science, and physical science Standards of Learning and before the student completes grade eight to be traditional achievement tests and (ii) the Virginia Studies and Civics and Economics assessments to be performance based and to measure the test taker's ability to apply the skills and knowledge learned in the class. The foregoing provisions of the bill have a delayed effective date of July 1, 2023. The bill also requires the Department of Education, with such funds as may be appropriated for such purpose pursuant to the general appropriation act, to develop a task bank for performance-based assessments that is built using vetted tasks that have been developed by practitioners and align with the Department's Virginia Quality Criteria Review Tool for Performance Assessments.
