The House Appropriations Elementary and Secondary Education Subcommittee met Monday February 7, 2022 to hear legislation on its docket. The following actions were taken by the subcommittee.
HB 252 (Simonds) Requires the Department of Education, in consultation with the Department of General Services, to develop or adopt and maintain a data collection tool to assist each school board to determine the relative age of each public school building in the local school division and the amount of maintenance reserve funds that are necessary to restore each such building. The bill requires each school board to provide to the Department of Education in a timely fashion the local data that is necessary to ensure that such tool remains relevant and useful for the determination of maintenance reserve needs. The bill requires the Department of Education to consider converting or using as a template the Department of General Services' M-R FIX tool to meet the above requirement to maintain such a tool. This bill is a recommendation of the Commission on School Construction and Modernization. The bill was Laid on the Table by a vote of 5-3.
HB 253 (Simonds) Makes several changes to the provisions relating to loans from the Literary Fund to finance the construction and renovation of public elementary and secondary school buildings in the Commonwealth. The bill requires the Board of Education (the Board) to establish an annual open application process for Literary Fund loans to occur during the period that the Board deems most suitable. The bill increases from $7.5 million to $25 million the maximum Literary Fund loan amount and permits the Board to increase such maximum to up to $35 million for loans for any school construction or renovation project that facilitates the consolidation of schools. The bill requires the Board to fix the interest rate on all loans made from the Literary Fund at not less than one percent per year, not more than three percent per year, and at increments of one half of one percent per year between such minimum and maximum rates, payable annually, and to utilize a sliding scale based on the local school division's composite index of local ability to pay to determine the interest rate on each such loan. Under current law, such rates are required to be set between two and six percent per year. The bill requires the Board to establish a competitive program for the award of up to $25,000 to a school division that receives a Literary Fund loan for the purpose of subsidizing all or a portion of the closing costs for such loan. The bill also permits the Board to remove any project that has been inactive for at least five years from any Literary Fund loan project waiting list that it maintains. This bill is a recommendation of the Commission on School Construction and Modernization. The bill was Laid on the Table by a vote of 5-3.
HB 254 (Simonds) 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 provides that three percent of any fiscal year's budget surplus shall be appropriated to the School Construction Fund and Program. The bill also provides that any remaining revenues not appropriated by the Gaming Proceeds Fund shall be appropriated to the School Construction Fund and Program. Under current law, any remaining revenues in the Gaming Proceeds Fund not appropriated remain in the Fund until appropriated by the General Assembly for programs established to address public school construction, renovations, or upgrades. The bill was Laid on the Table by a vote of 5-3.
HB 319 (Coyner) Makes several changes relating to early student literacy, including requiring (i) each education preparation program offered by a public institution of higher education or private institution of higher education or alternative certification program that provides training for any individual seeking initial licensure with an endorsement in a certain area, including as a reading specialist, to demonstrate mastery of science-based reading research and evidence-based literacy instruction, as such terms are defined in the bill; (ii) the literacy assessment required of individuals seeking initial teacher licensure with endorsements in certain areas to include a rigorous test of science-based reading research and evidence-based literacy instruction; (iii) each school board to establish a divisionwide literacy plan; and (iv) each local school board to provide a program of literacy instruction whereby, among other things, (a) the program provides reading intervention services to students in kindergarten through grade three who demonstrate deficiencies based on their individual performance on the Standards of Learning reading assessment or an early literacy screener provided or approved by the Department of Education; (b) a reading specialist, in collaboration with the teacher of any student who receives such reading intervention services, develops, oversees implementation of, and monitors student progress on a student reading plan; and (c) each student who receives such reading intervention services is assessed utilizing either the early literacy screener provided or approved by the Department or the grade-level reading Standards of Learning assessment again at the end of that school year. The provisions of the bill become effective beginning with the 2024–2025 school year. The bill reported by a vote of 8-0.
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. The bill was Laid on the Table by a vote of 8-0.
HB 547 (Hudson) Requires the Department to develop and maintain a statewide strategic plan for recruiting and retaining speech-language pathologists that, at a minimum, (i) analyze data to determine the specific staffing needs of local school divisions on an ongoing basis; (ii) evaluates the potential effectiveness of strategies for addressing recruitment and retention challenges, including tuition assistance, differentiated pay for speech-language pathologists, and the expansion of speech-language pathologist mentorships; and (iii) estimates the costs of implementing each such strategy, including the extent to which federal funds could be used to support implementation. The bill requires the Department, no later than November 1 of each year, to update the Chairmen of the Senate Committee on Education and Health and the House Committee on Education on its progress in implementing such plan. The foregoing provisions of the bill have a delayed effective date of July 1, 2023. The bill also directs the Department of Education and the Board of Education, in consultation with each local school board, to (a) examine the caseloads and compensation of speech-language pathologists in each local school division, (b) compare such caseloads and compensation to those of speech-language pathologists in contiguous states, and (c) make recommendations to the Governor and the General Assembly no later than November 1, 2022, for such amendments to relevant law and the general appropriations act as may be necessary to effectuate a reduction in caseloads and increase in compensation that would facilitate stronger recruitment and retention of speech-language pathologists in public elementary and secondary schools in the Commonwealth. The bill was Laid on the Table by a vote of 7-1.
