Wednesday, March 2, 2022

House Early Childhood and Innovation Subcommittee Meeting- March 2, 2022

The House Early Childhood and Innovation Subcommittee met on March 2, 2022 for their final convening of the 2022 session. The subcommittee took the following action on legislation appearing on its docket.

SB 384 (Dunnavant) Directs the Department of Education to establish the Statewide Learning Management System (VaLMS). The VaLMS shall be available to each public school in the Commonwealth. The bill allows school boards to utilize the full capacity of the VaLMS as an alternative to a locally funded learning management system. The bill failed to report due to lack of a motion.

SB 421 (Edwards) Revises and repeals obsolete provisions in Title 22.1 (Education) related to early childhood education and elementary and secondary education and Title 42.1 (Libraries) related to libraries and the Virginia Public Records Act. The bill also makes technical amendments. This bill is a recommendation of the Virginia Code Commission. The bill reported by a vote of 8-0.

SB 662 (Lucas) Requires the Department of Education to include on each School Quality Profile data on teachers' race and proficiency in any language other than English. The bill was carried over to 2023.

SB 704 (Kiggans) Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to, at least annually, survey all local school divisions and use such data to strengthen the comprehensive availability of school health services information. The bill provides that information to be collected in the survey shall include: (i) staffing levels of school health personnel, (ii) the prevalence of students with chronic health conditions, (iii) the percentage of students with health services written in their records, (iv) the number of visits to the school health office and dispositions, (v) health services provided by each school, and (vi) any other information deemed appropriate. The bill requires each local school division to complete each survey. The bill was carried over to 2023.