The House Education Committee met on January 30, 2023 and took the following actions:
HB2490 (Davis) Provides a framework for the application for and establishment of a division laboratory school as a public, nonreligious, or non-home-based alternative school located within a local school division that is created as a new public school or through the conversion of all or part of an existing public school and is subject to the student assessment and accountability requirements applicable to other public schools in the Commonwealth. The bill exempts division laboratory schools from certain laws that govern other public schools in the Commonwealth and permits such schools to operate free from specified school division policies and state regulations and be granted flexibility in school scheduling. Finally, the bill establishes the Division Laboratory School Fund to be used solely for the purposes of establishing or supporting division laboratory schools. The bill was reported and rereferred to Appropriations 12-9-1.
HB1492 (Davis) Requires the Board of Education to amend certain regulations to (i) permit local educational agencies to shorten the deadline of 65 business days from the date of receipt of referral for an initial evaluation or a reevaluation of a child to determine eligibility for special education and related services and (ii) extend the deadline by which local educational agencies are required to ensure that an individualized education program is developed from 30 calendar days from the date of an initial or subsequent determination that a child is in need of special education and related services to 30 business days from such date. The bill was reported with a substitute 22-0.
HB1566 (Rasoul) Requires the Commonwealth to compensate its public school teachers at a rate that is competitive, defined in current law as at or above the national average teacher salary, in order to attract and keep highly qualified teachers. Current law declares it the policy of the Commonwealth to compensate public school teachers at such competitive rate but does not require it. The bill requires the Department of Education to conduct an annual calculation to determine the estimated national average teacher salary for each year of the current budget biennium that relies on the most up-to-date data from the source of the 50-state average salary of K-12 teachers in public school set forth in the annual Virginia Compared with the Other States report published by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission. The bill permits the Department, in making such calculation, to use the trends of the percent change for the national average teacher salaries in the two to four years prior to project averages in each year of the current and upcoming biennia. The bill requires the results of such calculation to be reported to the Governor, the General Assembly, and the Board of Education by June 1 of each year. The bill also requires state funding to be provided pursuant to the general appropriation act in a sum sufficient to fund a certain flat percent annual pay increase for each individual employed in a Standards of Quality-funded position. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2024. The bill was reported with a substitute and rereferred to Appropriations 22-0.
HB1575 (Walker) Directs the Board of Education, in collaboration with law-enforcement agencies, criminal justice agencies, and other nongovernmental organizations with experience in child online safety issues and human trafficking prevention, to develop an age-appropriate Safety While Accessing Technology (SWAT) education program and permits the Board to develop and provide age-appropriate instructional materials and resources to assist local school boards in establishing and implementing the SWAT education program. The bill requires that the SWAT education program include instruction on (i) safe use of social networking websites and other modes of online communication; (ii) the risks of transmitting personal information on the Internet; (iii) copyright laws on written materials, photographs, music, and videos posted or shared online; (iv) the importance of establishing open communication with responsible adults about any online communications or activities; (v) recognizing, avoiding, and reporting suspicious, potentially dangerous, or illegal online communications, including solicitation by sexual predators, unsolicited or deceptive communications, harassment, and cyberbullying; and (vi) resources and assistance programs available for any child or parent who may have encountered online solicitation by sexual predators or other illegal online communications or activities. The bill also requires each local school board to adopt policies requiring all elementary and secondary schools to provide such SWAT education program at least once each school year to students in grades three through 12 and to permit a parent to opt his child out of participating in such SWAT education program. Finally, the bill requires the Board to make the SWAT education program and any accompanying instructional materials and resources available to all local school boards before the start of the 2024–2025 school year and requires each local school board to implement such SWAT educational program beginning with the 2024–2025 school year. The bill was reported with a substitute 22-0.
HB1698 (Simon) Exempts from the requirement to be licensed by the Board of Education any child day program offered by a local school division that is operated for no more than four hours per day on full instructional days or for more than four hours per day on shortened instructional days or noninstructional days, staffed by local school division employees, and attended by children who are at least three years of age and are enrolled in public school or a preschool program within such school division. Under current law, only a child day program offered by a local school division that is operated for no more than four hours per day, staffed by local school division employees, and attended by children who are at least three years of age and are enrolled in public school or a preschool program within such school division is eligible to be exempt from licensure. The bill was reported 22-0.
HB1762 (Reid) Establishes the Teacher Reengagement Program for the purpose of addressing instructional personnel shortages and COVID-19 pandemic-related student learning loss. The bill permits any school board to hire an individual pursuant to the Program, subject to the following conditions and limitations: (i) the individual works on a part-time basis; (ii) the individual is compensated with part-time pay, with any health, dental, and vision insurance coverage that is available to full-time school board employees, or with some combination of such pay and coverage; (iii) in the case of an individual who holds a renewable or provisional teaching license issued by the Board of Education, the individual's duties consist of teaching students, providing one-on-one tutoring services to students, or mentoring teachers, or some combination thereof; (iv) in the case of an individual who does not hold a renewable or provisional teaching license issued by the Board, the individual has professional experience or expertise in a certain subject matter area and the individual's duties consist of providing one-on-one tutoring services to students in such subject matter area; and (v) the individual complies with all laws, regulations, and school board policies and procedures applicable to part-time school board employees. The bill requires any school board that hires any part-time employee pursuant to the Program to annually report to the Department of Education such data on the implementation of the Program that the Department deems necessary to evaluate its continued effectiveness at addressing instructional personnel shortages and student learning loss. The foregoing provisions of the bill expire on July 1, 2028. The bill requires the Department to submit to the General Assembly no later than October 1, 2027, its recommendation for preserving, extending, or eliminating such expiration date. The bill was reported and rereferred to Appropriations 22-0.
HB1803 (Freitas) Requires the opportunities for parental involvement required to be provided by each school board to include the opportunity for parents of students enrolled in the local school division to (i) electronically review all relevant curricula, classroom materials, and textbooks; (ii) electronically review a list of (a) each book in the relevant school library catalog and (b) each such book that contains sexually explicit content, as defined in relevant law; (iii) receive advance written notification of and opt their child out of any government-run or government-authorized data collection program; and (iv) receive advance written notification of and opt their child out of any speech, presentation, or performance in the relevant school by any outside individual or entity. The bill was reported with amendments 2-10.
HB1820 (Avoil) Permits, subject to certain enumerated conditions, any student enrolled in a virtual school program to take any through-year growth assessment required pursuant to relevant law in a virtual setting that best meets the educational needs of the student. The bill was reported 22-0.
HB1884 (Wampler) Requires the Board of Education to permit students with disabilities to take Standards of Learning assessments or alternative assessment methods on a less frequent basis than is otherwise required in order to provide such students with additional time for personalized instruction on practical skills, provided that an eligible student's Individual Education Program team makes the final determination as to whether such a reduction in frequency of such assessments is appropriate for the student. The bill was reported 20-2.
HB1893 (Walker) Requires, prior to the start of each school year, each school board to post on its website in a prominent location and in a format that is easily accessible to the public (i) a list of each textbook to be used in any elementary or secondary school in the local school division during that school year and (ii) the Standards of Learning and any associated curriculum framework that correlate with any course or class to be offered in any elementary or secondary school in the local school division during that school year or a link to another source that contains such information. The bill was reported 12-10.
HB1909 (Batten) Requires each local school board to enter into an agreement to establish an opportunity classroom, or a classroom in which an alternative curriculum is offered, with a requesting party if such party represents more than 20 students and permits such local school board to enter into such an agreement if such requesting party represents fewer than 20 students. The bill provides that a "requesting party" includes (i) a public elementary or secondary school teacher or a group of such teachers in a local school division or (ii) a parent whose child attends a public elementary or secondary school or group of such parents, with the involvement of at least one teacher employed in such local school division. Finally, the bill delineates requirements for such agreements to establish opportunity classrooms relating to funding for classroom instruction and services, provision of transportation for students enrolled in an opportunity classroom, and assessments and standards of evaluation for students enrolled in an opportunity classroom. The bill was reported with amendments 12-10.
HB1938 (Plum) Requires each school board to employ, in addition to the school counselors that it employs as otherwise required by law, at least one full-time school counselor with specialized training or experience in mental health per 1,000 students in grades kindergarten through 12. The bill was reported 20-1.
HB2030 (Ballard) Requires each local school board to establish, annually update, post on its website, and make available to the public upon request policies relating to the interdivision enrollment in the local school division of students who do not reside in the local school division. The bill requires each such set of local school board policies to clearly state whether or not the local school board permits the interdivision enrollment in the local school division of students who do not reside in the local school division, and if the local school board does permit such interdivision enrollment, the bill requires such policies to include (i) methods for determining available slots by grade, school, and program, including career and technical education, hybrid, and virtual programs; (ii) enrollment criteria; (iii) application procedures and timelines; and (iv) a transparent and fair method to address enrollment requests beyond capacity. The bill requires the Department of Education to compile and post publicly and prominently on its website a database of each such set of school board policies. The bill provides that each local school board that accepts for enrollment a student who resides outside of the local school division is entitled to receive from the Commonwealth an amount equal to the greater of all applicable Standards of Quality per pupil state funds for the student or the state average of such funding and that each such student shall be excluded from the required local effort and the required local match of the receiving local school division. The bill was reported with a substitute and rereferred to Appropriations 12-9.
HB2067 (Lopez) Establishes the Advanced Placement/International Baccalaureate (AP/IB) Exam Fee Elimination Fund and Program, to be administered by the Department of Education, pursuant to which each local school board is entitled to an annual grant in a sum sufficient to cover all applicable fees associated with taking an AP or IB examination for any public high school student in the local school division who is eligible to receive free or reduced price lunch. The bill requires each local school board to annually notify the parents of each public high school student in the local school division who is eligible for free or reduced price lunch of the opportunity for the student to take an AP or IB examination at no cost. The bill requires the Board of Education to transfer any unspent and unobligated federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) state reserve funds to the AP/IB Exam Fee Elimination Fund. The bill reported with a substitute 17-5 and was rereferred to Appropriations.
HB2111 (Bourne) Makes several changes to the Standards of Quality, including requiring the establishment of units in the Department of Education to oversee work-based learning and principal mentorship statewide and requiring the Board of Education to establish and oversee the local implementation of teacher leader and teacher mentor programs in Standard 5. The bill also makes several changes relating to school personnel in Standard 2, including (i) requiring each school board to employ teacher leaders and teacher mentors at specified student-to-position ratios; (ii) lowering the ratio of English language learner students to teachers; (iii) lowering the ratio of assistant principals to students in each elementary, middle, and high school; (iv) lowering the ratio of school counselors to students in grades kindergarten through 12; and (v) increasing the required number of specialized student support positions from at least three to at least four such positions per 1,000 students. Such specialized student support positions include school social workers, school psychologists, school nurses, licensed behavior analysts, licensed assistant behavior analysts, and other licensed health and behavioral positions. The bill was reported and rereferred to Appropriations 21-0.
HB2143 (Guzman) Establishes the Teach for Virginia Loan Repayment Assistance Fund and Program, to be administered by the Department of Education, for the purpose of recruiting and retaining teachers in communities and subject areas in which they are needed the most by providing on a competitive basis an annual renewable grant of up to $5,000 toward loan repayment assistance to any teacher licensed by the Board of Education who has certain student loan debt, who is currently employed by a local school division in the Commonwealth, and who, for at least one year immediately preceding application, has taught in a public elementary or secondary school in the Commonwealth in a critical shortage area identified by the Superintendent of Public Instruction pursuant to relevant law or in a public elementary or secondary school in the Commonwealth in which the percentage of students eligible for free or reduced price lunch is higher than the statewide average percentage of students eligible for free or reduced price lunch. The bill was reported with a substitute and rereferred to Appropriations 22-0.
HB2177 (Sickles) Establishes the Critical National Security Language Grant Fund and Program within the Department of Education for the purpose of awarding grants on a competitive basis to any school division that provides one or more foreign language courses in a foreign language that is currently identified as critical by the National Security Language Initiative for Youth scholarship program. The bill provides that such grants are limited to an annual amount sufficient to provide one or more full-time equivalent teaching positions to provide one or more critical foreign language courses. The bill was reported and rereferred to Appropriations 14-8.
HB2187 (Rasoul) Defines the terms "direct counseling" and "program planning and school support" for the purpose of the provision of law that requires each school counselor to spend at least 80 percent of his staff time during normal school hours in the direct counseling of individual students or groups of students and clarifies that each school counselor may also spend up to 20 percent of his staff time during normal school hours on program planning and support. This bill is a recommendation of the Behavioral Health Commission and the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission. The bill was reported with amendments 18-4.
HB2336 (Hayes) Establishes the Secured Schools Program and Secured Schools Program Fund, established by and implemented by the Department of Criminal Justice Services (Department), as a comprehensive, prompt, and reliable first warning notification and emergency broadcast system for each PSAP in the Commonwealth to (i) allow elementary or secondary school faculty to alert the local PSAP of an imminent threat to public safety within the elementary or secondary school and (ii) alert administration at each elementary and secondary school located within such PSAP's service area in the case of an imminent threat to public safety within the proximity boundary of the elementary or secondary school, as established by school administrators and local law enforcement. The bill allows such alerts to be issued by means of (a) website announcements; (b) email notices; (c) phone, cellular phone, or text messages; (d) alert lines; (e) public address systems; (f) panic buttons; or (g) any other means of communication. The bill directs the Department to adopt regulations governing the implementation of the Secured Schools Program, in accordance with criteria provided in the bill, and establish criteria for funding the Program through disbursements from the Secured Schools Program Fund. The bill was reported with a substitute and rereferred to Appropriations 19-3.
HB2269 (Greenhalgh) Requires any local school division that, as of March 1, 2023, has available and unspent federal (i) ESSER formula funds exceeding $5,000 or (ii) state set-aside ESSER or GEER funds awarded to the local school division by the Virginia Department of Education (the Department) to return such funds to the Department no later than March 15, 2023, unless precluded by federal law or regulation. The bill requires the Department to subsequently expend any such returned funds for student instruction and remediation. The bill also requires each local school division to obtain the approval of the local school board for its federal ESSER III spending plan, update such spending plan at least once every six months, and publish such spending plan in an accessible format on a publicly available website. The bill contains an emergency clause. The bill was reported with a substitute and rereferred to Appropriations 12-10.
HB2341 (Davis) Directs the Board of Education to establish two pathways to the advanced studies high school diploma, and associated diploma seals for students who successfully follow and demonstrate excellence on such pathways: one pathway that requires advanced coursework in a career and technical education field but does not require coursework in world language and another pathway that requires advanced coursework in world language but does not require coursework in a career and technical education field. The bill requires such pathways and associated diploma seals to become effective for the 2024-2025 school year and to be available to any student, regardless of the school year during which the student enters ninth grade. The bill was reported 12-9.
HB2358 (Durant) Permits any local law-enforcement agency to employ in any public elementary or secondary school in the local school division, pursuant to an agreement with the local school board, a school protection officer, defined in the bill as a retired law-enforcement officer hired by the local law-enforcement agency on a part-time basis to provide limited law-enforcement and security services to public elementary and secondary schools in the Commonwealth. The bill requires each such school board and local law-enforcement agency to enter into a memorandum of understanding that sets forth the powers and duties of school protection officers. The bill requires the Department of Criminal Justice Services to establish compulsory training standards for school protection officers and requires the collection of certain data relating to the activities of such officers. The bill was reported 16-6.
HB2367 (Hudson) Requires the Department to develop and maintain a statewide strategic plan for recruiting and retaining speech-language pathologists that, at a minimum, (i) analyzes 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, 2024. 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, 2023, for such amendments to relevant law and the general appropriation 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 reported and rereferred to Appropriations 22-0.
HB2429 (Avoli) Authorizes licensed athletic trainers under contract with a local school division to administer albuterol inhalers and valved holding chambers or nebulized albuterol to students and exempts athletic trainers from liability for such administration. The bill permits prescribers to authorize licensed athletic trainers to possess and administer IV saline for use in emergency situations and subcutaneous lidocaine for wound closure. The bill was reported 22-0.
HB2457 (Batten) Prohibits any public elementary or secondary school teacher from being required to participate more frequently than once every five years in any training relating to the etiology, prevention, transmission modes, and effects of blood-borne pathogens; treating students with seizures and seizure disorders, including information about seizure recognition and related first aid; the appropriate management of student conduct and student offenses in violation of school board policies; or secure mandatory test violations. The bill requires each such teacher who completes any such training to sign a written attestation that the teacher has been trained in and understands the relevant subject matter. The bill requires each local school board to report to the Board of Education and the General Assembly no later than October 1, 2023, on the frequency with which each public elementary and secondary school teacher in the local school division participates in each required training or professional development activity. The bill reported with a substitute 21-1.
HB2469 (Cherry) Prohibits the Department of Education from releasing a Request for Proposal for a provider of revised Virginia Standards of Learning summative assessments of proficiency until after the work group convened for the purpose of developing a plan for the implementation of such revised assessments has submitted its initial iteration of such plan. The bill was reported with amendments 22-0.
HB2495 (Durant) Establishes the Middle School Mathematics Innovation Zone Fund and Program, to be administered by the Department of Education, for the purpose of awarding grants on a competitive basis to local school divisions to designate middle schools as mathematics innovation zones in which competency-based mathematics education and evidence-based mathematics learning models are implemented in grades six, seven, and eight in partnership with technical assistance providers and other schools. The bill requires the Department to give preference to grant applications for public middle schools identified as in need of support, including schools that demonstrate need based on data from the immediately preceding school year on the grades five, six, and seven mathematics Standards of Learning assessments, rural schools, and economically disadvantaged schools. The bill reported with a substitute and was referred to Appropriations 17-5.
