The House Education Committee met Wednesday morning, February 15, 2023 and and heard legislation on its docket. Below you can find a summary of legislation related to K-12 education and actions taken by the committee. To view a recording of the meeting, click here.
SB 880 (Favola) Directs the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, in coordination with the Department of Education and relevant stakeholders, to develop and disseminate best practice standards for the transition of services and transfer of records for students with disabilities who reach the age of majority.
The bill Reported by a vote of 22-0.
SB 1052 (McPike) Directs the Advisory Board on Teacher Education and Licensure to advise the Board of Education and submit recommendations on policies related to helping school divisions more effectively recruit and retain licensed teachers. The bill also directs the Board of Education to extend for at least one year a teacher's three-year provisional license upon receiving from the division superintendent (i) a recommendation for such extension and (ii) satisfactory performance evaluations for such teacher for each year during the original three-year provisional license for which such teacher was actually employed.
The bill Reported by a vote of 22-0.
SB 1281 (Dunnavant) Directs the Board of Education to develop guidelines for prioritizing to the maximum extent practicable dual enrollment programs, including the Passport Program, the Uniform Certificate of General Studies Program, the New Economy Workforce Credential Grant Program, and other courses that allow high school students to receive credit toward the completion of an undergraduate course, degree, or credential offered in the Virginia Community College System. The bill provides that such guidelines shall include recommendations on how direct prioritization of funding to such programs. The bill requires the Department of Education to convene a stakeholder work group, consisting of representatives from the Virginia Education Association, the Virginia Association of School Superintendents, and the local school boards, to make recommendations on policies for the prioritization of such dual enrollment programs and requires such recommendations to be submitted to the Chairmen of the House Committee on Education and the Senate Committee on Education and Health by November 1, 2024. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2024.
The bill Reported by a vote of 22-0.
SB 1359 (Norment) Requires new threat assessment team members at each public elementary and secondary school to complete initial threat assessment training and all threat assessment team members to complete refresher training every three years.
The bill Reported by a vote of 22-0.
SB 806 (Stanley) Establishes the Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Computing (STEM+C) Competition Team Grant Program to encourage interest in STEM+C-related subject areas and support STEM+C-related extracurricular team-building activities in public schools in the Commonwealth by providing grants to qualified schools, as defined in the bill, for use in establishing or supporting STEM+C competition teams. The bill also creates the STEM+C Competition Team Grant Fund for the purpose of providing such grants to qualified schools.
The bill was Reported and Referred to the House Appropriations Committee by a vote of 22-0.
SB 825 (Bell) Provides that the Board of Visitors of the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind is deemed a governmental entity for the purpose of receiving from the Central Criminal Records Exchange criminal history record information pertaining to an application for employment. The bill also provides that the Board of Visitors of the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind is subject to the same requirement of each local school board that all applicants for employment as instructional personnel at such school, or for employment as a contractor who shall have direct contact with students on school property during regular school hours or during school-sponsored activities, be required to provide data on prior convictions for certain crimes and submit to fingerprinting for the purpose of obtaining criminal history record information on such applicants.
The bill Reported by a vote of 22-0.
SB 826 (Bell) Authorizes the governing board of the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind to establish a campus police department and employ campus police officers and auxiliary police forces as provided by relevant law, the employment of whom is to be governed by the Virginia Personnel Act unless the governing board of the School directs otherwise. The provisions of this bill are contingent on funding in a general appropriation act.
The bill Reported with Substitute by a vote of 22-0.
SB 890 (Hashmi) Establishes the Veterans' Teaching Licensure Support Fund and Program for the purpose of supporting veterans and service members teaching in a public school in the Commonwealth or pursuing a career in education in the Commonwealth by awarding a reimbursement grant to eligible veterans and service members to reimburse them for their professional studies tuition expenses incurred toward receiving teacher licensure in the Commonwealth.
The bill Reported and was Referred to the House Committee on Appropriations by a vote of 22-0.
SB 1043 (McPike) Requires the Department of Education, in consultation with the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, to develop, adopt, and distribute to each school board a model memorandum of understanding between a school board and a public or private community mental health services provider that sets forth parameters for the provision of mental health services to public school students enrolled in the local school division by such provider. The bill requires the memorandum of understanding to be available to each school board no later than the beginning of the 2023 - 2024 school year. The bill also permits, in order to fill vacant school psychologist positions, any local school board to employ, under a provisional license issued by the Department of Education for three school years with an allowance for an additional two-year extension, clinical psychologists licensed by the Board of Psychology, provided that any such individual makes progress toward completing the requirements for full licensure as a school psychologist during such period of employment. Finally, the bill 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. This bill incorporates SB 1257 and SB 1268.
The bill Reported and was Referred to the House Committee on Appropriations with Amendments by a vote of 20-2.
SB 1044 (McPike) Requires each local school division that issues student identification cards for any grade level, kindergarten through grade 12, and each public institution of higher education that issues student identification cards to clearly and conspicuously include on one side of each student identification card the telephone number for the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (formerly the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline) and to annually review the telephone number for accuracy and currency. The bill provides that each new student identification card and any replacement student identification card issued by any school division or by any public institution of higher education must comply with the provisions of the bill beginning with the 2023-2024 school year.
The bill Reported by a vote of 22-0.
SB 1277 (Dunnavant) Directs the Board of Education to develop guidelines and policies permitting any high school student in grades 11 and 12 to earn one-half standard unit of credit per semester for employment in certain fields or industries or participation in certain fine arts programs in which such student works or participates a certain minimum number of hours per week for each week of the semester, as determined by the Board. The bill requires the Board to collaborate with and seek input from the Coordinator of Fine Arts for the Department of Education and a representative from the Virginia Coalition for Fine Arts Education in developing and implementing guidelines and policies for awarding academic credit for participation in certain fine arts programs.
The bill Reported by a vote of 22-0.
SB 1453 (McPike) Requires each local school board to develop a plan for the placement, care, and use of an automated external defibrillator in every public elementary and secondary school in the local school division and to place an automated external defibrillator in every public elementary and secondary school in the local school division. Under current law, such a plan is optional and there is no requirement for each school board to place an automated external defibrillator in every public elementary and secondary school in the local school division.
The bill Reported by a vote of 21-0.
SB 1493 (Bell) Moves the Board of Visitors of the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind (the Board of Visitors) from under the responsibility of the Secretary of Education to under the direction and supervision of the Governor. The bill exempts the Board of Visitors from the definition of "executive branch agency" with respect to the responsibilities of the Virginia Information Technologies Agency. The provisions of the bill are contingent on funding in a general appropriation act.
The bill Reported and was Referred to the House Appropriations Committee by a vote of 22-0.
