The House Education Committee met on February 8, 2023 for its first meeting following the Crossover Deadline of February 7th. To view the archived recording of the meeting, click here.
SB 943 (Suetterlein) Requires each public high school in the Commonwealth to publicly identify on its official website the faculty member responsible for special education transition planning and coordination at such high school.
The bill Reported on a vote of 22-0.
SB 1124 (Stanley) Requires the Board of Education to make recommendations to the General Assembly for amendments to the Standards of Quality to establish standards for the maintenance and operations, renovation, and new construction of public elementary and secondary school buildings. The bill requires such recommendations to include standards for the percentage of the current replacement value of a public school building that a school board should budget for the maintenance and operations of the building and such other standards as the Board deems appropriate. The bill also requires the Board to solicit the input of relevant stakeholders and the public in developing such recommendations. Finally, the bill requires the Board to submit its recommendations to the Chairmen of the House Committee on Education and the Senate Committee on Education and Health no later than December 1, 2023. This bill is a recommendation of the Commission on School Construction and Modernization.
The bill Reported on a vote of 20-2.
SB 1215 (Lucas) 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 has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2024.
The bill was Reported with Substitute by a vote of 21-0.
SB 1253 (Dunnavant) Requires each school board to provide teachers, parents, principals, and other school leaders with their students' results on any Standards of Learning assessment or Virginia Alternate Assessment Program assessment as soon as practicable after the assessment is administered.
The bill Reported on a vote of 22-0.
SB 1260 (Lucas) Renames the National Teacher Certification Incentive Reward Program and Fund as the National Board Certification Incentive Reward Program and Fund, expands eligibility for incentive grant awards from such Fund pursuant to such Program from solely teachers who have obtained national certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards to (i) all public school staff who are candidates for initial national certification or maintenance of national certification to cover certain costs of obtaining or maintaining such certification and (ii) all public school staff who have successfully obtained or maintained such certification. The bill also declares eligible for an annual incentive grant award in the amount of $7,500 all public school staff who have obtained or maintained such certification. Current law declares eligible for an annual incentive grant award of $5,000 in the first year and $2,500 in each subsequent year all teachers who have obtained or maintained such certification.
The bill was Reported and Referred to the House Appropriations Committee by a vote of 21-0.
SB 1300 (Deeds) Directs the Board of Education to work in collaboration with the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to develop a comprehensive trauma-informed care training program for elementary and secondary school teachers for the purpose of ensuring that all teachers are equipped with the skills, knowledge, and resources to recognize and address signs of childhood trauma, as defined in the bill, in students, to foster a trauma-sensitive learning environment, and to ensure that students who have experienced childhood trauma receive the support they need, both inside and outside of the classroom. The bill requires the trauma-informed care training program to be provided once every three years at each school division by a representative from the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services and to be administered by the Department of Education and the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. Finally, the bill requires each local school board to adopt and implement policies requiring annual completion of the trauma-informed care training program by each primary and secondary school teacher in the school division.
The bill was Laid on the Table by a vote of 11-10.
SB 1325 (McClellan) Amends Standard of Quality 2 by 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 Referred to the House Appropriations Committee by a vote of 22-0.
SB 1404 (Barker) Renames the School Readiness Committee as the Commission on Early Childhood Care and Education and makes several changes to the Commission, including adjusting its purpose, increasing and adjusting its membership, and establishing eight enumerated powers and duties for the Commission.
The bill Reported by a vote of 22-0.
SB 1498 (McClellan) Extends eligibility for the Brown v. Board of Education Scholarship Program to the direct descendants of persons who were residing in jurisdictions in Virginia in which the public schools were closed to avoid desegregation between 1954 and 1964 and whose educations were affected by the school closings. Currently, only persons who resided in such jurisdictions at the time of the school closings are eligible for the program.
