The House Appropriations Committee has released budget amendments to House Bill 1400 (Knight). The following list of amendments to the K-12 budget with detailed summaries are below. Please note, this is not the full list of House budget amendments. To view the entire list of budget amendments, click here.
Item 129 #1h- This amendment provides $6.7 million the second year from remaining balances of Governor's Emergency Education Relief federal pandemic relief funds to implement the provisions of House Bill 1526, which expands the Virginia Literacy Act from grades K-3 to grades K-8. These funds specifically are provided to support additional literacy coaches, development of a literacy screener for use in grades 4-7, professional development, and review of curriculum materials. In addition, the amendment restructures the existing language to delineate one-time versus ongoing costs associated with this initiative. Finally, the amendment ensures that all regional literacy coaches are licensed reading specialists.
Item 129 #2h- This amendment provides $132,932 the second year from the general fund to provide one full-time position to support new initiatives including College Partnership Laboratory Schools, Division Laboratory Schools, and Middle School Mathematics Innovation Zones.
Item 130 #1h- This amendment provides $500,000 the second year from the general fund to increase support for the Virginia Tiered System of Supports to $947,416 annually allowing expansion of the system to additional school divisions. The program provides support, technical assistance and coaching for school staff to help reduce disruptive classroom behavior by providing positive behavior interventions and supports. This recommendation was included in JLARC's report "Pandemic Impact on K-12 Public Education" and is also a recommendation of the Behavioral Health Commission.
Item 135 #1h- The Department of Education shall convene a workgroup including representatives from the Department of Planning & Budget, the Auditor of Public Accounts, the Virginia Association of School Business Officials, the Virginia Association of School Superintendents, the Virginia School Boards Association, the House Appropriations and Senate Finance and Appropriations Committees, and others as deemed appropriate to develop recommendations for the Department's existing systems used for distributing direct aid funds to school divisions. Such review shall consider (i) the need to modernize systems to meet current business needs and provide adequate fiscal controls, (ii) providing external stakeholders with access to the system and transparent information, (iii) systems used by other states to distribute public education funding, and (iv) adaptability of the system to consider alternate staffing scenarios and funding models. The workgroup shall submit recommendations including funding options to the chairs of the House Appropriations, House Education, Senate Finance and Appropriations, and Senate Education and Health Committees no later than December 1, 2023.
Item 136 #7h- This amendment captures $50.0 million the second year in general fund savings by eliminating the proposed teacher performance bonus and redirecting these funds to provide a seven percent compensation increase, included in a companion amendment in Item 137.
Item 136 #8h- This amendment provides $1.0 million the second year from the general fund to implement a program to cover all except $40 of AP and IB exam fees for students eligible for free or reduced lunch.
Item 136 #12h- This amendment provides $3.0 million the second year from the general fund for additional, temporary funding to hire instructional assistants at a ratio of one assistant per 20 students in selected schools that do not meet five or more of the Board of Education's performance benchmarks for school accreditation. These positions are intended to (i) help teachers provide small group and individualized instruction necessitated by widening academic needs within classrooms, (ii) help teachers manage challenging student behaviors within classrooms, and (iii) reduce teacher workloads. This is a recommendation from JLARC's 2022 study: "Pandemic Impact on Public K-12 Education.
Item 136 #17h- This amendment moves the $15.0 million proposed in the introduced budget for school-based mental health services from the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to the Department of Education. There is a corresponding amendment in Item 311.
Item 137 #2h- This amendment changes several provisions of the School Construction Assistance Program, including (i) adding the principal portion of debt service payments on projects that have not yet been completed an eligible use, (ii) clarifying that any project that began construction after July 1, 2022 may qualify for grant funds, (iii) allowing the most favorable year among three years of fiscal stress index data to be used to determine the grant award amounts instead of only the current years' data, and (iv) requiring the program guidelines to address joint grant applications for regional school construction projects. These provisions are recommendations of the School Construction and Modernization Commission.
Item 137 #4h- This amendment provides $109.6 million the second year from the general fund to provide a 7.0 percent salary increase, effective July 1, 2023. This is a 2.0 percent increase from the 5.0 percent increase provided in the adopted budget. This amendment redirects $45.2 million the second year toward the salary increase, by eliminating the proposed teacher performance bonus. Additionally, the amendment directs a workgroup to determine appropriate metrics for the Commonwealth's teacher compensation goals.
Item 137 #6h- This amendment provides $4.9 million the first year from the general fund to ensure that the per-pupil amount of basic aid and sales tax payments a school division receives in fiscal year 2023 is greater than the per-pupil amount of basic aid and sales tax payments for fiscal year 2023 that was communicated through the Department of Education's calculation tool in June 2022. The tool overestimated the amount of funding school divisions should receive by $58.1 million in fiscal year 2023, an amount that was offset for most school divisions by the net impact of the sales tax reforecast by $84.8 million.
Item 137 #9h- This amendment provides $13.9 million the second year from the general fund to provide one reading specialist per 1,100 students in grades six through eight. The adopted budget funds one reading specialist per 550 students in kindergarten through third grade, and the introduced budget would fund reading specialists at the 1:550 ratio in fourth and fifth grade. Existing language provides flexibility to permit school divisions to meet the ratio using other staff who are working toward meeting the training and licensure requirements for reading specialists that become effective for the 2024-2025 school year.
Item 137 #11h- This amendment provides $12.0 million the second year from the Lottery Proceeds Fund for competitive school security grants. There is an existing $12.0 million School Security Equipment Grant Program that can only be used for capital related security needs due to the funding source of the program, tax exempt bonds. These additional funds could be used to fund grants for any school security need, including leases, subscriptions to software services, and human resources.
