The House Appropriations Committee has released budget amendments to House Bill 30 (Torian). The following list of amendments to the K-12 budget with detailed summaries are below. Please note, this is not the full list of all House budget amendments. To view the entire list of budget amendments, click here.
Item 1 #8h- This amendment redirects existing appropriation to the Joint Committee to Study Fair School Funding Reform established by House Joint Resolution 67.
Item 117 #5h- This amendment directs the Superintendent of Public Instruction to enter into statewide contracts with telehealth providers through which school divisions may purchase mental health services. This amendment also eliminates $14.8 million over the biennium from the introduced budget that was proposed to (i) fund a statewide contract to provide mental health services to middle and high school students in participating school divisions via a telehealth platform, and (ii) establish a chief school mental health officer position at the Department of Education.
Item 117 #7h- This amendment provides $200,000 from the general fund in the first year to develop educational resources as required by House Bill 134.
Item 117 #9h- This amendment provides $2.2 million each year from the general fund to develop and disseminate professional development in inclusive practices and establishes regional special education family resource centers.
Item 120 #1h- This amendment level funds the Office of School Quality. The introduced budget proposed a reduction of $1.9 million each year. The General Assembly provided $2.4 million and 18 additional positions in fiscal year 2024 to implement a new school improvement model as recommended in the 2020 JLARC report "Operations and Performance of the Department of Education.
Item 124 #2h- This amendment provides $5.0 million each year from the general fund for the Community Schools Development and Implementation Planning Grant program as established in House Bill 625.
Item 124 #10h- This amendment provides $750,000 in each year from the general fund for the Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), and Cambridge Assessment International Education Exam Fee Reduction Program.
Item 125 #1h- This amendment eliminates $60.0 million proposed to be transferred from the general fund to the College Partnership Laboratory School Fund. In addition, the amendment maintains language from the existing Appropriation Act that limits the use of the Fund to public four-year institutions. An amendment to Item 137 in the Caboose Bill maintains $20.0 million in the fund for use throughout the biennium.
Item 125 #10h- This amendment provides $207.1 million the first year and $417.8 million the second year from the general fund to provide the state's share of two 3 3/8 percent salary increases provided on July 1, 2024 and July 1, 2025. This implements the provisions of House Bill 187 for the 2024-26 biennium, which establishes a methodology for funding the state's share of compensation adjustments as needed to increase Virginia's average teacher salary to at least the National average teacher salary, by the end of fiscal year 2028.
The projected national average salary is based on NEA's estimated national average salary in fiscal year 2023, then adjusted for inflation in subsequent years. The projected Virginia average salary is based on NEA's calculated Virginia average salary in fiscal year 2022, then adjusted for state funded compensation increases in fiscal year 2023 and fiscal year 2024.
Item 125 #12h- This amendment provides $196.3 million the first year and $188.2 million the second year from the general fund to (i) consolidate SOQ Prevention, Intervention, and Remediation and At-Risk Add-On incentive funding into a single SOQ At-Risk Add-On funding program, (ii) transitions the proxy used to estimate the number of at-risk students from federal free lunch rates to federal Identified Student Percentage rates, using a multiplier of 1.35, and (ii) distributes a 6.0 percent add on to basic aid funding per at-risk student, and (iv) distributes an additional add on between 0 percent and 42.5 percent to basic aid funding per At-Risk student based on the concentration of At-Risk students in the school division relative to all other school divisions. This amendment implements House Bills 624 and 825, and address in part recommendations 8, 9, and 10 from JLARC's 2023 report, "Virginia's K-12 Funding Formula."
Item 125 #13h- This amendment provides $51.3 million the first year and $43.7 million the second year to implement House Bills 624 and 1247, establishing staffing ratios per English Learner student based on student proficiency level, in lieu of the current standard that provides one position per 50 identified EL students.
Item 472 #1h- This amendment advances the deadline for school divisions to obligate ARPA-SLRF ventilation improvement grants in January 2022 from December 31, 2024 to July 1, 2024. The amendment directs any remaining unobligated amounts to be used to offset general fund support for the Child Care Subsidy Program to ensure these federal pandemic relief funds will be expended prior to their expiration on December 31, 2024. Item 125.10 assumes $25.0 million in ARPA-SLRF will be reverted to support the Child Care Subsidy Program as a result of this action.
Item 4-8.01 #1h- This amendment establishes a process to ensure that legislatively mandated reports and studies are submitted on time. In addition, the amendment directs the Governor to recommend to the General Assembly mandated reports and studies for elimination, consolidation or alternate means of fulfillment. Finally, the amendment eliminates proposed language that would have permitted the Governor to postpone or defer legislatively directed reports or studies.
