Senate and House Budget Conferees released the conference report for House Bill 30 late Thursday afternoon. Important items for school board members with explanation can be found below. The budget items below is not a complete listing of items that deal with K-12 education. To review the entire list of K-12 and other budget items, click here.
The Senate and House will vote on the proposed 2024-2026 biennial budget on Saturday, March 9, 2024.
Item 117 #2c- This amendment provides for development of a plan to provide ongoing school-based mental health funding. This is a recommendation of the Behavioral Health Commission.
Item 117 #6c- This amendment (i) provides $6.9 million the first year and $4.9 million the second year to develop and maintain the Virginia Language and Literacy Screening System (VALLS), (ii) provides $3.4 million each year to continue support for literacy coaching, technical assistance and professional development as required by the Virginia Literacy Act (VLA), (iii) authorizes the Virginia Literacy Partnership to collect fees from publishers to offset costs to review reading curriculum materials for alignment with the VLA, (iv) redirects existing funding related to the implementation of the VLA to the University of Virginia's Literacy Partnership, and (v) delays the implementation of literacy screener for grades 4-8 and associated literacy plans for one year. The amendment also directs remaining federal pandemic relief balances from Learning Acceleration Grants be used to supplant general funds in the first year. This represents a net increase of $5.7 million in fiscal year 2025 and $3.7 million in fiscal year 2026 from the amounts proposed in the introduced budget for implementation of the VLA.
Item 118 #1c- This amendment provides $2.2 million each year from the general fund to implement provisions of House Bill 1089 and Senate Bill 220 related to establishing eight regional special education family support centers, provision of professional development, and ongoing special education coaching. The amendment also directs remaining federal pandemic relief balances from Learning Acceleration Grants be used to supplant general funds in the first year.
Item 120 #1c- This amendment restores $1.9 million from the general fund in each year to the Office of School Quality and establishes reporting requirements.
Item 123 #2c- This amendment provides $140,000 from the general fund each year for one position in the proposed Office of Community Schools.
Item 123 #3c- This amendment provides $300,000 from the general fund each year and up to two positions to support the Joint Subcommittee on Elementary and Secondary Education Funding through increased staffing and contracted services.
Item 125 #1c- This amendment redirects $1.7 million GF the first year and $1.6 million GF the second year from the general fund each year by maintaining a cap on supplemental basic aid payments. The introduced budget proposed eliminating this cap.
Item 125 #2c- This amendment provides $186.7 million the first year and $184.6 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 At-Risk Add-On funding program, (ii) transition 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 1.25 plus one-quarter of English learner students, (iii) distributes an 11.0 percent add on to basic aid funding per at-risk student, and (iv) distributes a variable add on between 0 percent and 37 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 addresses in part recommendations 8, 9, and 10 from JLARC's 2023 report, "Virginia's K-12 Funding Formula.
Item 125 #3c- This amendment provides $37.9 million the first year and $43.7 million the second year to implement staffing standards for English Learner students based on student proficiency level, in lieu of the current standard that provides one position per 50 identified EL students. Flexibility is provided during the first year to implement this new standard to only require one-half of the additional positions.
Item 125 #5c- This amendment authorizes the Department of Education to offer $250.0 million in school construction loans from the Literary Fund over the biennium and directs the Board of Education to revise its schedule of interest rates to be fully responsive to market rates while providing reasonably discounted interest rates.
Item 125 #9c- This amendment provides an additional $53.3 million the first year and $133.0 million the second year in additional sales tax distributions to school divisions resulting from the expansion of the sales tax base to include digital products and services. Sales tax distributions reduce the state's share of basic aid funding, resulting in a net increase of $23.7 million the first year and $59.2 million the second year.
Item 125 #10c- This amendment provides $121.3 million the first year and $121.8 million the second year from the general fund to restore and reforecast the general fund payments provided in lieu of the K-12 dedicated sales tax on grocery and personal hygiene products that would have been collected had the tax not been eliminated effective January 1, 2023. The amount of these general fund payments is updated to $272.5 million the first year and $273.6 million in the second year. These payments reduce the state's share of basic aid by $151.1 million the first year and $151.7 million the second year.
Item 125 #15c- This amendment provides $178.1 million the first year and $361.0 million the second year from the general fund to provide the state's share of two 3.0 percent salary increases provided on July 1, 2024 and July 1, 2025.
Item 275 #2c- This amendment adds $100,000 from the Commonwealth Opioid and Abatement and Remediation fund the second year for the purchase and distribution of additional opioid reversal agents for public school divisions by the Virginia Department of Health. The funding will enable the Department of Health to distribute a supply of opioid antagonists in an amount equivalent to at least two unexpired 20 doses to every public elementary and secondary school in the Commonwealth for the 2025-2026 school year. This will assist School Boards in complying with the provisions set forth in House Bill 732.
