Governor Glenn Youngkin Announces May General Fund Revenues Numbers

RICHMOND, VA - Governor Glenn Youngkin announced Monday that general fund revenues for May 2024 increased 14.2 percent versus the same period last year and remain slightly ahead of the revenue forecast that was revised upward as part of the budget approved on May 13, 2024, reinforcing the Common Ground budget forecasts.    With one month remaining in FY24, year-to-date collections are up 5.9 percent and remain ahead of the revised forecast, driven primarily by higher than projected net individual income tax collections.   The full May 2024 revenue report is available here.

House and Senate Budget Writers to Unveil Chamber Spending Plans

On Sunday, February 18, 2024, the House Appropriations Committee and the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee will unveil their respective chamber's 2024-2026 spending plans for the Commonwealth of Virginia. These plans will be the blueprints for a final budget package that will be sent to Governor Glenn Youngkin at the end of the 2024 session in early March. 

The House Appropriations Committee will meet on Sunday 2/18/24 at 1:00 p.m. to unveil their 2024-2026 spending priorities while the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee has yet to announce the time of their meeting. We will update the blog and VSBA Social Media outlets when we learn of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee meeting time.

We anticipate vast changes from Governor Youngkin's budget plan that was released in December 2023 in both the House and Senate versions of the budget. To review member budget amendments for consideration by each chamber's money writing committee, click here. To view Governor Youngkin's proposed 2024-2026 budget, click here.

You can watch the meeting of each committee online via live stream by clicking on the links below. Following the budget unveilings, the VSBA Government Relations team will provide in-depth analysis on the House and Senate budgets on this blog early in the week of February 19, 2024. 

Agenda- February 18, 2024 Meeting- House Appropriations Committee Meeting

Live Stream to the February 18, 2024 Meeting- House Appropriations Committee Meeting

Agenda (TBD)- February 18, 2024 Meeting- Senate Finance Appropriations Committee Meeting

Live Stream to the February 18, 2024 Meeting- Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee Meeting

2022-2024 Budget Overview

An Overview of the 2022-2024 Biennial Budget

The 2022-2024 Biennial Budget was adopted by the general assembly on June 1, 2022 after a lengthy period of negotiations between Senate and House budget writers. The following list of budget items contains amendments of interest to K-12 education and is not a complete list of items found in the final conference report. To review the final conference report, click here.

Governor Youngking will have the ability to amend items in the budget with approval by the General Assembly. VSBA will continue to provide updates on the budget process.

Legislative Department: 

Item 1 #2c- This amendment provides funding for member compensation and meeting expenses associated with the establishment of the School Health Services Committee, pursuant to Chapter 707, 2022 Acts of Assembly. 

Item 6 #4c- This amendment provides funding to study the Commonwealth's response and preparedness to the COVID-19 pandemic, consistent with Senate Joint Resolution 10 of the 2022 General Assembly. 

Item 33 #1c- This amendment directs the Behavioral Health Commission to conduct a study of how to maximize school-based mental health services across the Commonwealth. 

Item 36 #4c- This amendment directs JLARC to review the cost of competing adjustment (COCA) in their review of SOQ standards and funding. 

Office of Education: 

Item 129#1c- This amendment permits the Department of Education to use funds reserved by the agency from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund for the establishment of a system to assess student growth with a focus on learning loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Each school division in the Commonwealth shall implement the system and make reports from the system available to educators to allow them to address learning for their students. 

Item 129 #2c- This amendment provides $200,000 the first year from the general fund to study options for expanding student access to Academic Year Governor's Schools. 

Item 129 #3c- This amendment directs the Department of Education to collaborate with the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth to implement educational requirements related to the harms of marijuana and substance abuse as required by legislation passed in 2021. A companion amendment in Item 482 directs the Foundation to provide or develop the necessary educational resources. 

Item 129 #6c- This amendment provides $4.8 million the first year and $4.6 million the second year from the general fund to support implementation of the Virginia Literacy Act, and to prepare for the implementation of science-based literacy instruction beginning in fiscal year 2025. In addition, this amendment directs the University of Virginia's Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning to create a technical support center to support implementation of the bill and directs the Board of Education to initiate its textbook review process to assist school divisions to obtain materials required by the act. 

Item 129 #7c- This amendment provides $650,000 the first year and $875,000 the second year from the general fund to support development of a pilot school readiness assessment for grades 1-3. The existing Virginia Kindergarten Readiness Assessment is currently designed only to be administered to preschoolers and kindergartners. 

Item 130 #1c- This amendment provides $170,520 from the general fund the first year and $48,760 from the general fund the second year to support language development resources for families and educators working with children who are deaf or hard of hearing, as required by Chapters 238 and 240, 2022 Acts of Assembly. 

Item 130 #2c- This amendment provides $100,000 each year from the general fund to increase support for statewide training programs for school division staff to implement regulations related to the use of restraint and seclusion of students in public schools. This would increase total support for such training to $592,755 annually. 

Item 130 #3c- This amendment removes $221,514 each year from the general fund and one position that was proposed in the introduced budget to support social emotional learning efforts.

Item 135 #1c- This amendment provides $132,932 from the general fund each year for the Department of Education to collect data from school divisions on the maintenance reserve needs of every public school building in each local school division, as required by Chapter 650, 2022 Acts of Assembly. 

Item 135 #2c- This amendment clarifies that the "Accreditation Waived" status provided to schools in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years do not apply toward the three years of "Accredited" status required for a school to become eligible for triennial accreditation. 

Item 135 #3c- This amendment provides $130,000 each year from the general fund and one FTE at the Department of Education to assist with administering school construction grant guidelines, funding, and reporting. 

Item 136 #23c- This amendment defers $1.1 million each year from the general fund that was proposed in the introduced budget to implement a new grow-your-own licensed early childhood educator program. 

Item 137 #2c- This amendment provides $400.0 million from the general fund for the School Construction Grant Program. Language allows local school divisions to use the School Construction Grants Program funds, as introduced, for debt service payments on school projects that have been completed or initiated during the last ten years and clarifies that funds shall not be used for repair or replacement of parking lot or for facilities that are predominantly used for extracurricular athletic activities. Additionally, language clarifies that any unexpended funds shall be carried on the books of the locality in local escrow accounts pursuant to § 22.1-175.5. 

Item 137 #3c- This amendment provides clarification that the calculation of required local effort for Infrastructure and Operations Funds shall include local funds used for nonrecurring expenses; clarifies that these funds may be used to pay for debt service on projects that have been initiated but not yet completed; and requires unexpended funds to be deposited into a local capital school projects escrow fund. 

Item 137 #4c- This amendment maintains the current English learner (EL) teacher ratio of 20 such teachers per 1,000 identified EL students. The introduced budget proposed increasing the staffing standard to 22 EL teachers per 1,000 EL students, for an additional $10.3 million the first year and $11.7 million the second year from the general fund.

Item 137 #5c- This amendment provides $10.0 million the first year from the general fund and $10.2 million the second year from the general fund for the state share of one full-time school principal position for each elementary school. Current law provides that elementary schools with fewer than 300 students are provided a half-time principal position. 

Item 137 #6c- This amendment eliminates the Reading Recovery intervention program as a permissible use of At-Risk Add-On Funds to align with Chapter 61, 2022 Acts of Assembly. 

Item 137 #9c- This amendment captures $123.2 million in general fund savings the first year by increasing the At-Risk Add-On maximum add-on percentages from 26.0% to 36.0% beginning in fiscal year 2023. The introduced budget proposed establishing the maximum add-on at 49.5% in fiscal year 2023 and 36.0% in fiscal year 2024. 

Item 137 #10c- This amendment provides $109.4 million from the general fund the first year and $162.3 million from the general fund the second year to increase the number of funded support positions. Since fiscal year 2010, funded support positions have been calculated as a linear weighted average of support positions to funded SOQ instructional positions as reported by divisions. This would increase the funded ratio from 17.75 support positions per 1,000 students to funded SOQ instructional positions to 20 support positions per 1,000 ADM to funded SOQ instructional positions in the first year, and 21 support positions per 1,000 ADM to funded SOQ instructional positions in the second year. This increases state support for support positions and partially removes the funding cap placed on support positions beginning in fiscal year 2010. 

Item 137 #12c- This amendment provides $104.1 million from the general fund the first year and $257.2 million from the general fund the second for the equivalent distribution of the 1% sales tax revenue from food and essential personal hygiene products. These payments are distributed to localities based on the estimate of school age population consistent with sales tax. The funding for this amendment is fully contained within the introduced budget since the introduced budget contained a hold harmless payment for the loss in dedicated K-12 sales tax from exempting food after the Basic Aid offset and contained the entire distribution of sales tax from essential personal hygiene products. The reductions reflected in this amendment are related to rounding variances when distributing these payments based on school age population and then calculating the Basic Aid state and local shares of cost based on the local composite index. 

Item 137 #13c- This amendment provides that the 5% salary increase in the first year is effective on August 1, 2022 and reduces the compensation supplement funding to reflect this action. It additionally clarifies that local school divisions must use revenues derived from local sources to match the state share of funding for the compensation supplement. 

Item 137 #15c- This amendment provides $400.0 million the first year from the general fund and $50.0 million the first year from the Literary Fund to establish the School Construction Assistance Program, to provide competitive grants for school construction and modernization, based on demonstrated poor building conditions, commitment, and need. Grants would cover 10% to 30% of reasonable project costs, depending on a locality’s local composite index and fiscal stress score. 

Item 137 #20c- This amendment deposits $100.0 million the first year into the College Partnership Laboratory Schools (CPLS) Fund and authorizes the Board of Education to award $5.0 million for planning grants to CPLS applicants, $20.0 million for startup grants to approved CPLS, and to distribute per pupil funds to approved CPLS. This amendment further requires the Board of Education to establish CPLS Fund guidelines before the release of funds and reverts any unobligated funds at the end of the 2022-24 biennium to the general fund. 

Item 137 #25c- This amendment provides $30.8 million the first year and $31.6 million the second year from the general fund to provide one reading specialist for every 550 students in kindergarten through third grade, and provides flexibility for school divisions to employ other instructional staff working toward obtaining the training and licensure requirements prescribed in House Bill 319 that will become effective in the 2024-2025 school year. This amendment also eliminates $31.5 million the first year and $31.6 million the second year that was included in the introduced budget to expand Early Reading Intervention from kindergarten through third grade to kindergarten through fifth grade. This amendment is net of both actions. 

General Provisions: 

Item 4-14 #7c- This amendment provides an exemption on the 1.5% state sales tax imposed on food purchased for human consumption or essential personal hygiene products effective January 1, 2023. Additionally, it provides that the amount of the 1% dedicated to public education be replaced with a like amount of general fund distributed based on school-age population, consistent with the distribution of sales tax.

Senate Budget Amendments Released

The following is an analysis of budget committee and floor amendments related to K-12 education that have been approved by the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee in Senate Bill 29 (2020-2022 Caboose Budget Bill) and Senate Bill 30 (2022-2024 Biennial Budget). This list does not include each amendment related to K-12 education in SB 29 and SB 30.

Senate Bill 29 K-12 Budget Amendments

Item 145 #1s- This amendment provides for the distribution of approximately a $1,000 bonus per position from the federal State and Local Recovery Fund (SLRF) pursuant to the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA). The funds provided cover the full cost of a 1.9 percent bonus for the funded SOQ instructional and support positions and Academic Year Governor's School instructional and support positions. Localities are not required to provide a local match for these funds and are encouraged to use additional available funds to provide pandemic bonuses to eligible school instructional and support positions.

Item 145 #3s- This amendment updates student enrollment at A. Linwood Holton Governor's School for 2022-2023.

Item 145 #4s- This amendment provides an additional $34.9 million from the general fund in fiscal year 2022 based on the revised sales tax distributions in the mid-session reforecast. This increases the estimated sales tax dedicated to K-12 by $78.7 million in fiscal year 2022 and reduces the state's share of Basic Aid payments by $43.8 million from the general fund in fiscal year 2022. A corresponding amendment adjusts the FY 2022 No Loss Payments as a result of this action.

Item 145 #5s- This amendment updates the No Loss Payments for the estimated additional sales tax revenue in FY 2022.

Item 479.20 #1s- This amendment updates the Education - Ventilation distribution from the federal State and Local Recovery Fund (SLRF), pursuant to the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, to reflect actual utilization by school divisions, resulting in savings of $31.3 million.

Item 479.20 #2s- This amendment provides $137.4 million NGF the second year from the federal State and Local Recovery Fund (SLRF), pursuant to the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, to provide approximately a $1,000 bonus per funded instructional and support position. These funds cover the entire cost for the bonus and require no local match.

Item 3-5.03 #1s- This amendment increases the sales tax transfer to Direct Aid to reflect additional assumed revenues from sales and use tax collections.

Senate Bill 30 K-12 Budget Amendments

Item 129 #1s- This amendment proposes $500,000 GF the first year to study options for additional virtual, online Governor's School opportunities across the Commonwealth. The Department of Education is directed to collaborate with Academic-Year Governor's School to develop a plan. The plan will consider how to ensure access to students who are currently not served or unable to participate in an Academic-Year Governor's School program and whether existing virtual resources through the Department of Education could be better leveraged to expand access to Governor's School courses. Funding for this initiative is repurposed from funding in the introduced budget intended to study options for the creation of a STEM Governor's School on the Eastern Shore.

Item 129 #2s- This amendment permits the Department of Education to use funds reserved by the agency from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund for the establishment of a system to assess student growth with a focus on learning loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Each school division in the Commonwealth shall implement the system and make reports from the system available to educators to allow them to address learning for their students.

Item 130 #1s- This amendment provides $170,250 GF the first year and $70,00 GF the second year to support the Department of Education, in coordination with the Department for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing, to establish an advisory committee that will develop a resource that parents of deaf or hard of hearing children, up to age five, may use to monitor the language development of their children, pursuant to passage of Senate Bill 265.

Item 136 #1s- This amendment provides $100,000 GF each year to EduTutorVA to support targeted tutoring to help K-12 students recover from COVID-19 learning gaps.

Item 137 #1s- This amendment provides $104.1 million GF the first year and $257.2 million GF the second for the equivalent distribution of the one percent sales tax revenue from food and essential personal hygiene products. These payments are distributed to localities based on the estimate of school age population consistent with sales tax. The funding for this amendment is fully contained within the introduced budget since the introduced budget contained a hold harmless payment for the loss in dedicated K-12 sales tax from exempting food after the Basic Aid offset and contained the entire distribution of sales tax from essential personal hygiene products. The reductions reflected in this amendment are related to rounding variances when distributing these payments based on school age population and then calculating the Basic Aid state and local shares of cost based on the local composite index.

Item 137 #2s- This amendment provides $109.4 million GF the first year and $162.4 million GF the second year to increase the number of funded support positions. This would increase the funded ratio from 17.75 support positions per 1,000 students to funded SOQ instructional positions to 20 support positions per 1,000 ADM to funded SOQ instructional positions in the first year, and 21 support positions per 1,000 ADM to funded SOQ instructional positions in the second year. This increases state support for support positions and partially removes the funding cap placed on support positions beginning in FY 2010.

Item 137 #3s- This amendment provides $31.0 million GF the first year and $31.8 million GF the second year to provide one reading specialist per every 550 students in kindergarten through third grade.

Item 137 #4s- This amendment clarifies that local school divisions must use revenues derived from local sources to match the state share of funding for the compensation supplement.

Item 137 #5s- This amendment includes language to allow local school divisions to use the School Construction Grants Program funds, as introduced, for debt service payments on school projects that have been completed or initiated during the last ten years, and clarifies that funds shall not be used for parking lot repairs or replacement or for facilities that are predominantly used for extracurricular athletic activities.

Item 137 #7s- This amendment removes the expansion of the Early Reading program to fourth and fifth grades. A companion amendment provides one reading specialist for every 550 students in kindergarten and third grade and allows those specialists to work with students in kindergarten through sixth grades.

Item 137 #12s- This amendment reflects the $1.3 million reduction of K-12 dedicated sales tax in FY 2023 and $1.6 million in FY 2024 from the exemption in SB 517. After the Basic Aid offset, this results in a reduction to divisions of $574,850 in FY 2023 and $707,513 in FY 2024.

Item 4-14 #1s- This amendment provides an exemption on the 1.5 percent state sales tax imposed on food purchased for human consumption or essential personal hygiene products effective January 1, 2023. Additionally, it provides that the amount of the one percent dedicated to public education be replaced with a like amount of general fund distributed based on school-age population, consistent with the distribution of sales tax. 

January Revenue Forecast and Update

The Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee met to receive an update on the January Revenue Forecast from Secretary of Finance Stephen E. Cummings. Secretary Cummings provided a brief overview of the current economic outlook including updates on the employment rate, inflation, and international events that may impact the overall health of the Commonwealth's economy. 

Secretary Cummings shared his concern with employment numbers that show the Commonwealth is lagging in job creation including data that reflects out migration of employment to North Carolina, Florida, and Georgia. He further expressed concerns with job creation in the Commonwealth producing low wage jobs in comparison to other neighboring states which the secretary says data shows a higher proportion of high wage job growth.

The secretary reported a revised revenue forecast that estimates the Commonwealth will collect $1.25 billion more in the current fiscal year, on top of the additional $3.3 billion added to the original forecast from last December. 

Additional highlights in the report include:

Individual Income Tax Refunds

• Not a significant month. 
• Through January, TAX has issued $380.5 million in individual refunds compared with $508.6 million in the same period last year. o Of the $508.6 million issued last year, approximately $110 million was due to refunds received for processing in July versus June as numerous taxpayers waited until the federal due date of July 15 to file their returns. 

Net Individual Income Tax

• Through the first seven months of the fiscal year, collections of net individual income tax increased 12.7 percent from the same period last year, ahead of the annual estimate of 3.6 percent growth. 
• Adjusting for the returns processed in July last year that would have been completed in May and June, year-to-date growth would be higher.

To access the entire presentation, click here. To view a recording of the meeting, click here.

Sine Die

The 2016 Virginia General Assembly has adjourned Sine Die. Stay tuned for more updates in the coming weeks on the biennial budget and their final actions on legislation.

Budget Compromise

As reported in the papers yesterday, the House and Senate conferees have reached a budget compromise with little time to spare. Budget briefings were held this afternoon to outline the details of the compromise. Overall, it has been a very successful year for public education in the biennial budget. On behalf of VSBA Executive Director, Gina Patterson and your VSBA Lobbying Team, we thank you for all of your hard work and advocacy efforts this session! Your voice has been heard and made a difference in Richmond! 

Below you will find a summary of the budget compromise. You can also view the budget briefing presentations from the Senate Finance Committee here and House Appropriations Committee here. Additionally, you can find the Direct Aid to Public Education Estimated Distribution sheets for FY’17 here and FY’18 here. The final vote on the budget is anticipated for Saturday morning. We will continue to update you as more information becomes available.

Lottery Per Pupil Funding
The compromise increases direct aid for public education by $892.3 million over the current biennium, including $400.5 million for Biennial Re-benchmarking. It also re-establishes the policy of distributing part of the Lottery Proceeds on a per pupil amount (PPA) basis, providing $193.8 million over the biennium. In FY’17, $36.6 million is provided, which equals $52.42 PPA. In FY’18, $157.2 million is provided, which equals $224.43 PPA. This policy gives local school divisions more local flexibility for spending options, permitting up to 50% of the new lottery PPA allocation to be used on any recurring expenses and at least 50% on non-recurring expenses such as capital, equipment, school buses, and maintenance. These funds do require maintenance of effort so revenue cannot be used to supplant local funding.

Salary Increase
Also included in the budget compromise is $49.0 million in the first year and $85.4 million in the second year for the state’s share of a 2% salary increase, for all funded SOQ instructional and support positions, effective December 1, 2016. Participation is optional and requires a local match. Local school divisions must provide at least a 2% salary increase by December 1, 2016 to be eligible for the state funding. School divisions cannot use the phase-in of the VRS swap as part of its local match.  

VRS Teacher Retirement
$56.8 million is provided in the second year, for the state’s share of funding, to advance the VRS scheduled rates to 100%. We know that advancing these rates ahead of schedule is a major concern for our school divisions and we have already been in talks with the budget conferees about potential solutions next year.

Cost of Competing Adjustment for Support Positions
Provides $17.0 million in the first year and $17.4 million the second year to fund the COCA rate of 10.6%.

Other policy and spending changes include:

• $5.0 million over the biennium for additional support toward increasing Career and Technical credentialing and equipment

• $2.0 million for equipment & $500,000 for tests & materials costs of earning industry certifications each year.

• $4.6 million over the biennium for the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation.

• $3.0 million for a new pilot program to provide grants to incentivize additional public-private partnerships in preschool services.

• $1.6 million would be used to develop and operate a new scholarship grant program at community colleges to increase skills of the early education workforce.

• $2.9 million over the biennium to increase the Preschool Initiative per pupil amount from $6,000 to $6,125.

• $2.1 million for new competitive grants in the second year for school divisions that develop and implement a performance-based teacher compensation system.

• $1.6 million GF for Virtual Virginia to expand the full-time pilot initiative from 90 to 200 students and a new Virtual Virginia Math Outreach Algebra I pilot program.

• $3.1 million over the biennium for supplemental education programs:

• Communities In Schools (CIS): $450,000 each year

• High School Innovation grants: $250,000 each year

• Jobs for Virginia Graduates (JVG): $200,000 each year

• Summer and CTE Governor’s Schools: $200,000 each year

• Great Aspirations Scholarship Program (GRASP): $187,500 each year

• Project Discovery: $187,500 the second year

• Roanoke Valley CTE Center Governor School: $100,000 the first year

• Virginia Student Training and Refurbishment (VA STAR): $50,000 each year

• Southside Regional Technology Consortium: $50,000 each year

• $1.0 million over the biennium for computer science training for teachers.

• $1.0 million over the biennium for the Breakfast-After-the-Bell.

• Includes clarifying language to ensure that the funding will be focused specifically on elementary schools with at least 45% of students eligible for free or reduced lunch and the traditional breakfast program. 

Department of Education Central Office Appropriations

• $5.0 million for a one-time development cost for expanding the Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT) to grades 3-5 for math and grades 3-8 for reading.

• $900,000 each year for eMediaVA to handle the digital content development and on-line portal access for Virtual Virginia contract with WHRO.

• $414,000 over the biennium and one position to administer statewide dyslexia training to teachers seeking an initial licensure or a renewal.

• $500,000 the first year for a new pilot to assess student academic growth in schools.

• $275,000 the second year to provide start-up funding for the implementation costs of the new Virginia Virtual School.

• Budget language directs DOE to transfer the statewide average of SOQ, sales tax, and any appropriate special education funding from a resident school division to Virginia Virtual School for each enrolled student beginning with the 2018-2019 school year.

Language-only amendments

In addition to funding and policy changes, there were several language-only amendments in the budget compromise. Those language amendments:

• Mandate the Board of Education to withhold a portion of the At-Risk Add-on funding from a school division that has been determined by the Board to have failed to meet its obligations for progress in implementing corrective action plans.
• Direct the Department of Education to:

• Establish a workgroup to review the transition from the use of computer labs in schools to the use of technology devices such as tablets and similar laptop devices in classrooms.

• Complete a statewide review of the use of technology in the classroom, all digital content, and on-line based curriculum to determine best practices and benefits.

• Convene an interagency workgroup to assess the barriers to serving students with disabilities in the schools & report to the Commission on Youth prior to the 2017 Session.

• Review the equity issue regarding the length of program day and distribution methodology used to determine the Governor’s School tuition payments & report to Chairmen of House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees prior to the 2017 Session.

• Work in collaboration with the Virginia Community College System, to ensure that the same policies regarding the cost for dual enrollment courses held at a community college, are consistently applied to public school students and home-schooled students alike.

• Develop and provide a teacher exit questionnaire model to school divisions

The Homestretch

This week marks the final week of the 2016 General Assembly session. As we moved toward the finish line, there are still a handful of consequential bills on the floor of their respective houses, including the Parental Choice Education Savings Account legislation and the Virginia Virtual School legislation, or in a conference committee, including the High School Redesign legislation. Additionally, the budget conferees are still in the process of meeting to finalize their budget conference report.  We anticipate that the budget conference report will be available on Thursday for review with a final vote on Saturday. Please check back later for additional information on the budget and remaining legislation. 

Update from the Money Committees

Senate Finance Committee - Right after the House Education Committee yesterday, the Senate Finance Committee took up a lengthy docket which included HB8, the virtual school bill, and HB389, the Parental Choice Savings Account bill.

HB8 (R. Bell) establishes the Virginia Virtual School as a full-time virtual school program. Additionally, it requires that any student who enrolls full-time shall have the average state share of the Standards of Quality per pupil funding be transferred to the School. The committee amended the bill to: 

• place a cap of enrolled students to 5,000
•  delay the implementation date by one year, and
•  direct the Department of Education to review the statewide use of online learning, including virtual courses and programs and develop a proposed methodology for estimating the cost of fully online programs. 

With these amendments, the committee reported the bill on a 10-4 vote.

HB389 (LaRock) creates the Parental Choice Education Savings Account that allows a parent of students with disabilities to receive 90 percent of the SOQ per pupil state funds to use for education-related expenses of the student, including tuition, deposits, fees, transportation and required textbooks at a private, sectarian or nonsectarian elementary or secondary school or a public higher education institution. After a lengthy discussion and testimony, the committee placed a reenactment clause on the bill, which reads "that the provisions of this act shall not become effective unless reenacted by the 2017 Session of the General Assembly." With the reenactment clause, the 9-5 vote reflected bipartisan opposition. 

House Appropriations Committee - A bill that we have been working on for several years was considered by the House Appropriations Compensation and Retirement subcommittee yesterday. 

SB364 (Chafin) gives the Department of Human Resource Management (DHRM) the flexibility to create a statewide health insurance plan similar to the state employee health plan for local school divisions and local governments, giving local school boards an option to assist with controlling runaway health insurance costs. The subcommittee unanimously reported the bill and a few minutes later the full committee did the same. SB364 now heads to the House floor on the uncontested calendar.

Thank you to Senator Chafin for his diligent work and all of our members who were very active and engaged over the past few years on this legislation. 

Budget Conferees

Both the House and Senate passed their budgets yesterday and will go into conference to work out the differences.  The House budget conferees are Delegates Jones, Landes, Cox, O'Bannon, Greason and Torian. The Senate budget conferees are Senators Hanger, Norment, Newman, Wagner, Ruff, Howell, and Saslaw. 

General Assembly Budget Update

On Sunday, the House Appropriations committee and the Senate Finance committee released their versions of the budget, making amendments to the Governor’s introduced budget. The full details of these amendments were released yesterday afternoon. There are certainly pluses and minuses to both proposals but overall public education fairs well.

So what’s the bottom line?

If we look solely at direct aid to localities, the House provides $39.7 million more than the Governor’s introduced budget, and the Senate provides $27.6 million less that the Governor’s introduced budget.

To assist you in your work, we have compiled a list of specific K-12 budget amendments from both proposals that we believe you would be most interested in. Each link will take you directly to the budget language for that specific amendment. You can also find the reports from the House Appropriations Elementary and Secondary Education subcommittee here and the Senate Finance Education subcommittee here. The budget process is very fluid and will continue to change until the final budget is passed by March 12th.  We will keep you apprised of new information as it becomes available.  

House Budget – (HB30)

Item 137 #4h – Virginia Virtual School

Provides $275,000 in the first year from the general fund for a one-time start-up payment for the Virginia Virtual School. In the second year, $550,000 is provided from the non-general fund to the Virginia Virtual School for personnel costs pursuant to the passage of HB8.

Item 138 #2h – Virginia Student Training and Refurbishment (VA STAR)

Provides $50,000 each year of the biennium from the general fund to support the Virginia Student Training and Refurbishment (VA STAR) Program. The VA STAR Program takes surplus hardware from state agencies or private companies in order to offer students IT repair certification. Once refurbished, the computers are available for school use or distributed to students' families and community foundations needing them. This amendment continues funding necessary for VA STAR to continue the program within currently participating school divisions and to expand the number of participants through the 2016-18 biennium.

Item 138 #3h – Positive Behavior Intervention & Support

Removes $500,000 each year of the biennium from the general fund by continuing the current fiscal year 2016 level of funding for the Positive Behavioral Intervention & Supports initiative.

Item 139 #1h – Expand Local Flexibility for Salary Increase (language only amendment)

Provides additional flexibility to school divisions in implementing and satisfying the local matching requirements for the two percent salary increase for instructional and support positions. School divisions will be allowed to include salary increases provided to instructional and support positions during fiscal year 2017 and fiscal year 2018 by January 1, 2018 in an accumulative manner, to satisfy the required minimum average salary increase of two percent has been provided by the second year by January 1, 2018, in order to be eligible to receive the state's share of a two percent salary increase effective on July 10, 2017.

Item 139 #7h – Re-purpose Additional Instructional Positions to Lottery PPA

Redirects $42.7 million in the first year and $96.5 million in the second year from the general fund to be used toward reinstating the policy of providing school divisions with a Lottery Fund per pupil amount basis.

Item 139 #8h – Re-purpose At-Risk Add-on Range Increase

Redirects $24.7 million in the first year and $24.9 million in the second year from the new funding included in the introduced budget for the increased range used for the At-Risk Add-on, toward reinstating the policy of providing school divisions with a Lottery Fund per pupil amount basis.

Item 139 #9h – Lottery Proceeds Fund Per Pupil Allocations

Provides $85.2 million in the first year and $157.2 million in the second year from the Lottery Proceeds Fund and distributes to school divisions on an LCI-adjusted per pupil amount basis. This amendment reinstates the policy that provides a per pupil amount to school divisions from the Lottery Fund. There are other amendments in this item that provide additional revenues toward this initiative that collectively equal to $105.5 million in the first year and $167.2 million the second year. No more than 50 percent of these funds can be used for recurring costs, with the rest reserved for nonrecurring capital and equipment expenditures.

Item 139 #15h – Parental Choice Education Savings Account (language only amendment) 

This language only amendment implements part of HB389, requiring resident school divisions to deposit the appropriate state’s share of SOQ, sales tax, and any applicable special education funding received from the Department of Education for a qualifying student into an approved and established Parental Choice Education Savings account. The amendment further directs local school divisions to receive applicable receipts and invoices from parent expenditures for review of appropriateness of each expense and possible audit and directs the Department of Education and the Virginia College Savings Plan agencies to manage and audit such accounts. This amendment only addresses the transfer of state funds to student accounts, no funding is provided to local school divisions to implement, and is pursuant to the passage of HB389.

Item 139 #18h – Dual Enrollment for Home School Students (language only amendment)

The Department of Education, in collaboration with the Virginia Community College System, will ensure that the same policy regarding dual enrollment tuition-free waiver option shall be applied in the same manner for students enrolled in the public education system and students that are home-schooled.  In addition, any reduced tuition cost options afforded to parents of public school students who are enrolled in a dual enrollment course in a community college shall also be available to parents of home-schooled students.

Item 139 #19h – Virginia Virtual School – Transfer of Statewide Average SOQ Per Pupil Amount (language only amendment)

Pursuant to the passage of HB8, the amendment directs the Department of Education to transfer the average state share of Standards of Quality per pupil funding and the state's sales tax per pupil amount of funding to the Virginia Virtual School for each student that is enrolled in the Virginia Virtual School and who was previously enrolled in public school.  Funds shall be transferred based on the number of actual students enrolled in the Virginia Virtual School with a limit of 5,000 students per school year.  

The House Budget retains the Governor’s proposal to accelerate VRS rates to reflect 100% of actuarial rates in FY ’18.

NOTE: HB29 (the Caboose budget bill) contains $188 million to fully repay deferred retirement contributions for all VRS plans EXCEPT the public school teacher plan. That repayment allows for the subsequent reduction in rates for those plans in the FY’17-FY’18 biennial budget. Because the teacher plan is excluded from this repayment, the VRS contribution rates faced by local school divisions remain at their higher levels.  

Item 139 #20h – Work Group to Review Use of Chromebook (language only amendment)

Directs the Department of Education to convene a workgroup to review the current utilization of separate computer labs in schools for instruction and testing requirements and consider a transition to the usage of Chromebooks and similar other types of tablets or laptop computers in the classroom for students to use as an integrated part of instruction and Standards of Learning testing using the TestNav 8 software system upgrades. The workgroup will review the Department's Virginia Digital Textbook Marketplace contract and guidelines for the implementation of the pilot projects established in eight school divisions in the 2015-2016 school year and review the effectiveness of the pilots at the end of the year for improving academic success. Further, the workgroup will consider repurposing new issuances for educational technology grants to be used to purchase or lease Chromebooks or similar laptop devices.  

Senate Budget – (SB30)

Item 133 #1s – Student Assessment Growth Model  

Increases to $300,000 the amount for the new pilot for an analytical model to measure student growth in schools. Preliminary results shall be provided to the President of the State Board of Education and the Chairmen of the Senate Finance and House Appropriations Committees in order to help evaluate whether a statewide approach should be implemented.

Item 135 #1s – Technology Assistance Services – eMediaVA

Provides additional funding for eMediaVA to help provide competency-based, personalized learning opportunities. With over 150,000 users, eMediaVA, a repository of audio, video, and interactive multimedia learning resources, is free to all public, private, and homeschool educators and their students statewide. The additional funds will be used to increase teacher training and awareness statewide, including implementation of a single log-on, development of customizable curriculum resources and additional infrastructure to distribute materials.

Item 136 #1s – Develop Model Exit Questionnaire for Teachers (language only amendment)

Directs the Department of Education to develop a model exit questionnaire that school divisions may administer to exiting teachers, which was a recommendation of the January 2016 Feasibility Study on the Implementation of a Program to Track Teacher Turnover in the Commonwealth. 

Item 139 #1s – Salary Increase

Adds $48.9 million the first year and $2.2 million the second year, to the $83.2 million the second year in the budget as introduced, for the state's share of a teacher compensation supplement. This amendment advances the effective date of the 2.0 percent compensation increase from July 10, 2017 to December 1, 2016.

Item 139 #2s – Reverse Additional Positions Mandate

Reverses the funding in the budget as introduced for an additional 2,500 positions by the second year. Instead, in a companion amendment, the funding in the first year is re-directed towards advancing the effective date of the 2 percent compensation increase from July 10, 2017 to December 1, 2016, and in the second year $96.4 million is distributed in a more flexible manner at the discretion of the most pressing needs of each school division's particular circumstance.

Item 139 #3s – Additional Support for Classroom Needs (Half Non-Recurring)

This amendment allocates $96.4 million as flexible, additional support for classroom needs of school divisions. The amount of funding per school division is calculated in the same manner as the proposal in the introduced budget for state's share of one instructional position per elementary school and two instructional positions per middle and high school; however, this Additional Support for Classroom Needs contains no such mandate to hire additional new on-going positions. Funds may not be used for central office purposes, at least half must be used for non-recurring expenses, and no local match is required.

Item 139 #4s – Additional Support for Classroom Needs (One-Time Funding)

Provides one-time funding of $24.2 million as flexible, additional support for classroom needs of school divisions. Funds may not be used for central office purposes, must be used for non-recurring expenses, and no local match is required. The distribution by school divisions is calculated based on the state's share of a per pupil amount.

Item 139 #6s – At-Risk Add-On Range

Reflects savings of $21.5 million from the budget as introduced, by adjusting funding based on changing the percentage At-Risk Add-On range from 2.5-14 percent of Basic Aid in the budget as introduced to 1-14 percent. This represents an increase from the current range in fiscal year 2016 of 1-12 percent based on each school division's percentage of students eligible for free lunch, based on family income levels. A companion amendment also captures savings of $15.3 million in this program.

Item 139 #7s – Rebenchmark Virginia Preschool Initiative Per-Pupil Amount

Provides $2.9 million each year to re-benchmark the per pupil amount for the Virginia Preschool Initiative to the first year of the biennium based on the same percentage that Basic Aid increased in the first year due to re-benchmarking in the budget, as introduced. This action increases the per pupil amount from $6,000 to $6,250, an increase of 4.2 percent.

The Senate Budget retains the Governor’s proposal to accelerate VRS rates to reflect 100% of actuarial rates in FY ’18.

Quick Budget Update

This afternoon the House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees released their biennial budget proposals. VSBA staff is in the process of reviewing these proposals but you can read the remarks of the House Appropriations Elementary and Secondary Education Subcommittee Chairman here and the Senate Finance Education Subcommittee Chairman here. Check back later for more information on the General Assembly's biennial budget announcements. 

Tuesday Update from the General Assembly

The House Education subcommittee on education innovation met this morning to consider a series of bills including the school calendar legislation. While there were several bills before the committee a few were taken by for the day to work on bill language. Below is a report on the bills and actions of the subcommittee. Those bills that passed the subcommittee will be considered in the full committee on Wednesday.

HB265 (Davis) provides that if the amount appropriated to the local school board by the local governing body for public schools relates to its total only, the per pupil funding provided to a public charter school by the local school board shall also relate to its total only, unless otherwise negotiated in the charter agreement. Some legislators expressed concern about the real need for this legislation thus the bill was laid on the table and will not be moving forward.

HB365 (Davis) establishes the Adaptive Learning Tools Grant Fund where the Department of Education awards grants on a competitive basis to local school divisions that demonstrate the effective use of adaptive learning tools. The bill was reported and referred to the Appropriations committee.

HB571 (Robinson) makes local school boards responsible for setting the school calendar and determining the opening date of the school year and eliminates the post-Labor Day opening requirement and "good cause" scenarios for which the Board of Education may grant waivers of this requirement. However, the bill requires local school boards that set the school calendar with a pre-Labor Day opening date, except those schools that were granted a "good cause" waiver for the 2015-2016 school year, to close all schools in the division (i) from the Thursday immediately preceding Labor Day through Labor Day or (ii) from the Friday immediately preceding Labor Day through the Tuesday immediately succeeding Labor Day. The bill was reported from the subcommittee on a 7-2 vote.

HB753 (Greason) is another school calendar bill similar to HB571 but does not require an extended break over the Labor Day weekend. This bill makes local school boards responsible for setting the school calendar and determining the opening date of the school year and eliminates the post-Labor Day opening requirement and "good cause" scenarios for which the Board of Education may grant waivers of this requirement. Delegates Kory and Adams had identical bills which were rolled into HB753. The bill was reported from the subcommittee on a 7-2 vote.

HB894 (Greason) makes tweaks to the membership of the SOL Innovation Committee to include at least one representative from a four-year public institution of higher education, one representative from a two-year public institution of higher education, and specifies that the business representative(s) on the Committee shall represent the business community. The bill also staggers the terms of the legislative and nonlegislative citizen members. The bill was unanimously reported from the subcommittee.

HB1165 (Dudenhefer) requires the Department of Education to establish a system and procedure, consistent with secure mandatory testing requirements, by which teachers may electronically submit evidence and student evidence identification tags for each completed Virginia Grade Level Alternative assessment. After discussion by the members and some concerns about the cost to implement the legislation, the bill was laid on the table by the subcommittee and will not be moving forward.

In addition to the subcommittee meeting the House Republicans outlined their “Opportunities in Education” agenda. Much of their agenda focuses on school choice including the charter schools constitutional amendment, the Parental Choice Education Savings Account legislation, expanding tax-credits, and the establishment of the Virginia Virtual School, a full-time virtual school. Also included in their agenda are bill relating to early childhood education and the home school sports legislation. You can read the full press release from this morning’s announcement here.

Finally, Dr. Steve Staples, State Superintendent of Public Instruction presented to the House Appropriations Elementary and Secondary Education subcommittee. He gave a great presentation on the many successes and challenges facing our schools. You can access his presentation here.