Crossover Report

Today is the first day post-crossover, meaning that all bills have either passed their originating body or they failed to move forward. This session, VSBA has been working with over 300 bills that are directly or indirectly related to K-12 education. We have had a number of significant successes in defeating unfavorable legislation and in passing favorable legislation. Thank you to all of you who engaged in advocacy with the General Assembly. We greatly appreciate your help!

To assist you in your work, we have compiled a Crossover report which is divided into two sections, one for passed legislation and one for defeated legislation. As we move forward into the second half of session, we will be providing additional updates on these bills as they advance through the process. You can stay up-to-date on General Assembly's actions by visiting the VSBA Legislative Blog. Also, please keep an eye out for new VSBA Action Alerts. 

Thank you again for your continued support of VSBA. Your voice makes a difference in Richmond as legislators make decisions that impact your school division. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at emily@vsba.org.

Passed Legislation 

HJ1 (R. Bell) – the House version of the charter school constitutional amendment which would permit the Board of Education to authorize charter schools. The resolution narrowly passed the floor of the House on a 52-47 vote.

HB734 (Obenshain) – this is the Senate version of HB565 which rewrites the required elements of a charter school application and the charter contracting process. The bill does not restrict the Board of Education’s authority to authorize a charter school pursuant to the passage of the constitutional amendment. The bill passed the Senate on a 21-19 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 much discussion in the education and appropriations committees, the bill passed the floor of the House on a 53-46 vote.

HB8 (D. 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 bill passed the House on a 58-40 vote.

HB753 (Greason) – Makes local school boards responsible for setting their school calendar. The bill passed the House on a 76-22 vote.

HB571 (Robinson) – Makes local school boards responsible for setting the school calendar but 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 have a five-day weekend over Labor Day. The bill passed the House on a 76-21 vote.

HB518 (LeMunyon) – Requires the Board of the Education to select 12 schools that have been identified for comprehensive support and improvement under ESSA and require them to provide public school choice similar to previous sanctions under NCLB. The bill requires a study by the Department on the potential fiscal impacts and includes a reenactment clause. After much discussion and work on this legislation, the bill passed the House on a 57-42 vote.

HB131 (R. Bell) /SB612 (Garrett) – Prohibits Would force the VHSL to change its rules to permit home school students to participate in interscholastic activities.  The bill would allow each school board to decide whether it will permit home school students to participate and to charge reasonable fees to cover the cost of participation. As expected both bills passed their respective houses.

HB241 (Lingamfelter) /SB538 (Surovell) – Requires the Board of Education to consider alternative assessments for English Language Learners. Both bills unanimously passed their respective houses.

SB427 (Miller) – Requires that the Board of Education not include, for purposes of accreditation those students (up to 5 percent), who refuse to take SOL assessments. Currently, these students count against a school for purposes of accreditation. The bill unanimously passed the Senate floor.

SB368 (McDougle) – Allows the Board of Education to review the accreditation status of a school or division once every two or three years. It also states that:

•         Any school that receives a multiyear accreditation status other than full accreditation will be required to submit and adhere to a corrective action plan approved by the Board for the duration of the period of accreditation.
•      The Board of Education may require a division-level academic review if they determine through the individual school academic review process, or other division level action or inaction, that the failure is beyond the individual school thus requiring the local school board to submit a corrective action plan to meet full accreditation status.
•       If the Board determines that the proposed corrective action plan is not sufficient to enable all schools within the division to achieve full accreditation, the Board may return the plan to the local school board with directions to submit an amended plan pursuant to Board guidance.

The bill unanimously passed the Senate.

HB682 (Peace) – Allows a superintendent to apply to the Department of Education for an annual waiver of the teacher licensure requirements for an individual who is hired by the local school board to teach in the area of career and technical education. The individuals must have at least 4,000 hours of recent and relevant employment experience. The bill unanimously passed the House.

HB279 (Byron) – Directs the Board of Education to establish a Virginia career and technical education adjunct faculty provisional license and a Virginia STEM adjunct faculty renewable license for qualified individuals to teach high school career and technical education courses on a part-time basis. The bill prescribes requirements for such licenses. The bill unanimously passed the House.

SB573 (Ruff) - Directs the Board of Education to provide for the issuance of temporary part-time teacher permits to qualified professionals with expertise and credentials in career and technical education areas who are recommended for the permit by employing school divisions. The bill unanimously passed the Senate.

HB895 (Greason) /SB336 (Miller) - Removes existing provisions related to standard and advanced studies diplomas and standard and verified units of credit. Additionally, it requires the Board of Education, in establishing high school graduation requirements to:

•  Develop and implement a Profile of a Virginia Graduate that identifies the knowledge and skills that students should attain during high school in order to be successful contributors to the economy of the Commonwealth, giving due consideration to critical thinking, creative thinking, collaboration, communication, and citizenship;

• Emphasize the development of core skill sets in the early years of high school; and

• Establish and require students to follow in the later years of high school alternative paths toward college and career readiness that include internships, externships, and credentialing.

The House version of the bill requires the Board of Education to report on such graduation requirements to the Chairmen of the House Committee on Education and the Senate Committee on Education and Health no later than September 1, 2017. Both HB895 and SB336 passed their respective bodies.

HB168 (LaRock)/ SB120 (Carrico) – Allows a locality that has authorized the installation and operation of a video-monitoring system on school buses for recording violations of unlawfully passing a stopped school bus to execute a summons for these violations by mailing a copy of the summons to the owner of the vehicle. Current law requires that the summons be delivered by a law enforcement officer.

• SB120 includes an appeal process for those persons who disagree with the summons

Both HB168 and SB120 passed their respective houses.

SB364 (Chafin) – Allows the Department of Human Resource Management (DHRM) to create a health insurance plan similar to the state employee plan for the participation of local school divisions in the state employee health plan. After a lot of work on this bill with various stakeholders, this compromise bill unanimously passed the Senate.

SB458 (McEachin) – Requires the Board of Education to establish guidelines for alternatives to short-term and long-term suspension for consideration by local school boards. Such alternatives may include positive behavior incentives, mediation, peer-to-peer counseling, community service, and other intervention alternatives. The bill passed the Senate on a 31-9 vote.

SB660 (Favola) – Prohibits a school board from appointing a hearing officer that is an employee of the school board or the spouse, child, parent, grandparent, or sibling of any member of the school board or school superintendent. VSBA worked with the patron to amend the bill. As amended VSBA does not have a position on the bill. The bill passed the Senate on a 38-2 vote.

HB942 (Wilt) – Requires local school boards to provide reasonable access to school property to any youth group listed as a patriotic and national organization in 36 U.S.C. Subtitle II, Part B to provide written materials and speak to students at times other than instructional time during the school day to encourage student participation. The bill passed the House on a 66-32 vote.

HB1234 (Lingamfelter) –  Authorizes a school security officer to carry a firearm in the performance of his duties if he is a retired law-enforcement officer and the local school board grants him the authority to carry a firearm in the performance of his duties. The bill passed the House on a 66-33 vote.

HB516 (Landes) – Requires the Board of Education to establish a policy to require schools to (i) notify the parent of any student whose teacher reasonably expects to provide instructional material that includes sexually explicit content, (ii) permit the parent of any student to review instructional material that includes sexually explicit content upon request, and (iii) provide, as an alternative to instructional material and related academic activities that include sexually explicit content, nonexplicit instructional material and related academic activities to any student whose parent so requests. The bill unanimously passed the House.

Defeated Legislation

SJ6 (Obenshain) & SJ93 (Obenshain/Sutterlein) – the Senate version of the charter school constitutional amendment. Both resolutions failed to pass the floor of the Senate.

HB565 (Lingamfelter) - Rewrites the required elements of a charter school application and the charter contracting process. The bill does not restrict the Board of Education’s authority to authorize a charter school pursuant to the passage of the constitutional amendment. The bill was re-referred to the House Education committee where it will fail to crossover.

HB1132 (LaRock) - Eliminates the requirement that school principals report to law enforcement any conduct that may constitute a misdemeanor. The bill was left in the House Courts of Justice committee where it will fail to crossover. 

HB1134 (LaRock) – States that a student cannot be prosecuted for disorderly conduct for conduct that occurs on school property during regular school hours or on a school bus. The bill failed to be engrossed for its third reading and will not be moving forward.

HB1061 (Bagby) – Requires that all reasonable alternatives be considered before a student is expelled or referred to law enforcement. The bill was re-referred to the House Courts of Justice committee where it will fail to crossover.

HB864 (Hugo) – Permits a local school board to conduct a teacher grievance hearing before a three-member fact-finding panel. VSBA opposed the bill and it was left in the House Education committee.

HB697 (Kory) – Makes several changes to the teacher dismissal and grievance procedures. VSBA opposed the bill and it was left in the House Education committee.

HB187 (Taylor) - Requires the plans or blueprints for the construction of a new public school building include an indoor active shooter gunshot detection and alerting system. The bill failed to report from the House Education committee.

HB167 (Cole) – Permits local school boards to allow any school board employee who is a former law-enforcement officer and ceased or retired from serving in such capacity while in good standing to possess a firearm in (i) any public elementary or secondary school in the school division, including buildings and grounds; (ii) that portion of any property open to the public and then exclusively used for school-sponsored functions or extracurricular activities while such functions or activities are taking place; and (iii) any school bus owned or operated by the local school board. The bill failed to report from the House Elementary and Secondary Education subcommittee.

HB166 (Cole) - Requires that a local school division provide instruction in Braille or the use of Braille to visually impaired students unless the IEP or 504 team, after an evaluation by a certified Teacher of the Visually Impaired (TVI), determines that it is not appropriate to meet the student’s educational needs. Due to the fiscal impact on local school divisions, the bill was tabled in the Appropriations Elementary and Secondary Education subcommittee.

SB737 (Obenshain) – Prohibits school boards from granting employees paid leave or work time for the employees to work for or on behalf of a professional association, labor union, or labor organization. The bill failed to pass the Senate. 

Crossover Report - Passed Legislation

Today is the first day post-crossover, meaning that all bills have either passed their respective body or they failed. This session VSBA has been working with over 200 bills that are directly or indirectly related to K-12 education. We have had a number of significant successes in defeating unfavorable legislation and in passing favorable legislation. Below is the first report on legislation that has passed their respective house and will now be moving through the process in the other body. We’ll be providing additional updates on bills that have been defeated and bills of concern.

HB1303 (Farrell)- requires the Department of Education to make available to school divisions Standards of Learning assessments typically administered by the middle and high schools by December 1 of the school year in which such assessments are to be administered or when newly developed assessments are available, whichever is later.

HB1675 (Greason) – permits local school divisions to waive (1) the requirement for students to receive 140 clock hours of instruction to earn a standard credit or (2) the requirement for students to achieve a satisfactory score on a SOL assessment test or Board-approved substitute test to earn a verified credit upon providing the Board with satisfactory proof, based on Board guidelines, that the students for whom such requirements are waived have learned the content and skills included in the relevant Standards of Learning. The Board guidelines will provide that a satisfactory score on a locally developed alternative assessment or on an Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate examination is proof that the student has learned the content. The provisions of clause (2) have a delayed effective date of July 1, 2016.

HB1338 (Farrell) – requires the Department of Education, for the purpose of including in the annual School Performance Report Card for school divisions the percentage of each school division's operating budget allocated to instructional costs, to allocate to instructional costs each school division's expenditures on the hardware necessary to support electronic textbooks. 

HB1309 (Cole) – allows local school boards the option to arm school security officers with batons, stun weapons, or any spray device designed to incapacitate a person and to allow school security officers to use such devices under the appropriate circumstances.

HB1490 (Habeeb)/ SB874 (Cosgrove) – directs the Board of Education to promulgate regulations to provide the same criteria for eligibility for an expedited retake of any Standards of Learning test, with the exception of the writing Standards of Learning tests, to each student regardless of grade level or course.

HB1674 (Greason) – reduces the frequency that a school's accreditation status is reviewed by the Board of Education.  The bill allows the Board of Education to review the accreditation status of schools every one, two, or three years, as determined by the Board of Education, and requires that a school that is not fully accredited be reviewed in the subsequent year.  

HB1612 (Greason) – requires certain online service providers who contract with school divisions to meet certain requirements related to data privacy and the use of student data.

HB1672 (Greason) – repeals the A-F school grading system and requires the Board of Education, in consultation with the SOL Innovation Committee, to redesign the School Performance Report Card so that it is more effective in communicating to parents and the public the status and achievements of the public schools and local school divisions. A similar bill, SB727 (Black) was passed in the Senate.

HB1615 (Greason) allows the required end-of-course or end-of-grade assessments for English, mathematics, science, and history and social science to be integrated to include multiple subject areas.  This bill would not, however, require the use of integrated assessments.  

HB1585 (Stolle) - allows a division superintendent, with the approval of the local school board, to (1) establish an alternative school schedule plan to provide for the operation of schools on a year-round basis or determine the opening day of the school year for any school within the local school division that has failed to achieve full accreditation status and (2) establish such an alternative school schedule plan for the entire local school division if more than 15 percent of all public schools within the local school division have failed to achieve full accreditation status.

HB1962 (Landes) adds several topics to the required annual training for school board members and further requires that school board members certify their attendance at such training.  

HB1307 (Landes)/ SB1293 (Martin) prohibits school boards and the DOE from requiring the disclosure of student's social security numbers of newly enrolled students. The bill also requires the Department to instead develop a system of unique student identification numbers and requires each local school board to assign such a number to each student enrolled in a public elementary or secondary school. 

HB1334 (Landes) –requires the Department of Education to develop and make publicly available on its website policies to ensure state and local compliance with the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and state law applicable to students' personally identifiable information, including policies for access to students' personally identifiable information and the approval of requests for student data from public and private entities and individuals for the purpose of research. The bill also requires the Department and each local school division to notify the parent of any student whose personally identifiable information contained in electronic records could reasonably be assumed to have been disclosed in violation of FERPA or state law applicable to such information, except as otherwise provided in certain other provisions of law. The notification shall include the date, estimated date, or date range of the disclosure; type of information that was or is reasonably believed to have been disclosed; and remedial measures taken or planned in response to the disclosure.

HB1873 (Krupicka)/ SB1320 (Locke) – directs the Board of Education to promulgate regulations establishing additional accreditation ratings that recognize the progress of schools that do not meet accreditation benchmarks but have significantly improved their pass rates, are within specified ranges of benchmarks, or have demonstrated significant growth for the majority of their students. These regulations must be implemented by the 2016-2017 school year.

HB1443 (D. Bell)/ SB782 (Favola) – requires the Board of Education to adopt regulations on the use of seclusion and restraint in public elementary and secondary schools in the Commonwealth. These regulations must: 

• Be consistent with the Guidelines for the Development of Policies and Procedures for Managing Student Behavior in Emergency Situations and the Fifteen Principles contained in the U.S. Department of Education’s Restraint and Seclusion Resource Document;
• Include definitions, criteria for use, restrictions for use, training requirements, notification requirements, reporting requirements, and follow-up requirements; and
• Address distinctions, including distinctions in emotional and physical development, between the general student population and the special education student population as well as elementary school students and secondary school students. 

HB1550 (Greason) – 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.

HB1838 (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. Additionally, it 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 2014-2015 school year, to close all schools in the division from the Thursday immediately preceding Labor Day through Labor Day or from the Friday immediately preceding Labor Day through the Tuesday immediately following Labor Day.

SB1354 (Reeves) requires DOE to establish a process for school boards to identify students who have a parent in the military and to report data on such students for the purposes of enhancing funding and services for those students. 

SB866 (Chafin/Vogel) - allows local school boards and local governments to participate in the state employee health plan. However, this bill does require the authorization from both the local school board and local governing body to participate in the plan.

Budget Update

Today the House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees released the details of their amendments to the biennial budget. We are pleased to see that the House and Senate have continued to protect public education from additional cuts or program reductions, similar to Governor McAuliffe’s December budget release. There are several differences between the two budgets, specifically with program funding, which will need to be worked out by the budget conferees in the coming weeks. Below is an overview of both the House and Senate budget amendments.

• Both the House and Senate included additional funds, over the $150 million proposed by the governor, to pay down the deferred contribution portion of the unfunded liability in the teacher retirement account. The House included $190million and the Senate included $187.2 million. This pay-down will lower the teacher retirement rate by 43 basis points, from 14.50% to 14.07%. As a result of these payments, both the state and local school divisions will see a positive impact on their budgets.
• The House included $55 million for instructional and support positions for the state’s share of a 1.5% salary increase for funded SOQ instructional and support positions. Although state funding is calculated based on 11 months of the year, the local required match is based on a 1.5% increase with an effective date of no later than January 1, 2016. Divisions must certify that a minimum 1.5% increase will be provided to employees by this date. The amendment also specifies that in meeting the salary increase to be eligible for this incentive funding, school divisions may not include any increase that were provided in FY ’16 to offset the cost of required member contributions to VRS. Further, this funding allocation is contingent on the state revenue forecast performance.  The Senate included $50.2 million for the state’s share of a 1.5% salary increase for funded SOQ and instructional support positions. This funding is calculated based on 10 months of the year. Local school divisions have the flexibility to determine the specific effective date no later than January 1, 2016.
• The House included $1 million to support the statewide expansion of the Virginia Kindergarten Readiness Program (VKRP). This assessment focuses on assessing kindergarteners in the fall to determine their social skills and self-regulation as well as math and literacy skills which are currently being assessed using the PALS test.
•  The Senate included $7.7 million for incentive funding for extended school year programs to improve student achievement.
•  The House included $366,000 to assist local school divisions for the professional development of teachers and principals on the subject of high-needs student issues and $300,000 to support the expansion of Virtual Virginia.
•  The House included $100,000 to the Department of Education for professional development and training of local school board members pursuant to the passage of HB1962.

Both the House and Senate included budget language on several items relating to public education including school breakfast, educational technology, and VPI. 

• The House included language that directs the Department of Education to work with local school divisions on educational technology capital equipment purchases to ensure maximum flexibility with VPSA funds. The Senate also included language related to VPSA technology grants that directs the Department of Education to assess the extent of local interest in using education technology grants for lease expenditures if allowable sources of funding were available for such expenditures. 
• The House provided language that gives flexibility to school divisions to utilize the First Lady’s breakfast amendment funding to pilot a “Breakfast After the Bell” program for elementary students or expand their current school breakfast programs to offer additional meals to all grade levels. The Senate included different language about the First Lady’s breakfast amendment. Their language limits the $537,297 in incentive funding for “Breakfast After the Bell” programs to only elementary schools where student eligibility for free and reduced lunch is greater than 45% for a pilot in 2015-2016 school year. Additionally, schools will be required to evaluate and submit a report on the impact of the pilot to the Department of Education. 
• The Senate included budget language creating the Joint Subcommittee on Virginia Preschool Initiative (VPI) Reform which will be comprised of members from the Education Subcommittees of the House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees. The Joint Subcommittee will provide recommendations to increase accountability, flexibility, innovation, and facilitate partnerships between schools and Virginia’s private providers to ensure effective financing and policy solutions for VPI.

You can view the full remarks of the Senate Finance Education subcommittee chairman, Senator Tommy Norment, here and the remarks from Delegate Jimmie Massie, chairman of the House Appropriations Elementary and Secondary Education subcommittee, here. VSBA will continue to keep you updated as the budget process moves forward.  

Final Senate Education and Health Committee update before Crossover

Several committees and subcommittees convened this today including the Senate Education and Health committee. Pat, Stacy and I split up to ensure coverage on all of the bills that VSBA is tracking. Below is a summary of actions from the Senate Education and Health committee.

SB998 (Stuart) required each local school division to establish a management plan for the implementation and compliance of its policies and procedures regarding the identification of suspected concussions in student-athletes. The bill was passed by indefinitely with the chairman of the committee sending a letter to the Commission on Youth to look at this issue.

SB1063 (Obenshain), relating to charter school personnel, was passed by indefinitely. This bill allowed public charter schools to designate in their application whether their employees would participate in VRS. Additionally, the bill required at least 75 percent of public charter elementary school teachers to be licensed and at least 50 percent of public charter middle and high school teachers to be licensed and specified that all teachers otherwise be "highly qualified," as defined by ESEA.

SB1286 (McDougle) was reported unanimously from the committee. The bill requires each local school division to publish the annual school budget in line item form on its website. Current law does not require the published budget to be in line item form.

SB1339 (Smith) allows the clerk of each school board to keep volumes of meeting minutes and receipt and disbursement records, vouchers, contracts, and other official papers electronically. The bill was reported unanimously from the committee.

SB1354 (Reeves) was reported unanimously with a substitute from the committee. The bill requires the Department of Education to establish a process and local school to identify newly enrolled student who have a parent in the uniformed services. This nonidentifiable, aggregate data will be made available to local, state, and federal entities for the purposes of enhancing funding and the quality of services provided to these uniformed services-connected students. This data will only be released as permitted under FERPA and will not be used for the purposes of student achievement, the Standards of Accreditation, student-growth indicators, the school performance report card, or any other school rating system.

SB1369 (Norment) creates the Virginia Science Technology Engineering and Applied Mathematics (STEAM) Academy as a private, nonprofit organization and a statewide, publicly accessible, special, residential high school and establishes the governing board of directors. Initially the bill required the school to receive the state and federal funds of the enrolled student along with the agreed-upon local share. Through the work of VSBA and several education stakeholder groups this language was removed from the bill. It now required the Virginia STEAM Academy with the Board of Education, Secretary of Education, and chairs of the eight regional superintendents study group to study various forms of funding available and submit a report back to the committee before November 1, 2015.  

SB1293 (Martin) removes the requirement to collect federal social security numbers from a public school or home school student (or their parent) and prohibits the Department of Education and local school boards from requiring a student (or their parent) to provide their federal social security number. The bill also requires the Department of Education to develop a system of unique student identification numbers and requires each local school board to assign such a number to each student enrolled in a public elementary or secondary school. The bill reported unanimously.

SB1386 (Vogel) was reported on an 11-3 vote and referred to the Senate Finance committee. This legislation requires every person seeking initial teacher licensure or renewal of a teaching license with an endorsement in elementary education to receive professional development training on the screening, intervention, accommodation, and use of technology for students with dyslexia. This evening the bill received unanimous support from the Senate Finance Committee.

We’ll be watching floor votes on these bills and many others for the next few days. Also, the House and Senate budgets will be released on Sunday afternoon. Check back later for the most up-to-date information from the General Assembly.  

Crossover Report

This session VSBA has been working with nearly 200 bills that are directly or indirectly related to K-12 education. We have had a number of significant successes in defeating or amending unfavorable legislation and in passing favorable legislation. Below is a summary of some of the VSBA’s most significant successes thus far this session. As you will read below, however, there is much work still to do.

Defeated Legislation

Lots of legislation was defeated through the committee processes, often due to high fiscal impact. We’ve outlined just a handful of the hot topic bills that were defeated.

HB66 (Ramadan) – This legislation would have required that each school board place at least one school resource officer in every elementary and secondary school. The cost of this legislation would have been paid by the Lottery Fund with a fiscal impact of $243 million in FY15 and a recurring cost of $130 million per year. Due to the major fiscal impact, the legislation was tabled in the House Appropriations Elementary and Secondary Education subcommittee.

HB173 (Farrell) – House Bill 173 would have prohibited a law enforcement officer or other persons to search a cell phone, tablet, laptop or computer without a search warrant. This legislation was problematic for VSBA especially given the impact it would have on school-issued tablets, laptops and desktop computers. The Courts of Justice Criminal subcommittee tabled the bill.

HB207 (D. Bell) – There was much debate and discussion about House Bill 207 in the Education and Courts of Justice subcommittees. This bill would have required the Board of Education, local school boards and school board employees to create an environment that encourages students to explore scientific controversies in the classroom and assist teachers to find effective ways to present scientific controversies in science class. Due to constitutional concerns, the bill was reported and referred by the House Education committee to the Courts of Justice committee. The bill was left in the Courts of Justice committee.

HB228 (Cole) – The amended version of this legislation would have required that a local school division provide instruction in Braille or the use of Braille to visually impaired students unless the IEP or 504 team, after an evaluation, deemed it not appropriate to meet the student’s educational needs. Additionally it would have required that the evaluation be conducted by a certified Teacher of the Visually Impaired (TVI). Due to the potential fiscal impact, the House Appropriations Elementary and Secondary Education subcommittee tabled the bill.

HB513 (Morris) – This legislation would have allowed the local governing body to remove any appointed board, commission or committee member at any time for any reason. This bill was extremely problematic for our appointed school boards. Through the work of our appointed school board members and VSBA, the bill failed to report from the Counties, Cities and Towns subcommittee #1.

SB240 (Carrico) – Senate Bill 240 would have made it a misdemeanor for a principal, assistant principal or supervisor to refuse to release a student to the custodial parent. VSBA and many other groups opposed this legislation. The bill was carried over to 2015.

SB509 (Barker) – This bill would have required all school boards to offer full day kindergarten instruction of at least 5.5 hours. The bill failed in the Senate Education and Health committee on a close 7-8 vote.

HB113 (Bob Marshall) – House Bill 113 would have completely repealed last year’s Opportunity Educational Institution legislation. VSBA as well as many education stakeholder groups supported this legislation. Ultimately the bill was tabled in the House Education Reform subcommittee.

HB463 (Yost/Kilgore) – House Bill 463 was strongly supported by VSBA, VASS, VEA as well as VML and VaCo. The bill would have allowed local school boards to join the state employee health plan. After three years, the local school board would be required to make an irrevocable election whether to participate in the state employee health plan. All costs of participation would be borne by the local school board and employee of the school division. Even with strong support from all stakeholder groups, the bill failed to report from the House Appropriations Compensation and Retirement subcommittee due to the indeterminate fiscal impact.

Amended Legislation

Often problematic legislation has so much support or momentum that we cannot defeat it. This happens often with hot issues, such as student health, bullying and school safety. Below are some of the bills on which we worked for significant amendments because we did not believe they could be defeated.

HB515 (Minchew) – This legislation was significantly amended in committee and now requires principals to attempt to notify the parents of any student who violates a school board policy or compulsory school attendance requirement if the violation could result in a student’s suspension, long-term suspension or expulsion. VSBA has concerns with the language of the amended legislation because it could be construed to place a significant burden on principals to notify parents of minor infractions even when the teacher or principal has decided not to suspend the student. VSBA will continue to work to amend the legislation to avoid these unintended consequences. House Bill 515 unanimously passed the House 99-0.

HB134 (Cole) – The original House Bill 134 permits parents of public school student with diabetes to designate in a diabetes care plan a delegated care aide to provide diabetes care for the student, including the administration of insulin and glucagon, when a school nurse or physician is not present in the school or at a school-sponsored activity. The bill also required the delegated care aide to receive training in diabetes care and every school employee to receive basic training in responses to emergency situations and changes from one to two the minimum number of employees in a school that must be trained with regard to a student with diabetes who attends the school. With significant work and input from VSBA, we were able to amend the bill. The amended bill requires that a student with diabetes, with written parental and prescriber consent, be allowed to carry and use supplies and equipment for immediate treatment of their diabetes. House Bill 134 passed the House 87-12.

SB532 (Stuart) is very similar to Del. Cole’s HB134. SB532 requires training for certain staff in the administration of insulin and glucagon and the certification of the Superintendent that the requirements of Board’s Manuel for Training Public School Employees in the Administration of Insulin and Glucagon have been met. Additionally the bill requires that a student with diabetes, with written parental and prescriber consent, be allowed to carry and use supplies and equipment for immediate treatment of their diabetes. VSBA has worked with the patron to offer amendments to the bill. While some have been accepted, we still have concerns with the legislation. We will continue to work with the patron and hope to have the bill amended to conform with HB134).

HB198 (Landes) – House Bill 198 which was amended at VSBA's request, clarifies that in cases of weapons and drug offenses, the school board may, but is not required to expel the student. The bill was reported from House Education and unanimously passed the House.

SB441 (Garrett) – The amended version of Senate Bill 441, which is identical to House Bill 198, clarifies that in cases of weapons and drug offenses, the school board may, but is not required to expel the student. This bill unanimously passed the Senate.

HB449 (R. Bell) – VSBA worked with Delegate Rob Bell to amend House Bill 449. The amended version of the bill prohibits school board members or employees or the Department of Education from transmitting personally identifiable information from a student’s record to the federal government except as required by federal law or regulation. The amended House Bill 449 unanimously passed the House.

Passed Legislation

While we have spent a lot of time amending or opposing legislation, there are many bills that VSBA actively supported during the first half of session. Here are a few of the bills that passed the house of origin and are headed to the other house.

HB754 (Rust) allows the school board or a committee thereof to change a disciplinary decision made by a Superintendent or designee or hearing officer in certain circumstances. It is VSBA's position that school boards can already take such actions. The patron of the bill and the House Education committee indicated that they thought this bill would clarify existing law. House Bill 754 passed the House on a 96-2 vote.

HB751(Rust) clarifies that local school board have discretion in disciplining students for certain drug offenses. Current law requires school boards to expel students for these offenses but does allow school boards to impose another sanction if warranted by special circumstances. Under this legislation, a school board may still expel a student for drug offenses, but is not required to do so. HB752 (Rust) removes the possession of a pneumatic weapon on school grounds from the list of weapons offenses that carry a mandatory sanction of expulsion (unless, again, special circumstances exist). This bill still allows school boards to prohibit the possession of pneumatic weapons and to expel students for violating such a policy, but expulsion would no longer be required in these cases. VSBA supports both HB751 and HB752 because these bills give local school boards flexibility to decide appropriate disciplinary sanctions and to avoid the confusion of the "mandatory" expulsion that was not actually mandatory. HB751 and HB752 have passed the House and are on their way to the Senate.

HB720 (McClellan) requires local school boards to set aside a non-restroom location that is shielded from public view to be designed as an area for any mother, who is employed by the local school board or enrolled as a student, to take breaks during the school day to express milk to feed her child until the child reaches the age of one. This bill passed the House 87-9.

HB333 (Greason) is just one of the Labor Day bills before the General Assembly. This bill would repeal the so-called “King’s Dominion law” and allow local school boards to set their own calendars and determine the opening date of the school year. House Bill 333 passed the House 75-24. House Bill 610 (Robinson) is a different take on the Labor Day bill. It will allow a local school board to set their school calendar and opening date. However, the division must close schools from the Thursday before through Labor Day or Friday before through the Tuesday after Labor Day. House Bill 610 passed the House 75-24.

HB930 (Greason) reduces SOL assessments in grade 3 through 8 from 22 to 17 assessments. It requires local school boards to certify instruction and the completion of local assessments in the other Standards of Learning subject areas. Further, the bill creates the Standards of Learning Innovation Committee. The committee, led by the Secretary of Education, will include a variety of stakeholders that are tasked to make recommendations on the Standards of Learning assessments, authentic individual student growth measures and alignment between the Standards of Learning and assessments and the School Performance Report Card. The bill also allows the Board of Education to make future further reductions in the number of SOL assessments in grades 3 through 11. House Bill 930 unanimously passed the House 99-0.

HB1115 (Greason) expands Virtual Virginia by authorizing DOE to contract with local school boards that have developed virtual courses to make those virtual courses available to other school boards through Virtual Virginia. VSBA has been working with Delegate Greason on this legislation and strongly supports the substitute language. House Bill 1115 unanimously passed the House 99-0.

HB1054 (Loupassi) requires the Board of Education to consider all computer science course credits earned by students to be science course credits, mathematics course credits, or career and technical education credits in establishing course and credit requirements for a high school diploma. This bill passed the House 65-33.

HB977 (Rust) and SB43 (Favola) extend from five business days to ten business days the deadline for a teacher to request a hearing after receiving written notice of a recommendation of dismissal. These bills extend the total time to process a teacher dismissal grievance by about a week, but do not otherwise alter new the grievance process that was created by legislation that VSBA supported last session. HB977 has passed both the House and Senate. SB43 unanimously passed the House and is on the way to the Senate.

HB1229 (Landes) delays the implementation of the A-F school grading system to October 1, 2015. Delegate Jackson Miller offered a floor amendment last week to extend the delay to October 1, 2017 as outlined in SB324. On Monday he withdrew the amendment due to the risk of the patron striking the bill. House Bill 1229 passed 97-2.

Similar to HB1229, SB324 (Miller) delays the implementation of the A-F school grading system to October 1, 2017 and further outlines certain factors that need to be included in the grading system. The bill has passed the Senate 23-17.

SB305 (Deeds) requires the Board of Education to promulgate regulations to increase the number of students and grade levels that are eligible for expedited retakes of the Standards of Learning assessments. Additionally, the regulations must permit students in grade three through five who score between 390 and 399 to receive focused remediation and retake the assessment. Senate Bill 305 passed the Senate unanimously.

SB562 (Locke) allows school boards that partner with a college partnership laboratory school to charge tuition to students enrolled in the lab school who do not reside within the partnering division. This bill unanimously passed the Senate.

HB324 (D. Bell) establishes the Board of the Virtual Virginia School and requires that the School be open to any student in the Commonwealth. The bill would result in federal, state, and local funds, up to $6,500 per pupil, being transferred from local school boards to the Virtual Virginia School. There are also other significant problems with this legislation and VSBA strongly opposes it. House Bill 324 passed the House 64-34.

SB236 (Carrico) is a very problematic bill that passed the Senate before control of that chamber shifted from Republican to Democrat. This bill requires that each school division adopt a policy that creates a limited public forum at any school event at which a student is permitted to speak and provides that the limited public forum does not discriminate or regulate against a student’s voluntary expression of religious viewpoint. Additionally, students may organize prayer groups or religious groups before, during or after school and shall have the same access to school facilities as other student-organized groups. If this bill passes, we believe that a constitutional challenge against a school board implementing the legislation is extremely likely. VSBA offered an amendment to the legislation that would authorize the Attorney General to advise and defend school boards implementing the legislation. This proposed amendment was rejected by the patron. The bill, without the amendment proposed by VSBA, passed the Senate 20-18. Fortunately, similar legislation that was introduced in the House, HB493 (Lingamfelter) was killed in the House Courts of Justice committee. VSBA will continue to oppose SB236 and it will hopefully suffer the same fate as HB493.

HB388 (Davis) requires each local school board to reimburse each public charter school in the school division in an amount equal to the difference between (i) the proportionate share of all state and federal resources allocated for students with disabilities and school personnel assigned to special education programs in the public charter school and (ii) the actual cost to the public charter school to educate such students, as determined by the local school board. House Bill 388 passed 61-37. VSBA has concerns with this bill because it takes away a school board’s ability to negotiate these terms with a charter school operator. VSBA will continue to seek amendments to this legislation or, alternatively, to defeat it in the Senate.

HB786 (Wilt) prohibits the dismissal or probation of an employee on the grounds that they possessed an unloaded firearm in a closed container in their vehicle or in a locked trunk, a knife with a metal blade in their vehicle or an unloaded shotgun in a firearms rack. The possession of a firearm on school property in these limited circumstances is not prohibited by law but, currently, a school board may choose to prohibit it. This bill would effectively prevent school boards from exercising their authority to prohibit firearms on school property in these circumstances. VSBA opposes this bill because it limits school boards authority on what should be a local decision. HB786 passed the House 67-32.

HB63 (R. Bell) prohibits a public school from joining an organization governing interscholastic activities that does not allow student receiving home school instruction to participate in such activities. Effectively it forces VHSL to deem home school students eligible to participate in interscholastic activities. As expected, House Bill 63 passed the House 60-39. VSBA will continue to oppose the bill and we are hopeful that it will be defeated in the Senate Education and Health committee as it has in prior years.