The 2002 General Assembly: APPROVED LEGISLATION

FINANCE AND RETIREMENT

FINANCE:

HB 851 requires performance or payment bonds on all contracts exceeding $100,000 for construction projects on public property. (Albo)

SB 465 requires the Department of Medical Assistance Services to reimburse school divisions (as participating providers in the Virginia Medicaid program) for the federal share of providing health-related services to special education students for transportation services between the student’s home, the school or other sites where such services are to be provided. (Puller)

SB 604 establishes contingency reserves as a major classification of school funds, but does not require local governments appropriating by major category to provide funding for this new category. Current law requires that school boards obtain approval from the local government to move funds between categories. (Potts)

SB 681 authorizes private entities to acquire, design, construct, renovate, expand, equip, maintain or operate qualifying projects, including a public school facility, after obtaining approval of a public entity that has the power to grant such approval. A public entity may approve such a facility if it determines that there is a public need for or benefit derived from the project; (ii) the estimated cost of the project is reasonable in relation to similar facilities; and (iii) the private entity’s plans will result in the timely acquisition, design, construction, renovation, expansion, equipping, maintenance, or operation of the project. The private entity shall enter into a comprehensive agreement with the responsible public entity before undertaking such project. The bill exempts these projects from the Virginia Public Procurement Act. (Stosch)

RETIREMENT:

HB 1137 and HB 1320 reduce the “break in service” requirement from one year to 30 days for retired teachers or adminstrators returning to work without interrupting retirement benefits, and stipulate that such persons are allowed to teach only one year. The IRS must certify that the bills’ provisions will not adversely affect the qualified plan status of the Virginia Retirement System under federal law. (Dillard, Christian)

SB 176 eliminates the requirement that newly-hired school superintendents make their election to participate in the state’s defined contribution retirement plan within 30 days of being hired.(K.G. Miller)

GOVERNANCE AND OPERATIONS

HB 108 and SB 608 require the statement “In God We Trust, the National Motto, enacted by Congress in 1956,” to be posted in each public school. The bill directs the Attorney General to provide legal defense of this act and allows local school boards to accept contributions to defray implementation costs. (Marshall, Rerras)

HB 357 directs local school boards to develop and implement policies that prohibit school-sponsored student surveys or questionnaires without written, parental consent for the student’s participation, when participation in such survey or questionnaire may result in the sale of personal information regarding the individual student. (Reese)

HB 434 and SB 439 prohibit school boards from renegotiating a superintendent’s contract during the period following election or appointment of new members and the date such members take office. (Janis, Williams)

HB 695 and SB 373 authorize school boards to receive payment for services and goods by credit or debit cards. (Tata, Blevins)

HB 696 directs school boards, within two weeks of approval of the school budget by the local governing body, but no later than June 1, to notify those teachers who may be subject to a reduction in force due to a decrease in the school board’s budget. An emergency clause makes this measure effective upon passage and it expires on July 1, 2003. (Tata)

HB 734 modifies the charter schools law to require reporting of denied charter school applications, to clarify that institutions of higher education may submit charter applications, and to state that a charter school, its governing body, employees and volunteers are entitled to immunity to the same extent as found in public schools. (Sears)

HB 755 authorizes school boards to enter into agreements with private business and industry for the establishment of satellite classrooms for grades K-3 on a site owned by the business or industry and leased to the school board at no cost. This bill also authorizes the relevant local government, by ordinance, to provide an exemption from the licensure tax for such businesses and industries entering into these agreements.(Amundson)

HB 825 authorizes all public bodies to accept most payments by any commercially acceptable means (check, credit/debit card, electronic transfer) and to levy service charges.(Nixon)

HB 939 prohibits smoking in the interior of any public school building. (Morgan)

HB 966 authorizes local school boards to establish a Banking-at-School Partnership Program, consisting of school banks or school credit unions at schools that have been developed and are operated jointly by a public school and a financial institution. The Program will be funded solely with gifts, grants, donations, etc. received by a public school from its licensed partner financial institution. The Department of Education (DOE) shall develop guidelines for these programs, which will require parental permission for student participation. Schools with high concentrations of at-risk and disadvantaged student will be encouraged to participate. This act will expire July 1, 2006 (D.C. Jones)

HB 991 and SB 279 allow city and town school boards to hold the annual organizational meeting in January (rather than only in July). (Hall, Marsh)

HB 1141 allows an elected school board to pay its members an annual salary consistent with the salary procedures and limits provided for the relevant local governing body in Title 15.2. The bill also increases, from $1,100 to 2,000, the annual amount any school board may pay its chairman. Language is retained that no school board can be awarded a salary increase unless it is approved by affirmative vote of the school board.(Dillard)

SB 276 makes the local governing body a “tenant in common” with the local school board in instances where the locality has incurred a multi-year financial obligation to fund the acquisition, construction or improvement of public school property. Such tenancy in common arises when the local governing body incurs the financial obligation and terminates upon payment of the obligation. The local governing body 1) shall not have any additional powers over school board decisions concerning such property, and 2) may elect, by resolution, not to acquire tenancy in common to some or all public school property in the locality. (Stosch)

SB 369 requires counties, if not currently engaged in centralized competitive purchasing, to obtain approval of the school board before including the school board in the county’s centralized competitive purchasing of supplies. (Blevins)

SB 625 requires all school boards to accept and review applications for public charter schools, and clarifies that institutions of higher education may submit charter school applications. (Barry)

INSTRUCTION

ACCREDITATION:

HB 159 directs the DOE to maintain a website that enables educators to submit recommendations for improving the Standards of Learning (SOL) and its related tests, when they are under review by the BOE. (Lingamfelter)

HB 493 and SB 609 direct the Board of Education (BOE) to develop guidelines for local school boards to award verified units of credit for a standard diploma (in the four student-selected verified credits) for students entering the ninth grade in the 2000, 2001, and 2002 school years. The guidelines shall address students who passed the relevant coursework and who meet additional criteria such as performance on SOL or other tests, attendance and conduct requirements, and participation in remediation programs (Reid, Houck)

HB 884 and SB 350 direct the BOE to include, in its annual fall report on public education needs and schools failing to meet the Standards of Quality (SOQ), a complete listing of the current SOQ, justification for each standard, how long each standard has been in its current form, and whether the BOE recommends any changes. (Hamilton, Howell)

HB 1136 amends the SOQ to require, within the Standards of Accreditation (SOA), guidance counselors in elementary schools at the following staffing levels: one hour per day per 100 students, one full-time at 500 students, and one hour per day additional time per 100 students or major fraction thereof. (Dillard)

SB 201 requires the BOE to prescribe the SOQ by reviewing them in odd-numbered years and recommending changes, if any. The bill further requires that budget estimates recognize any proposed changes. (Houck)

SB 477 codifies current BOE practice that allows industry certification and state licensure examinations to be substituted for SOL tests and for awarding verified units of credit for career and technical education courses, where appropriate. (Quayle)

OTHER:

HB 334 clarifies that school boards may operate comprehensive schools offering full-day academic programs and career and technical education as joint schools; regional career and technical education centers often are operated on a half-day basis, with students completing their remaining instruction at another school. (Hamilton)

HB 686 adds organ and tissue donor awareness to the topics that must be included in driver education instruction. (Tata)

HB 794 directs the BOE, in approving textbooks for reading in kindergarten and first grade, to designate those textbooks with a minimum decodability standard at 70% or above. (Bolvin)

HB 1206 adds instruction in the benefits of adoption as a positive choice in the event of an unwanted pregnancy to the family life education curriculum guidelines. (Reese)

HB 1277 stipulates that the two sequential elective courses required for earning a standard diploma may be taken in consecutive years or any two years of high school. (Orrock)

SB 236 defines the term “accredited institution” for purposes of law and BOE regulation to mean an institution of higher education accredited by a national or regional accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education or by a state approval process. (Hanger)

SB 334 requires that locally-developed plans for career and technical education allow input from area business and industry representatives and local community colleges. (Wagner)

SB 597 adds instruction about distracted driving to the requirements for driver education in the public schools. (Norment)

PERSONNEL

HB 90 directs the Board of Education (BOE) to develop policies that prohibit school personnel from recommending the use of psychotropic medications (defined as prescribed medications intended to alter mental activity) for any student. The policies cannot prohibit personnel from recommending a medical evaluation of a student or from consulting medical personnel, with the written consent of the student’s parent. (Welch)

HB 294 requires all mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglect (includes teachers) who maintain a record on an alleged victim, to make information, records and reports relevant to an investigation available to the child protective services investigator; the changes also add immunity from civil or criminal prosecution or administrative penalty or sanction for persons providing information or records in good faith. (McDonnell)

HB 427 expands the current teacher exception to the “simple assault” and “assault and battery” definitions to include a principal, assistant principal, guidance counselor or public school security officer. (Tata)

HB 668 provides civil immunity to employees for truthful reporting of a co-employee’s threatening conduct. (Cox)

HB 1346 extends eligibility for the Teaching Scholarship Loan Program to persons identified to be teaching in a discipline or at a grade level in which there is a shortage of teachers, and to students enrolled in any area of an approved teacher education program who are seeking endorsements in elementary or middle school education. (Christian)

SB 92 requires, effective July 1, 2004, that persons seeking initial licensure or license renewal as teachers complete study in child abuse recognition and intervention. Curriculum guidelines for this study are to be developed by the BOE. (Howell)

STUDENTS

SCHOOL SAFETY:

HB 46 and SB 442 add incidents involving “acts of terrorism” to those crises and events that must be addressed in school crisis and emergency plans. (Hamilton, Williams)

HB 498 and SB 295 define a school resource officer as a trained, certified law-enforcement officer hired by a local law-enforcement agency to provide law-enforcement and security in schools, and a school security officer as an individual employed by the local school board for ensuring the safety, security, and welfare of all students, faculty, staff and visitors at school. The Department of Criminal Justice Services is directed to establish minimum employment standards and training and certification requirements for school security officers, applicable to those employed as such after September 15, 2003 School security officers are precluded from appointment as conservators of the peace and as special police officers. (Hamilton, Norment)

HB 692 adds theft or attempted theft of student prescription medications to those incidents required to be reported to school authorities, that, in turn, are to be reported to the division superintendent for annual reporting to the DOE. (Tata)

HB 886 and SB 230 require the model school crisis and emergency management plan for public schools to contain procedures by which parents can contact the school or school division about the location and safety of their children, and by which school officials may contact parents during a critical event or emergency. (Hamilton, Hanger)

OTHER:

HB 127 provides that a parent or guardian shall not be prevented from obtaining the results of a minor’s nondiagnostic drug test when the minor is not receiving substance abuse care, treatment or rehabilitation. (Rollison)

HB 160 authorizes courts to deny a juvenile’s driver’s license for one year or until the juvenile reaches the age of eighteen upon a finding of a second or subsequent truancy offense, whichever is longer, or delay the ability to apply for a driver’s license for one year following the juvenile’s sixteenth birthday. Currently, the first such offense may warrant a 30-day denial or delay in license application. (Lingamfelter)

HB 655 requires driver’s license applicants under age 19 to show proof of successful completion of a DOE-approved driver education program, and requires all persons under 19 (rather than under 18) to have a learner’s permit for at least nine months before applying for a driver’s license. (O’Brien)

MISCELLANEOUS

HB 235 allows public access to nonexempt portions of local public body-requested consultant reports if the contents have been distributed or disclosed to members or the public body has scheduled action on a matter that is the subject of the report. (Gear)

HB 295 makes children of active duty military personnel stationed outside Virginia (but claiming Virginia as their residence) eligible for the Virginia Guaranteed Assistance Program (VGAP) by eliminating the requirement that these students graduate from a Virginia high school. The student still must have maintained the requisite grade point average and meet other VGAP requirements (financial need, continuous enrollment, satisfactory academic progress toward a degree). (McDonnell)

HB 335 establishes the Advisory Council on Career and Technical Education to recommend an integrated, coordinated multi-agency approach for career and technical education programs and services in schools. The Council is charged with coordinating such services with workforce training programs, promoting public/private partnerships and collaboration for career and technical programs, promoting adult career and technical services and recommending various actions needed to support career and technical education. (Hamilton)

HB 438 and SB 50 create the Lottery Proceeds Fund as a special nonreverting fund to which the Comptroller deposits the audited balances of the State Lottery Fund, less a special reserve fund, to be used for public education. (Woodrum, Edwards)

HB 700 and SB 134 exempt certain records from required disclosure under FOIA, including certain tactical plans and security/emergency procedures, and engineering and architectural drawings. It allows custodians of records to require a requester to provide their name and address. Closed meetings may be held to discuss plans to protect public safety (SB 134 took effect 4/1702). (S.C. Jones, Stolle)

HB 731 and SB 308 exempt from Freedom of Information Act’s (FOIA) mandatory disclosure provisions, personal information, including e-mail addresses, furnished to a public body for the purpose of receiving electronic mail from the public body, provided that the electronic mail recipient has requested the public body not disclose such information. (Woodrum)

HB 896 adds passing a school bus on a private road to existing Code language that prohibits passing a stopped school bus on a highway or school driveway. (McDougle)

HB 906 directs the Department of Human Resource Management to develop a long-term care insurance program for local employees, local officers, and teachers. (Athey)

SB 365 establishes the first full week in November as Virginia Korean War Veterans Appreciation Week and provides for awarding of honorary high school diplomas to veterans who served between 1950 and 1953, if such veteran was drafted or enlisted while still enrolled in high school and was unable to resume his education upon returning to civilian life. (Blevins)

2002 STUDIES AND RESOLUTIONS

HOUSE STUDY RESOLUTIONS

HJR 20 and SJR 58 establish a joint commission to study and reform educational leadership.

HJR 34 directs the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) to examine best administrative, fiscal, and service practices in school divisions. As part of its charge, JLARC is to identify programs and services that might be consolidated or that might be out-sourced, and to develop recommendations regarding revenue-saving practices.

HJR 60 continues the work of the HJR 685/SJR 387 joint subcommittee (established in 2001) to study ways to revise the state tax code.
HJR 91 establishes a joint subcommittee to study the use of independent educational performance assessment services. It has been reported that such services can offer analysis based on various performance variables ranging from test scores to school division budgets.

HJR 158 expresses the sense of the General Assembly supporting the BOE’s efforts to ensure that the principles of freedom and individual rights are reflected in the SOL, and that local school boards seek to ensure that such principles are included in public school instruction.

SENATE STUDY RESOLUTIONS

SJR 57 continues the Commission on Educational Accountability for an additional year.

SJR 68 requests the BOE to encourage schools to participate in the “Friendship Through Education Initiative,” a consortium of international organizations designed to combat terrorism by building strong and lasting relationships between American children and those of other countries and cultures, particularly Islamic countries. This initiative was announced by the President last October in his appeal to the American people to fight terrorism on the homefront with courage, patience, community service and humanitarian outreach to the people of Afghanistan.

SJR 87 directs JLARC to recommend a state funding formula for educational technology and technology support personnel, and to examine ways to enhance the use of federal assistance for educational technology, such as continuing the E-rate program and implementing state tax credits for businesses contributing technology resources to schools.

SJR 110 requests the Department of Motor Vehicles, with DOE assistance, to study the adequacy of driver education programs available to young drivers.

SJR 120 directs the BOE to examine the SOQ to ensure that they are realistic relative to current educational needs and practices.

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