Updated Friday January 20, 2006

2004 General Assembly

FINANCE and RETIREMENT

FINANCE:

HB 467 (Drake) and SB 226 (Bolling) stipulate that local officials required to file financial disclosure statements be given a copy (by the public body administrator) of the State and Local Government Conflicts of Interest Act within two weeks of their election or appointment. These officials are to read and familiarize themselves with the law.

HB 749 (R.G. Marshall) and SB 302 (O’Brien) authorize state and local entities to enter into a cooperative procurement agreement to purchase from any contract of the United States General Services Administration (GSA) or other federal agency. Localities and school boards specifically are authorized to purchase goods and nonprofessional services.

RETIREMENT:

HB 199 (Tata) provides that, for an employee who retired under the Virginia Retirement System ((VRS) prior to July 1, 1999, and who had at least 20 years of creditable service, life insurance benefits shall be equal to twice the amount of his highest annual salary; for an employee who retired with at least 20 years of creditable service and then returns to work in a covered position, life insurance benefits shall be equal to the greater of twice his current annual salary or the amount for which he would have been eligible had he remained retired.

HB 356 (Putney) allows school superintendents who retire under an alternative defined contribution plan established by a school division to receive the same health insurance credit benefits afforded to retired teachers.

HB 148 (Hargrove) amends the Public-Private Education Facilities and Infrastructure Act (PPEA) by requiring independent analysis of a requested project, unless the local governing body determines that such analysis can be conducted by its employees. It also requires that notice of a private entity's request for approval of a qualifying project be posted on the state’s electronic procurement website.

HB 380 (Lingamfelter) revises the charter schools law to do the following: (i) allow charter schools to contract for facilities and services with higher education institutions; (ii) add evidence of charter school support by division residents to items that may be included in a proposed charter agreement; (iii) allow charter applicants to submit the proposed agreement to the Board of Education (BOE) for review and comment (but not recommendation of approval), and to require inclusion of those findings in the application to the local school board; (iv) delete school board authority to limit the number of charter schools within the division and the statutory cap on the maximum number of charter schools; (v) delete the requirement that half the charter schools in a division be designed to benefit at-risk students, and instead direct school boards to give priority to applications designed to benefit these students, particularly those served by schools that have not achieved full accreditation; (vi) direct the BOE to report annually the number of charter school applications granted and denied and the reasons for any denials; and (vii) increase the maximum charter term from three to five years. The bill also amends the Conflicts of Interests Act to allow the governing body, administrators and other personnel within a charter school to have an ownership or financial interest in renovating, lending, granting or leasing public charter school facilities, if such interest has been disclosed in the charter school application. The provisions of this bill expire July 1, 2009.

HB 576 (Hamilton) authorizes school divisions to employ “turnaround specialists” to assist failing schools and to provide enhanced benefits for such personnel (in the form of a defined contribution program outside VRS, but managed by VRS, deferred compensation and other incentives). The bill also calls for licensed instructional personnel teaching in a middle school where there is a DOE-identified critical need to be eligible for these same benefits, as determined by the local school board.

HB 827 (Drake) allows localities to provide one-time, home-ownership grants of $5,000 to employees of the locality, school board and constitutional officers to purchase their primary residences in the locality.

HB 978 (Reese) directs the BOE to promulgate regulations for a process whereby school divisions may submit proposals for their consolidation. The bill also provides that following any such school division consolidation, computation of the state and local education funding shares shall be the lower, local composite index of local ability-to-pay of the applicant divisions.

HB 1171 (Dillard) removes authority, slated to expire next year, for the state superintendent to identify critical teacher shortage areas and report that information to local school divisions and the VRS, and gives that authority to local school boards. 

HB 1294 (Reid) modifies the current school corrective action plan process within the Standards of Quality (SOQ) to (i) authorize the BOE to require an academic review any school division upon determining that school failure is related to division level failures to implement the SOQ; (ii) require the school division to submit to and receive approval from the Board a corrective action plan explaining a specific schedule and actions to ensure that its schools achieve full accreditation; (iii) add the corrective action plan to the school division's six-year improvement plan; and (iv) allow the Board to pursue circuit court enforcement of the development or implementation of such plans by noncompliant school divisions.

SB 518 (Hanger) creates a mechanism to allow the school board of a school division with less than 350 students, upon entering into certain cost-savings agreements with a contiguous school division for sharing certain services, to receive state aid based on the composite index of the contiguous school division for 15 years. The local school board receiving the adjusted state share cannot use the additional funds received to supplant local education funds. This measure is effective January 1, 2005.

STANDARDS OF QUALITY, STANDARDS OF LEARNING, STANDARDS OF ACCREDITATION:

HB 1014 (Dillard) and SB 479 (Potts) contain numerous revisions to the SOQ. These include provisions for additional principals in elementary schools; additional assistant principals; elementary resource positions for art, music and physical education in grades K through 5; lower middle and high school pupil-teacher ratio to ensure scheduled teacher planning time; lower speech pathologist caseloads; full time reading specialists and technology support positions. The bills also modify the current funding mechanism for remediation. A second enactment clause states that amendments requiring additional state funding will not take effect unless funded in the budget.

HB 1254 (Hull) directs the BOE, in its requirements related to the School Performance Report Card, to require reporting of Standards of Learning (SOL) test scores and averages for each year. The Board shall make such reports available to the public within three months of the receipt of the scores, which shall be disaggregated for each school by gender and by race or ethnicity. These reports will allow year-to-year comparisons when posted on the DOE website.

HB 1257 (Councill) directs local school boards to adopt procedures based on BOE guidelines for awarding verified units of credit to students seeking the standard diploma. This bill is effective upon its passage.

SB 416 (Newman) requires the BOE to consult with the regional superintendents' study groups to develop a timetable for reporting to schools and divisions the SOL test scores that will be used to determine each school's status under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act.

SB 438 (Locke) requires local school boards to notify parents of rising high school juniors and seniors of the number of standard and verified units of credit required for graduation and the remaining number of such credits the student needs in order to graduate. In addition, school boards are to notify parents of the right to an education for students who fail to graduate or who have failed to achieve the number of verified credits required for graduation and who (i) are under 20 years old, (ii) have been identified as having limited English proficiency, or (iii) have been identified as disabled and receive special education services.

OTHER:

HB 40 (Orrock) establishes a unit of agriculture education specialists within the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to assist in agriculture curriculum revisions, to provide professional development for agriculture instructional personnel and to conduct site visits to the schools providing agriculture education.

HB 675 (Bell) allows persons providing home school instruction to hold a high school diploma, rather than a bachelor’s degree.

HB 769 (Hurt) directs local school boards to promote, through the career and technical education program, knowledge of entrepreneurship and small business ownership, and to provide notice to students and parents of dual enrollment opportunities between high schools and community colleges.

HB 1013 (Dillard) creates the At-Risk Student Academic Achievement Program and Fund. This is the Virginia Municipal League/Virginia Association of Counties/Virginia First Cities Coalition plan to provide funding for at-risk students, as they are more likely to have difficulty passing SOL tests. Grants awarded through this program are subject to budget appropriations.

HB 1015 (Dillard) requires that information on various resources about and steps to take to avoid sexual assault be included in family life education curriculum guidelines.

HB 1018 (Dillard) requires school divisions to provide students with alternatives to animal dissection in relevant courses and directs the BOE to develop guidelines for such alternatives.

SB 553 (Lucas) authorizes school boards to create joint or regional schools offering a specialized curriculum leading to a high school diploma and a postsecondary credential, such as industry certification, career certificate or degree.

HB 318 (Cox) provides that public school employees whose active duty service requires absence from their full-time school employment will receive supplemental pay as determined by and from the school division, if their military compensation is less than the regular salary paid to such employee by the division.

HB 508 (Marrs) allows licensed teachers employed full-time in Virginia public schools or in state educational facilities to use the state contract to purchase personal computers for use outside the classroom. Currently, the ability to buy such personal computers is provided only to public school teachers.

HB 573 (Hamilton) directs the BOE to require passage of the School Leader's Licensure Assessment (SLLA) as a condition of initial licensure for principals and other school leaders on and after July 1, 2005.

HB 734 (Joannou) provides that a person summoned to serve on jury duty is not required to work on the day of his jury service.

HB 1048 (Hamilton) limits issuance of local eligibility licenses to teachers in areas outside the core academic areas and specifically prohibits such licenses from being issued to special education teachers. This measure is designed to comply with NCLB Act provisions requiring highly qualified teachers.

SB 145 (Cuccinelli) requires the BOE’s teacher licensure regulations to provide for suspension or revocation of a teacher's license when (i) a school board hearing requested by the teacher has been held and has resulted in dismissal of the teacher and determination to recommend to the Board the suspension or revocation of the teacher's license; or (ii) a teacher has resigned without requesting a hearing and the local school board has recommended to the Board suspension or revocation of the teacher's license. The school board may hear a recommendation for dismissal and determine a recommendation regarding the teacher's license at the same hearing or hold a separate hearing for each action.

SB 335 (Stolle) restricts service of summons to a teacher or other school personnel who is not a party to the proceeding in a custody or visitation case, to a sheriff or deputy, and applies a $12 fee for such summons.

SCHOOL SAFETY and DISCIPLINE:

HB 286 (Cosgrove) allows an off-duty law-enforcement officer to carry his handgun on school grounds. Currently, only a law-enforcement officer engaged in his official duties may carry his weapon on school grounds.

HB 513 (Marrs) directs the BOE, in developing model student conduct policies, to include standards for school board policies on self-defense.  School boards must adopt policies that are at least consistent with the Board's model.

HB 869 (Byron) expands the list of activities that school principals must report to local law enforcement by providing that reportable offenses involving "firearms" on school property address any weapon prohibited on school property or at a school-sponsored activity pursuant to §18.2-308.1, which includes knives.

HB 1080 (Parrish) and SB 593 (Colgan) require intake officers to notify a school superintendent when a petition is filed against a juvenile in cases involving criminal street gang activity.

HB 1117 (Weatherholtz) restates existing law that each school division may establish policies prohibiting the possession of firearms on school property and at school-sponsored activities, and may develop and implement procedures addressing disciplinary actions against students violating such policies.

HB 1303 (Lingamfelter) allows localities to regulate by ordinance the use of pneumatic guns, defined as a gun that expels a BB or pellet by action of pneumatic pressure. This could include requiring that minors under age 16 have adult supervision when using pneumatic guns. No ordinance can prohibit the use of pneumatic guns at shooting ranges or other property where firearms may be discharged. The bill states that if a school operates a Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC) program, it cannot prohibit the JROTC from conducting marksmanship training when such training is a normal element of the program and that the school administration shall cooperate with the JROTC staff in implementing such training.

HB 1331 (Tata) directs the BOE, in developing model student conduct policies, to include standards for school board policies on hazing. Local student codes of conduct must prohibit hazing and policies must cite provisions of criminal law that define and prohibit hazing and the penalties for violating such provisions. Required school board programs to prevent crime and violence must include the prevention of hazing.

SB 633 (Saslaw) requires reporting to a school superintendent when a student 18 years or older is arrested for certain offenses. The offenses are the same as those for which a juvenile student would be reported.

OTHER:

HB 1038 (Saxman) and SB 576 (Obenshain) require school boards to post in each school, a notice that teachers are required to report suspected cases of child abuse or neglect to social services, and that when doing so, such teachers will be immune from civil or criminal liability or administrative sanction. The notice is to be prepared and distributed by the Attorney General and also will include the state Department of Social Services' toll-free child abuse and neglect hotline number.

HB 1326 (Marrs) strengthens compulsory school attendance enforcement provisions by removing restrictions on the court's use of contempt power in enforcing attendance and parental responsibility provisions. The court is authorized to summon and force a parent to appear in court with the child and to order the child or parent (or both) into programs, such as extended day programs and summer school or other educational programs, and treatment, such as counseling. Finally, the parental responsibility and involvement statute is amended to include compliance with compulsory school attendance.

SB 270 (Quayle) revises provisions on school enrollment of homeless children, to reflect provisions of the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Improvements Act of 2001 (included within NCLB). School divisions are to coordinate services and programs to such students with relevant local social services and other agencies and school divisions. The bill states that superintendents cannot exclude homeless children who do not provide required health or immunization information.

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT:

HB 168 (Sherwood) exempts from mandatory disclosure requirements under the Freedom on Information Act (FOIA), records of state or local parks and recreation departments, if such records contain information identifying persons under 18 years old, where the parent has requested in writing that such information not be disclosed.

HB 358 (Suit) specifies that minutes of open public meetings shall include, but are not limited to, the date, time and location of the meeting; the members of the public body recorded as present and absent; a summary of the discussion on matters proposed, deliberated or decided; and a record of any votes taken.

SB 149 (Deeds) exempts from mandatory disclosure requirements under the FOIA, the names and addresses or other contact information of persons receiving transportation services from a state or local public body under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) or funded by Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF).

SB 352 (Houck) reorganizes the listing of records that are not subject to the mandatory disclosure requirements of the FOIA, creating seven new sections grouping the exemptions by general subject area (including exemptions applicable to specific public bodies).

SB 562 (Lambert) expands the current record exemption under the FOIA for information furnished to certain state auditors to the same records of designated internal auditors of any school board or local governing body.

OTHER:

HB 9 (Cox) abolishes the Virginia Business-Education Partnership Program and its advisory council. The state program was created in 1993 to assist local programs in obtaining federal funding to establish and facilitate local business-education partnerships. State funding for the program ended in 2001 and federal funding stopped last year.

HB 575 (Hamilton) allows the BOE to waive the requirement that school divisions provide additional teaching days to compensate for school closings resulting from a declared state of emergency and stipulates that such waiver not result in reduced state basic aid funding. This measure is effective upon its passage.

HB 1047 (Nixon) clarifies that when a disabled individual 18 to 21 years old and whose individualized education program (IEP) indicates that a private day school placement is the appropriate educational program, is placed across jurisdictional lines, the financial and legal responsibilities for the special education services and IEP remain with the placing jurisdiction until the person is no longer 21 or eligible for such services.

HB 1084 (E.T. Scott) and SB 347 (Houck) extend the sunset date from July 1, 2004, to July 1, 2008, for an exemption from sales tax for textbooks and other educational materials withdrawn at book publishing facilities for free distribution to professors and other individuals who have an educational focus.

HB 1135 (McDonnell) and SB 584 (Bolling) require the Department of Social Services’ Child Protective Services (CPS) unit to develop standards on the legal duties of its workers to protect the rights and safety of children and families. The bills also require local social services agencies to advise persons against whom a complaint is made, consistent with laws protecting the rights of the person making the complaint. When a child is alleged to have been abused by school personnel, additional procedures apply.

HB 1256 (Van Landingham) and SB 452 (Whipple) revise current law to allow school divisions missing instructional days due to severe weather conditions or other emergency situations to make up the first five days missed, then one day for every two days missed, up to 15, without reduction in state funding. The BOE will promulgate emergency regulations and may authorize the Superintendent of Public Instruction to approve reductions in school terms without reductions in funding (see also HB 575). In addition, SB 452 contains an emergency clause, making the bill effective upon its passage. 

HB 1443 (Baskerville) ensures that students of a parent deployed abroad on active military duty will continue to be granted school admission without tuition. This bill addresses the residency issues created when a custodial parent receives orders to report for active military duty abroad and the child must, out of necessity, live with the noncustodial parent or another individual in a different school division.

HB 1445 (A.T. Howell) requires school crossing guards to whom hand-held stop signs are supplied by their local school division to use them to control traffic at school crossings.

SB 3 (Martin) repeals certain dormant special funds, and their associated program, if no appropriation is made to the associated program by July 1, 2004. This includes the Reading Incentive Grants Fund and Program, the Virginia Educational Excellence Incentive Reward Fund and Program, the Families in Education Incentive Grants Fund and Program, the Community-Based Intervention Program for Suspended and Expelled Students and its special fund and the Artists in the Classroom Grants Fund and Program.

HB 159 (Potts) revises regulatory requirements for athletic trainers from certification to licensure and provides that athletic trainers certified pursuant to the law in effect June 30, 2004, will not be required to be licensed until July 1, 2005. The Board of Medicine is required to promulgate emergency regulations for this act, which are to stipulate that presently certified athletic trainers will be, upon application, in compliance with the new licensure requirements and will be issued a license to practice athletic training.

SB 230 (Lambert) creates the Brown v. Board of Education Scholarship Program to assist students enrolled in Virginia public schools between 1954 and 1964 in jurisdictions where public schools were closed to avoid desegregation, to obtain a high school diploma, GED, career or technical education or training, or an undergraduate degree. The State Council of Higher Education (SCHEV) will administer the program, which will have an awards committee to govern the program and award any available scholarships.

SB 315 (Howell) authorizes the BOE to work with other state agencies and environmental groups to develop a “green schools” program for Virginia. Any such program shall focus on waste reduction through recycling and other mechanisms and educating students to help schools contain costs and to reduce waste production through resource efficiency.

SB 404 (Reynolds) provides that active pursuit of a general education development (GED) certificate by a person age 16-18 who is housed in adult correctional facilities, but not enrolled in an individual student alternative education plan, satisfies compulsory school attendance requirements.

HOUSE RESOLUTIONS

2004 STUDIES AND RESOLUTIONS

HJR 34 (Putney) establishes a joint subcommittee to examine the VRS, including, among other things, the current benefit structure and adequacy of funding and blending of contribution rates.

HJR 105 (Drake) creates a joint subcommittee to study state assistance to localities for school infrastructure needs. The panel is to examine, among other things, local school infrastructure needs, the availability of local funding to meet those needs, the priority of each of those needs and the level of appropriate state commitment to supplement local efforts in meeting those needs.

HJR 117 (D.C. Jones) encourages school boards to use performance-based contracts to evaluate division superintendents.

HJR 123 (Hamilton) requests the BOE to review its regulations for incorporating an alternative licensure route for principals and assistant principals.

HJR 124 (Hamilton) continues the Commission to Review, Study, and Reform Educational Leadership in order to receive reports and information regarding BOE recommendations on alternative licensure and a two-tiered licensure system.

HJR 125 (Hamilton) requests the BOE, SCHEV and the State Board for Community Colleges to develop a template for a statewide articulation agreement for career and technical education.

HJR 126 (Hamilton) recognizes the value of local career and technical education advisory councils in providing the essential link between employers and instructional personnel and programs, and commits the legislative Advisory Council on Career and Technical Education to recognizing the members of such local councils through a 2004 recognition ceremony and certificates of appreciation.

HJR 168 (Ward) designates March 27-28, 2004, as the Great Virginia Teach-In in Virginia, utilizing an enhanced job fair featuring teacher preparation programs, educational financing options, job recruiters and other exhibitors in an effort to attract a wider and more diverse pool of teaching applicants to the state.

HJR 260 (Tata) urges school divisions to provide age-appropriate and culturally sensitive health, nutrition and physical education so as to assist students in adopting and maintaining healthy eating habits and physically active lifestyles.

HR 14 (Cole) encourages the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold, in a case before it, a public school district policy requiring teachers to lead willing students in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. This measure, a House resolution, was considered and approved only by the House of Delegates.

HR 17 (Dudley) encourages local school boards to ensure that the values and ideals of Western civilization are taught in public school classrooms. This measure, a House resolution, was considered and approved only by the House of Delegates.

SENATE RESOLUTIONS

SJR 73 (Marsh) designates 2004 and 2005 as “Brown v. Board of Education” years in Virginia and requests the Governor to ask Virginians to observe the designated commemorative period by participating in the activities offered in their communities.

SJR 115 (O’Brien) expresses support for the National Guard and Reserve by encouraging local governments and private employers to conduct military awareness programs and ceremonies.

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