APPROVED LEGISLATION

 FINANCE AND RETIREMENT

FINANCE:

SB 203 (Blevins) authorizes the Virginia Public School Authority to implement a pass-through of refunding savings to a locality, without requiring any further action on the part of the locality.

SB 715 (Blevins) extends the length of a temporary loan for financing new school buses to replace obsolete buses from five to 10 years.

RETIREMENT:

SB 99 (Blevins) allows someone who retired not as a teacher to teach in a critical shortage position while continuing to receive a retirement allowance, provided the person becomes licensed by the Board of Education (BOE) to serve as an instructional or administrative employee. Currently, only retirees who served as teachers are eligible to teach in critical shortage positions while continuing to receive a retirement allowance.

SB 115 (Stosch) authorizes localities and other political subdivisions that provide supplemental benefits to employees covered by the Virginia Retirement System to establish benefit restoration plans.

HB 20 (Fralin) allows local school divisions to electronically store and maintain student scholastic records.

HB 58 (Fralin) requires local school division acceptable Internet use policies to include a component on Internet safety, integrated into the instructional program, for students.

HB 203 (R.G. Marshall) prohibits state agencies and localities from denying use of certain public facilities to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.

HB 215 (Tata) and SB 62 (Whipple) change the duty to authorize a comparative religion class from local school boards to the BOE.

HB 240 (Suit) provides that school divisions may not charge tuition to children of active members of the military ordered to locate in a different school division than the one the child is attending at the time of such order. Such children shall be allowed to continue attending school in the school division they attended prior to the relocation, but the school division is not responsible for providing transportation.

HB 349 (Hamilton) and SB 66 (Whipple) revise the amount of time to be made up when schools in a division close for six or more days during the school year due to severe weather conditions or other emergency situations, and provide procedures for requesting a waiver from the BOE for closings because of a declared state of emergency. The bills also require 1) school boards, in setting the school calendar, to provide contingencies for making up teaching time missed because of emergency situations, and 2) the superintendent and school board chairman to certify the total number of teaching days and hours as part of the division’s annual report to the BOE.

HB 434 (Griffith) allows personnel files of school board employees to be produced and maintained in digital or paper format.

HB 1588 (Moran) requires school boards to implement a plan to make Advanced Placement and Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude examinations available to students receiving home instruction.

SB 75 (Houck) requires school boards to require each school to implement a "medical emergency response plan" as part of their school crisis and emergency management plan. The Department of Education (DOE) is required to develop a model plan and must provide assistance in the development of the local plan.

SB 502 (Puckett) authorizes any elected school board with an even number of members to appoint a tiebreaker to cast a vote in case of a tie vote.

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

HB 19 (Fralin) directs the BOE to collect, analyze and report high school graduation and dropout data using a BOE-devised formula. This measure takes effect October 1, 2008.

HB 216 (Tata) and SB 67 (Whipple) aligns language in the standards for remediation programs to require that data submitted to the BOE include the number of students failing any Standards of Learning (SOL) assessments in grades three through eight.

HB 348 (Hamilton) and SB 39 (Reynolds) create a limited exemption from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for records furnished to or prepared by the BOE in connection with the review or investigation of any alleged breach in security, unauthorized alteration or improper test administration by local school board employees responsible for distributing or administering tests. The bill also authorizes the BOE to initiate or cause to be initiated such a review.

HB 813 (Fralin) authorizes the BOE to adopt special provisions on the administration and use of SOL tests in a content area, as applied to accreditation ratings, when the SOL content or assessments in that area are being revised and phased-in to effect.

HB 1058 (Reid) and SB 71 (Houck) move the required biennial review of the Standards of Quality (SOQ) by the BOE from the odd-numbered years to the even-numbered years.

HB 1059 (Reid) and SB 34 (Reynolds) provide that the timely release of SOL assessments to the public will not limit the DOE’s ability to test students on-demand and provide immediate results in the web-based assessment system.

OTHER:

HB 1340 (Bell) and SB 499 (Puckett) modify the criteria a parent must meet to provide home instruction to their child, by providing that a parent holding a high school diploma, rather than a baccalaureate degree, meets the requirements.

HB 1483 (Tata) amends the requirements for home instruction concerning providing such instruction in lieu of school attendance and evidence of a child’s achievement.

SB 683 (Colgan) directs the DOE to collect data on students with limited English proficiency (LEP) and school division programs for LEP students and to analyze the data and make recommendations relative to requirements for obtaining a high school diploma.

HB 70 (Orrock) and SB 26 (Houck) are similar, though not identical bills that add teacher aides, school bus drivers and school bus aides to the list of school personnel provided a limited exception to charges of assault or assault and battery while acting in their official capacity.

HB 1057 (Reid) and SB 74 (Houck) revise statutes governing teacher licensure regulations and regulation of teacher education programs by repealing the current statutes and reenacting teacher licensure and teacher education program provisions.

HB 1066 (Athey) provides that school boards shall require a contractor and his employees who will have direct contact with students, to certify (i) that he has not been convicted of a felony or offense involving the sexual molestation or physical or sexual abuse or rape of a child; and (ii) whether he has been convicted of a crime of moral turpitude.

SB 324 (Whipple) requires a biennial review of teacher compensation in comparison with salaries in other member Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states. The bill also requires evaluation of continuing contract teachers at least once every three years; those receiving an unsatisfactory evaluation must be evaluated the following year.

SCHOOL SAFETY:

HB 95 (Lewis) and SB 656 (Rerras) require a parent or guardian, or social services agency in the case of foster care placements, to provide information concerning certain criminal convictions or delinquency adjudications to a public school, upon registration of such student.

HB 847 (Albo) and SB 561 (Stolle) require collection of information on individuals identified as gang members and transmittal to the Commonwealth's Attorneys Services Council. The bills also specify school administrations among the entities that may examine certain juvenile records if there is a court order determining that they have a legitimate interest.

HB 1279 (Barlow) amends current provisions concerning reports by law enforcement of certain acts to school authorities to include notification of a student being released to his parents, or if 18 or older, being released on bond. The bill also requires any school superintendent notified that a juvenile has committed an act that would be a crime if committed by an adult, to report such information to the principal of the school in which the juvenile is enrolled.

HB 1516 (Tata) requires a school board to expel from school for at least one year a student who possesses certain weapons on school property or at a school-sponsored activity; current law relates to "bringing" weapons to school.

HB 588 (Watts) and SB 183 (Puller) make it a Class 6 felony to brandish a machete with at least a 12-inch blade and with intent to intimidate, on or within 1,000 feet of any school.

HB 607 (Amundson) provides that, beginning in FY07, school divisions pay additional costs under certain conditions in conjunction with school efficiency reviews; this would be in addition to the current, required payment of 25% of the review’s cost in the fiscal year after the final school efficiency review report.

HB 650 (E.T. Scott) provides maximum speed limits for school buses of 45 mph on highways with posted speed limits of 55 mph or less and 55 mph on highways with posted speed limits greater than 55 mph.

HB 971 (Ebbin) and SB 366 (Saslaw) are Acts of the Assembly authorizing the Alexandria City School Board to set the 2006-2007 school calendar so that the first day of school for T.C. Williams High School occurs before Labor Day.

HB 984 (Sherwood) makes numerous changes to sex offender registry provisions, including that failure to register is added to the offenses for which conviction bars loitering within 1,00 feet of a school. Persons convicted of certain sex offenses also are prohibited from working or volunteering on school grounds and from residing within 500 feet of a school. Local school boards are required to ensure that schools are registered to receive electronic notice of sex offenders within that division, to develop and implement policies to provide information to parents regarding registration of sex offenders, and to develop protocols governing the release of children to persons who are not their parent.

HB 1222 (Barlow) provides that any person who knowingly makes a false statement about a child’s residency to avoid tuition charges shall be liable to the school division in which the child was enrolled as a result of such false statement.

HB 1242 (Hugo) requires schools to notify parents in writing at least 30 days prior to administration of any questionnaire or survey requesting sexual information of students. Such notice shall explain the nature and types of questions included in the questionnaire or survey, the purposes and age-appropriateness, and whether and how any findings or results will be disclosed. The bill also provides parents with the right to review the questionnaire or survey and to exempt their child from participation. No such survey or questionnaire is to be administered to students in grades K through 6.

HB 1244 (Hugo) creates, subject to available funding, the Virginia Mathematics, Science and Technology Education Grant Program to provide higher education grants to Virginia residents enrolled in a qualified undergraduate or graduate degree program.

HB 1427 (Landes) and SB 410 (Hanger) direct the BOE to develop a plan to identify No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act initiatives that are not a necessary part of the State’s accountability program, to include information on the consequences (including loss of federal funding) for not complying with the identified components.

HB 1428 (Landes) encourages the BOE to request certain waivers and exemptions from regulatory and statutory requirements of NCLB.

HB 1482 (Shannon) requires local law enforcement, within 24 hours of a missing child report, to notify the principal of the school where the missing child is or was most recently enrolled.

SB 97 (Blevins) requires the Board of Housing and Community Development to develop regulations prohibiting fire and evacuation drills in schools during periods of BOE-required testing. The bill took effect March 23.

SB 116 (Howell) sets out minimum requirements for immunization of children for the State Board of Health to include in its regulations.

SB 305 (Williams) conforms state law to a federal requirement for a specific endorsement to the commercial driver’s license for school bus operators.

SB 687 (Potts) prohibits the BOE from conditioning approval of a teacher education program on the number of students in individual licensure programs or documented efforts to increase enrollment in such programs.

HJR 25 (Cosgrove) establishes a joint subcommittee to study science, math and technology education at the elementary, secondary and undergraduate levels.

HJR 60 (Nixon) and SJR 96 (Hanger) direct the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) to study the Comprehensive Services Act (CSA).

HJR 96 (Hamilton) and SJR 125 (Martin) encourage various state agencies to take actions to improve the education and treatment of individuals with autism spectrum disorders.

HJR 130 (Hall) encourages the DOE to collect data and monitor information about high school dropout and graduation rates in Virginia.

HJR 176 (Miller) commends the Norfolk Public Schools on receiving the 2005 Broad Prize for Urban Education. 

HJR 258 (Howell) commends local school boards that employ mathematics specialists to increase student achievement by increasing the quality of mathematics instruction.

SJR 4 (Reynolds) directs the Joint Commission on Health Care to study the derivative effects of increases in health care costs on health insurance premiums. 

SJR 171 (Whipple) requests the BOE to conduct a survey of family life education programs in Virginia’s public schools.

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