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2004 SESSION

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HB 1014 Standards of Quality in public schools; changes in provisions.

Introduced by: James H. Dillard, II | all patrons    ...    notes | add to my profiles

SUMMARY AS PASSED: (all summaries)

Standards of Quality. Reorganizes the Standards of Quality and makes substantive amendments that would (i) increase from one half-time to one full-time principal in elementary schools with fewer than 300 students; (ii) provide one full-time assistant principal for each 400 students in each school, regardless of grade level; (iii) require five elementary resource positions per 1,000 students in kindergarten through grade five for art, music, and physical education; (iv) lower the pupil-teacher ratio from 25:1 to 21:1 in middle and high schools, to ensure the provision of scheduled teacher planning time; (v) reduce the required speech pathologist caseload from 68 to 60 students; (vi) require one full-time reading specialist for each 1,000 students in average daily membership; (vii) require two technology support positions per 1,000 students in kindergarten through grade 12 divisionwide; and (viii) modify the current funding mechanism for remediation.

The Board of Education proposed and approved these changes on June 25, 2003. Because the Virginia Constitution grants the General Assembly "ultimate authority" over educational policy and provides that the Standards are to be "prescribed from time to time by the Board of Education" but are subject to revision "only by the General Assembly," legislation is necessary to enact the Board's proposals.

The bill includes a second enactment clause providing that any new Standard of Quality incorporated into the bill shall not become effective unless an appropriation for the standard is included in the 2004-2006 Appropriation Act. The measure also includes a number of technical and editorial changes and is identical to SB 479.


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