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2004 SESSION

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HB 161 Standards of Quality in public schools; changes in provisions.

Introduced by: John S. Reid | all patrons    ...    notes | add to my profiles

SUMMARY AS INTRODUCED:

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.

A second enactment clause provides that the amendments requiring additional state funding (such as increasing principals or lowering pupil-teacher ratios) will not become effective unless funded in the 2004 appropriation act.

The measure also includes a number of technical and editorial changes.

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. This measure was rolled into HB 1014.


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