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2005 SESSION

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Senate Committee on Education and Health

Chairman: H. Russell Potts, Jr.

Clerk: Jocelyn Lance
Date of Meeting: January 13, 2005
Time and Place: 9:00 a.m., Thursday, Senate Room B, GAB

S.B. 702 Medical assistance services; eligibility for aged and disabled individuals.

Medical assistance services; medically needy.  Requires the state plan for medical assistance services to include a provision for payment of medical assistance for aged and disabled individuals with incomes up to 100 percent of the federal poverty guideline as permitted by federal law.

S.B. 703 Health insurance credit for retired teachers. 

Health insurance credit for retired teachers.  Increases the health insurance credit for retired teachers to $4 per month for each year of creditable service with no monthly cap. The bill also eliminates the authority for local governments to provide an additional health insurance credit for teachers.

Under current law, retired teachers with 15 or more years of service are allowed a health insurance credit of $2.50 per month for each year of creditable service with a cap of $75 per month. Retired state employees with 15 or more years of service are allowed a health insurance credit of $4 per month for each year of creditable service with a cap of $120 per month.

S.B. 712 Higher educational institutions; requires student be vaccinated for hepatitis B.

Higher education; vaccination for hepatitis B.  Provides that full-time students enrolled for the first time in any four-year public institution of higher education shall be vaccinated against hepatitis B unless the student signs a waiver that he has received and reviewed information on hepatitis B and the availability and effectiveness of being vaccinated.

S.B. 715 Nursing homes; guidelines for staffing.

Board of Health regulations; guidelines for staffing of nursing homes.  Requires the Board of Health, in its licensure regulations, to establish staffing guidelines for nursing homes and certified nursing facilities to ensure the delivery of quality care that shall establish a minimum of three and one-half hours of direct care services per resident per 24-hour period.

S.B. 716 Physician assistants; provisions for practicing in hospital emergency departments.

Physician assistants practicing in hospital emergency departments. Provides that the hospital emergency department shall have no control of or supervisory responsibility for any assistant who is not employed by the emergency physician or his professional business entity. The bill also stipulates that a physician assistant, who is not so employed, may practice in an emergency department as authorized by the assistant's supervising physician, whether or not the supervising physician is physically present in the facility. In such cases, the supervising physician retains exclusive responsibility for the assistant, and must be available at all times for consultation with both the assistant and the emergency department physician. The assistant is required to communicate the proposed disposition plan for any patient under his care to both his supervising physician and the emergency department physician prior to the patient's discharge from the emergency department.

S.B. 717 Character education; requirements.

Character education; participation in community service.  Provides that character education programs in public schools may include opportunities for voluntary participation in community service activities pursuant to guidelines developed by the Board of Education.

S.B. 724 Nursing homes; establishment of family councils.

Family councils in nursing homes.  Establishes the right of any nursing home resident, member of a resident's family, or resident's legal representative to establish a family council whereby a resident's family members and friends may confer in private without facility staff present. Upon written request of a family council, a nursing home facility shall provide meeting space at reasonable times and locations within the facility.

S.B. 730 Local Boards of Social Services; membership.

Local boards of social services; member terms of office.  Removes current prohibition on members of the various types of local boards of social services from serving more than two consecutive four-year terms. The bill does not affect any statutory appointment provisions that may exist for counties adopting special forms of government.

S.B. 731 Teachers; qualifications.

Teacher qualifications.  Allows local school boards, in staffing underfilled or overcrowded classes in secondary schools, to place licensed instructional personnel who do not hold an undergraduate degree in the relevant subject area but are actively enrolled in a program that leads to meeting such degree requirements within three years. "Active enrollment" shall mean earning at least six semester hours of credit per academic year. The Board of Education is to develop procedures, consistent with any federal requirements governing the employment of highly qualified instructional personnel, for implementation by local school boards employing such licensed personnel in underfilled or overcrowded classes in secondary schools. The procedures will establish criteria for determining underfilled or overcrowded classes and require local school boards to regularly report to the Board compliance with active enrollment requirements.

The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires schools to employ in the core academic areas "highly qualified" teachers by the end of the 2005-06 academic year. Teachers must be fully licensed; new and current teachers must hold undergraduate degrees and meet various state testing and subject matter competency requirements.

In response to these federal requirements, the Virginia Board of Education adopted on February 25, 2004, High Objective Uniform State Standard of Evaluation (HOUSSE) to address the placement of experienced teachers. To be "highly qualified," the experienced teacher has the option of (i) having an academic major or equivalent in the subject area(s) taught; (ii) completing an academic major, graduate degree, or coursework equivalent to an academic major, or advanced certification; or (iii) meeting the HOUSSE requirements, which may include, among other things, completion of three years of successful teaching experience and an academic major or equivalent in the subject areas the teacher teaches or a minimum of 24 semester hours in the areas taught.

 

S.B. 741 Substance Abuse Services Council; membership. 

Substance Abuse Services Council; membership.  Adds six new members to the Substance Abuse Services Council.

S.B. 742 Medical assistance; employer information, report.

Medical assistance; employer information.  Requires the Department of Medical Assistance Services to require any applicant for health care benefits under public health programs, including the state plan for medical assistance services, the State/Local Hospitalization Plan, and the Family Access to Medical Insurance Security Plan, to identify the employer of the proposed beneficiary of the health care benefit and to report employers who employ 25 or more public health program beneficiaries to the Governor and General Assembly. The report shall include each employer's name, location, the total number of its employees and dependents who are enrolled in each health care program, and the total cost to the Commonwealth of providing health care benefits for the employees and enrolled dependents of each named employer.

S.B. 744 Nurse aides; nonprofit organization to provide on-site training to promote quality care.

Health; working conditions of certified nurse aides. Directs the nonprofit organization, established by the Department of Medical Assistance Services to provide on-site training, assistance, and other services to promote the quality of care in nursing facilities, to address the working conditions, salary and benefits, and available career pathways for certified nurse aids with emphasis on recruitment and retention. Further, the nonprofit organization must explore possible funding streams for state-certified nurse aide programs, including but not limited to, voluntary tax options.

S.B. 747 Obesity; requiring Bd. of Education, et al, to promulgate regulations establ. standards in schools.

Childhood obesity.  Requires the Board of Education to promulgate, in cooperation with the State Health Department, regulations establishing standards to ameliorate childhood obesity in the public schools. This bill also adds the improvement of school health as one of the criteria to be considered by local schools during the annual evaluation of division superintendents. Further, the bill requires division superintendents to complete instruction concerning the causes and consequences of overweight and obesity by July 1, 2006. The requirement for instruction may be satisfied by attendance at conferences, seminars, or in-service training.

S.B. 753 Opiate addiction; standards for issuance of new licenses to providers of treatment.

Providers of treatment for persons with opiate addiction; standards required; moratorium. Requires the Board of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services to establish standards to evaluate the need and appropriateness for the issuance of new licenses to providers of treatment for persons with opiate addiction. The standards will include various criteria relating to the number of persons needing such treatment in the service area, the proposed site of the clinic, the existing access to such treatment, the geographic and demographic parameters of the service area, and the proposed clinic's security and accountability measures. A moratorium on the issuance of new licenses for providers of treatment for persons with opiate addiction is established from the enactment date of this act until the date on which the standards become effective. The Board is authorized to promulgate emergency regulations.

S.B. 757 Student Financial Security Program and Fund; created.

Student Financial Security Program. Creates the Student Financial Security Program and Fund to provide supplemental funding for need-based, state-funded financial aid at two- and four-year public institutions of higher education in the Commonwealth. The funding is designed to ensure that resources for student financial aid programs based in whole or in part on need are available to offset tuition increases at the various public institutions.

Among the Commonwealth's state-funded, need-based student aid initiatives are the Virginia Guaranteed Assistance Program (§ 23-38.53:4 et seq.), the College Scholarship Assistance program (§ 23-38.45 et seq.), and student loan programs (§ 23-38.10:2 et seq.).

S.B. 761 Teachers; extends sunset provision for division superintendent to report shortages to school board.

Critical teacher shortage areas.  Extends from 2005 to 2010 the current sunset on the requirements that (i) division superintendents identify and report critical shortages to the school board, upon request (§ 22.1-70.3); and (ii) local school boards identify and report critical shortages to the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Virginia Retirement System (VRS) (§ 22.1-79). The measure does not address use of this reported information by VRS. Also sunsetting in 2005, and not included in this bill, is the requirement that the Superintendent of Public Instruction annually survey school divisions to identify critical teacher shortage areas and report these shortages to the Virginia Retirement System (§ 22.1-23).

S.B. 762 Teachers; extends sunset provision.

Teacher's retirement allowance.  Extends from July 1, 2005, to July 1, 2010, the sunset date for provisions allowing retirees to be hired as teachers or administrative personnel without interruption of their retirement benefits.

S.B. 767 School boards; increase of salaries for members in City of Salem.

School board salaries. Increases from $3,600 to $4,800 the maximum salary to be paid members of the Salem school board.

S.B. 770 Salaries; instituted annually for members of Board of Education.

Board of Education; annual salary.  Institutes annual salaries of $6,000 for members of the Board of Education and $9,000 for the Board president, effective July 1, 2006. Members will no longer receive the $50 per diem currently authorized by § 2.2-2813, but will continue to receive reimbursement for expenses incurred in the performance of duties.

S.B. 779 Standards of Quality; changes in provisions.

Standards of Quality. Revises the Standards of Quality to require local school boards to (i) implement a program of data collection and analysis and to use such results in instructional program evaluation; (ii) implement any actions identified through the academic review of schools accredited with a warning; (iii) analyze and report annually the results of industry certification examinations; (iv) annually review their professional development programs; and (v) report compliance with the Standards of Quality annually to the Board of Education.

In addition, the bill (i) increases from 10 to 17 the full-time equivalent instructional positions for each 1,000 students identified as having limited English proficiency; (ii) provides that teacher, administrator, and superintendent evaluations shall be based on performance objectives included in the Guidelines for Uniform Performance Standards and Evaluation Criteria for Teachers, Administrators, and Superintendents developed by the Board of Education; (iii) replaces Board- and locally-adopted six-year statewide or divisionwide plans, as the case may be, (including those for educational technology) with "comprehensive" statewide or divisionwide plans; and (iv) replaces individual school six-year plans with "comprehensive" plans.

The measure also includes a number of technical or clarifying amendments and additional cross-references for other Code sections.