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ACROSS SESSIONS
- Subject Index: Since 1995
- Bills & Resolutions: Since 1994
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Developed and maintained by the Division of Legislative Automated Systems.
2013 SESSION
Chairman: Stephen H. Martin
Clerk: Patty Lung, Cheryl Law
Staff: Thomas Stevens, Ryan Brimmer
Date of Meeting: February 14, 2013
Time and Place: 8:00 a.m. - Senate Room B
Patron: Merricks
Opening of the school year in certain school divisions. Authorizes the school boards of the City of Danville, the City of Martinsville, Henry County, and Pittsylvania County school divisions to set the opening of the school year so that the first day students are required to attend school is prior to Labor Day.
Patron: Bell, Richard P.
Dental hygiene and dental hygienist; definitions and licensure. Defines "dental hygiene" as duties related to patient assessment and the rendering of educational, preventive, and therapeutic dental services specified in regulations of the Board and not otherwise restricted to the practice of dentistry. The bill defines "dental hygienist" as a person who is licensed by the Board of Dentistry to practice dental hygiene. The bill also clarifies the licensure requirement for a dental hygienist of graduation from a dental hygiene program accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation and offered by an accredited institution of higher education.
Patron: Albo
Mathematics assessments; targeted remediation and intervention for computational deficiencies. Requires local school divisions to provide targeted mathematics remediation and intervention to students in grades six through eight who show computational deficiencies on any diagnostic or grade-level Standards of Learning mathematics test that measures non-calculator computational skills.
Patron: Pogge
Board of Education; definition of "intervener." Requires the Board of Education to promulgate regulations defining "intervener" as an individual with knowledge and skill in the mode of communication of a deaf-blind student and who can communicate to the deaf-blind student what is occurring in the student's educational setting.
Patron: O'Bannon
Dispensing of interchangeable biosimilar biological products. Permits pharmacists to dispense a biosimilar that has been licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as interchangeable with a prescribed biological product unless the prescriber indicates such substitution is not authorized or the patient insists on dispensing of the prescribed biological product. The bill requires any pharmacist who dispenses an interchangeable biosimilar to inform the patient prior to dispensing the biosimilar, provide notification of the substitution to the prescriber, and record the brand name or the product name and name of the manufacturer of the biosimilar on the record of dispensing and the prescription label.
Patron: Bell, Robert B.
Students receiving home instruction; participation in interscholastic programs. Prohibits public schools from joining an organization governing interscholastic programs that does not deem eligible for participation a student who (i) is receiving home instruction; (ii) has demonstrated evidence of progress for two consecutive academic years; (iii) is in compliance with immunization requirements; (iv) is entitled to free tuition in a public school; (v) has not reached the age of 19 by August 1 of the current academic year; (vi) is an amateur who receives no compensation but participates solely for the educational, physical, mental, and social benefits of the activity; (vii) complies with all disciplinary rules and is subject to all codes of conduct applicable to all public high school athletes; and (viii) complies with all other rules governing awards, all-star games, maximum consecutive semesters of high school enrollment, parental consents, physical examinations, and transfers applicable to all high school athletes. The bill allows such students to be charged reasonable fees for participation. The provisions of the bill will expire on July 1, 2018.
Patron: O'Bannon
Administration of medications by employees or contract service providers of providers licensed by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. Provides that employees of or persons providing services pursuant to a contract with a provider licensed by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services may administer insulin, glucagon, and epinephrine pursuant to a written order issued by a prescriber in certain circumstances. The bill provides protection from liability for certain acts related to such administration and requires the Board of Nursing to promulgate regulations governing training in the administration of epinephrine and glucagon by persons authorized to administer epinephrine and glucagon.
Patron: Lingamfelter
Eligibility for in-state tuition charges; military. Clarifies eligibility for in-state tuition of current and former military personnel and their dependents. The bill also grants eligibility for in-state tuition charges to veterans residing within the Commonwealth.
Patron: Greason
School calendar. Makes local school boards responsible for setting the school calendar and determining the opening day of the school year and eliminates the post-Labor Day opening requirement and "good cause" scenarios for which the Board of Education may grant waivers of this requirement. The bill contains technical amendments.
Patron: Greason
Public schools; possession and administration of epinephrine. Adds employees of local governing bodies and employees of local health departments to the lists of individuals who are permitted to possess and administer epinephrine and not be held liable for civil damages when certain conditions are met. The bill also requires local school boards to include in policies for the possession and administration of epinephrine a provision adding any employee of a local governing body or an employee of a local health department who is authorized by a prescriber and trained in the administration of epinephrine to administer the drug to any student believed to be having an anaphylactic reaction. This bill contains an emergency clause.
EMERGENCY
Patron: Stolle
Participation in public school interscholastic programs by students in military families. Prohibits public elementary or secondary schools from joining an organization governing interscholastic programs that does not deem eligible for participation a student (i) who moved out of the school's attendance area because his parent is a full-time, active duty member of the uniformed services and received orders to relocate and who subsequently moved back into the school's attendance area or (ii) who continues to live in the school's attendance area but whose parent moved out of the school's attendance area because that parent is a full-time, active duty member of the uniformed services and received orders to relocate. The bill does not affect a school board's discretion to admit a student and charge tuition for his attendance at a public school in the local school division if the student is not deemed to reside in the local school division.
Patron: Yost
Licensure of professional counselors. Clarifies the definitions of "counseling" and "professional counselor" and adds definitions for "residency," "resident," and "supervision." The bill also requires the Board of Counseling to maintain a registry of persons who meet the requirements for supervision of residents and to make the registry of approved supervisors available to persons seeking resident status.
Patron: O'Bannon
Naloxone; administration in cases of opiate overdose. Allows a person to obtain a prescription for and to possess and administer naloxone to a family member or friend for the purpose of counteracting the effects of opiate overdose. The bill also requires the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to work together with the Department of Health, Department of Health Professions, law-enforcement agencies, substance abuse recovery support organizations, and other stakeholders to conduct pilot programs on the administration of naloxone to counteract the effects of opiate overdose. The bill requires the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to report on such pilot programs to the General Assembly by December 1, 2014.
Patron: Toscano
Local school boards; salary increases. Specifies that salary increases for local school boards representing a city or town established in a year preceding a year in which members are to be appointed or elected shall become effective on July 1 of the year in which the election or appointment occurs if the election or appointment occurs prior to July 1 and shall be become effective January 1 of the following year if the election or appointment occurs after June 30.
Patron: Tata
Participation in interscholastic programs; students residing on a military or naval reservation. Requires any student who resides on a military or naval reservation with military-owned housing located wholly or partly within the geographical boundaries of multiple school divisions to be deemed eligible for interscholastic programs immediately upon enrollment in a public elementary or secondary school in any of the aforementioned school divisions, provided that such persons (i) satisfy all other requirements for eligibility and (ii) are dependents of a military service member required by the military to live on the military installation as evidenced by a statement on command letterhead signed by, or by direction of, the service member's commanding officer.
Patron: Cosgrove
Death certificate; timely return to funeral director. Adds the medical director of an institution in which a death occurred, the chief medical officer or medical director of a hospice or nursing home in which a death occurred, or an individual to whom the physician in charge of a patient's care for the illness or condition which resulted in death has delegated such authority to the list of individuals who may complete and sign a death certificate in the absence of the physician in charge of a patient's care for the illness or condition which resulted in death, or with his approval.
Patron: Orrock
Emergency medical services; procedures and practice. Requires the Board of Health to direct the State Emergency Medical Services Advisory Board to develop and facilitate implementation of (i) a process for informing an emergency medical services provider who has received an adverse decision relating to his authority to provide emergency medical care on behalf of an agency of the process for appealing that decision and (ii) a standard operating procedure template to be used in the development of local protocols for emergency medical services personnel for basic life support services. The bill also requires the Board, in cooperation with the State Emergency Medical Services Advisory Board, to review training for emergency medical services personnel and address disparities in the delivery of training to and availability of training for emergency medical services personnel. The Board shall report on its progress no later than December 1, 2013.
Patron: McClellan
Student and school employee conduct; bullying. Defines the term "bullying" and requires school boards to include in their codes of student conduct policies and procedures that include a prohibition against bullying. The bill also requires the Board of Education to develop model policies and procedures and school boards to adopt policies and procedures to educate school board employees about the need to create a bully-free environment.
Patron: McClellan
Sterilization operations for persons capable of informed consent. Eliminates the requirement for a 30-day waiting period prior to a sterilization operation for persons who are over the age of 18 and capable of giving informed consent who have not previously become the natural or adoptive parent of a child.
Patron: Morris
Selection of local school boards; school board selection commissions. Abolishes school board selection commissions in school divisions composed of a single county and gives the county governing body all powers and duties previously held by the school board selection commission, including selection of the school board. The bill also eliminates, in single-county school divisions, referendums as a method of authorizing school board appointment by the county governing body or abolishing the school board selection commission. The bill finally specifies that the appointment of a tie breaker by an elected school board shall be made at the annual organizational meeting of the school board.
Patron: Comstock
Lyme disease; disclosure of information to patients. Requires the Department of Health to update its website to contain a notice regarding the accuracy of lab tests for Lyme disease and the potential for false negative results of such testing, and to make such information available to physicians in the Commonwealth for distribution to patients. The bill has an expiration date of July 1, 2015.
Patron: Landes
Faculty representatives to the State Board for Community Colleges, local community college boards, and boards of visitors; student representatives to boards of visitors. Requires the State Board for Community Colleges, local community college boards, and boards of visitors of any four-year public institution of higher education to appoint one or more nonvoting, advisory faculty representatives to their respective boards. Current law permits, but does not require, such appointments. The bill removes the option for local community college boards and boards of visitors to choose faculty representatives from individuals elected by the institution's faculty. The bill further requires boards of visitors to choose nonvoting, advisory student representatives from individuals elected by the institution's student government or student body.
Patron: Landes
Boards of visitors of public institutions of higher education; public access to information and governance. Adds specific topics to be covered during the educational programs for governing boards and requires such programs to be delivered by the State Council of Higher Education annually. The bill also requires each board of visitors to adopt bylaws with certain provisions relating to the Freedom of Information Act; annually meet with the president of the institution to deliver a review of the president's performance; designate its executive committee to organize the working processes of the board and recommend best practices for board governance; and annually deliver an executive summary of its interim activities to the General Assembly and the Governor.
Patron: Toscano
Certificate of public need; continuing care retirement communities; admissions to nursing home beds. Adds persons who are employees or members of the board of trustees or board of directors of a continuing care retirement community, family members of employees or members of the board of trustees or board of directors of a continuing care retirement community, and accredited practitioners of the religious organization or denomination with which a continuing care retirement community is affiliated to the list of individuals who may be admitted to nursing home beds of a continuing care retirement community after expiration of the initial one-time, three-year open admission period.
Patron: Greason
Public schools; individual school performance grading system. Requires the Board of Education, by October 1, 2015 to report individual school perfromance using a grading system in addition to the standards of accreditation. The grading system will be based on both state and federal accountability requirements and an A to F grading scale and will include student growth and the school's accreditation rating. The Board will make the system and the assigned grades available to the public.
The bill also requires the Board, by October 1, 2013, to (i) assign a grade from A to F to each public school in the Commonwealth based primarily on state accreditation and federal accountability determinations for the 2013-2014 school year based on 2012-2013 state assessment results; (ii) make the grade assigned to each school in the Commonwealth available to the public on the annual report card for each school; and (iii) report to the General Assembly and the public a summary of the system and the assigned grades.
Patron: LeMunyon
Public schools; policies and regulations. Requires that a current copy of all school division policies and regulations approved by the local school board must be posted on the division's website and available to employees and to the public. Printed copies of such policies and regulations are required to be available as needed to citizens who do not have online access.
Patron: Dudenhefer
In-state tuition; active duty members. Allows any active duty member, activated guard or reservist member, or guard or reservist member mobilized or on temporary active orders for six months or more to pay no more than the in-state tuition rate to attend a public institution of higher education if he resides in Virginia. Currently, such an individual is required to be stationed or assigned to work in Virginia and reside in Virginia to receive the rate of no more than in-state tuition.
Patron: Dudenhefer
Public schools; cardiopulmonary resuscitation and automated external defibrillators. Allows school boards to require current certification or training in emergency first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and the use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) for bus drivers, increases required school personnel with such training per school, and requires such training for those seeking initial teacher licensure, renewal of a license to teach, or a provisional teaching license with a waiver for disabilities. For students, beginning with first-time ninth grade students in the 2014-2015 school year, the bill adds a requirement that recipients of the standard and advanced diplomas must receive training in emergency first aid, CPR, and the use of AEDs with a waiver for students with disabilities. The bill also requires an AED in every school by the 2014-2015 school year and schoolwide cardiopulmonary resuscitation drills.
Patron: Peace
Audiology and speech-language pathology. Provides that the Board of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology may issue a provisional license to an applicant for licensure in speech-language pathology who has met the education and examination requirements for licensure, to allow the applicant to obtain clinical experience under the supervision of a licensed speech-language pathologist as specified in the Board's regulations. The bill eliminates language providing that the Director of the Department of Health Professions shall serve as the secretary-treasurer of the Board.
Patron: Jones
Public institutions of higher education; memoranda of understanding. Clarifies the procedure for adopting new measures to be followed by institutions of higher education that seek to enter into memoranda of understanding for additional operational authority.
Patron: Habeeb
Opportunity Educational Institution established. Creates the Opportunity Educational Institution to be administered and supervised by the Opportunity Educational Institution Board. The bill requires any school that has been denied accreditation and permits any school that has been accredited with warning for three consecutive years to be transferred to the Institution and remain in the Institution for five years or until the school achieves full accreditation. The bill also sets forth requirements for student attendance, staffing, and funding for the Institution.
Patron: Herring
Individual incapable of making an informed decision; procedure for physical evidence recovery kit examination. Provides that a licensed health care provider may perform a physical evidence recovery kit examination for a person who is believed to be the victim of a sexual assault and who is incapable of making an informed decision regarding consent to such examination when there is an immediate need to conduct the examination, no legally authorized representative is available to provide consent, and a capacity reviewer provides written certification that the person is incapable of providing informed consent and that the examination should be performed.
Patron: Herring
Photographs of abused, incapacitated adult. Provides that in any case of suspected abuse of an incapacitated adult, photographs, X-rays, and other medical imaging of such incapacitated adult may be taken without the consent of the person responsible for the incapacitated adult as a part of the medical evaluation of the person. Such photographs, X-rays, and other medical imaging may be introduced into evidence in any civil or criminal proceeding.
Patron: Hodges
Adding methasterone and prostanozol to Schedule III. Adds methasterone and prostanozol to Schedule III.
Patron: Lewis
Northampton County School Board; terms. Shortens or lengthens the terms of the currently appointed members of the Northampton County School Board so they all expire on December 31, 2013, and provides for the initial staggering of terms of the members elected to the board in the November 2013 general election.
EMERGENCY
Patron: Carr
Board of Counseling; qualification of members. Reduces the number of professional counselors on the Board of Counseling from eight to six, increases the number of marriage and family therapists from two to three and requires that such members be clinical fellows of the American Academy for Marriage and Family Therapy, increases the number of licensed substance abuse treatment practitioners from two to three, and requires at least two professional members representing each specialty to have been in active practice for at least four years. The bill eliminates the requirement that the professional members of the Board include two full-time faculty and two individuals engaged in private practice. The bill also removes certain conditions of initial appointment for professional members.
Patron: Hodges
Medical equipment suppliers; delivery of sterile water and saline. Adds sterile water and saline to the list of prescription drugs and devices that a permitted medical equipment supplier may receive, store, and distribute to a consumer.
Patron: Hodges
Home care organizations; proof of initial reserve operating funds. Requires every applicant for an initial license to operate a home care organization to submit proof of sufficient initial reserve operating funds in an amount determined by the State Board of Health, which shall be sufficient to ensure operation of the home care organization for at least six months after licensure. Funds may include a mix of cash, cash equivalents, borrowed funds, and funds available through a line of credit.
Patron: Merricks
Child abuse investigations; employees of school divisions. Expands the class of individuals whom a local department of social services must report to a local school board upon determination that a complaint alleging that such individual has committed child abuse or neglect is a founded complaint from any full-time, part-time, permanent, or temporary teachers to any full-time, part-time, permanent, or temporary employees of a school division.
Patron: Krupicka
Exemptions from requirements applicable to restaurants. Exempts, from the regulations applicable to restaurants, certain nonprofit organizations that hold occasional fund-raisers for the duration of the event at which food (i) prepared in the homes of members; (ii) prepared in the kitchen of the organization; or (iii) purchased or donated from a licensed restaurant is offered for sale to the public. The bill also provides that licensed restaurants that donate or sell food at such fund raisers are not required to apply for additional permits or pay any additional permit fees to the Department of Health.
Patron: Orrock
Certificates of public need. Establishes a procedure for acceptance and review, by the Commissioner of Health, of applications (i) for the transfer of nursing facility beds from one planning district to another planning district in the absence of a Request for Applications and (ii) for an open admissions period for nursing home beds of a continuing care retirement community.
Patron: Cox, M.K.
State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. Changes the State Council of Higher Education by (i) expanding its purpose, (ii) altering its membership and setting forth the qualifications of appointees, (iii) requiring the presidents of the public institutions of higher education in the Commonwealth to present information and comment on issues of common interest at each meeting of the Council, and (iv) permitting the Council to involve other groups in its meeting agendas.
Patron: Jones
Compounding pharmacies. Clarifies the definition of "compounding" and adds a requirement for a current inspection report for registration or renewal of a registration for a nonresident pharmacy.
Patron: O'Bannon
Virginia Association of Volunteer Rescue Squads; report to the State Emergency Medical Services Advisory Board. Requires the Virginia Association of Volunteer Rescue Squads to submit an annual financial report on the use of funds received from the special emergency medical services fund to the State Emergency Medical Services Advisory Board Executive Committee.
Patron: Surovell
State Board for Community Colleges; mental health policies. Requires the State Board for Community Colleges to develop a mental health referral policy that would require community colleges to designate at least one individual at each college to serve as a point of contact with an emergency services system clinician at a local community services board, or another qualified mental health services provider, for screenings and referrals of students who may have emergency or urgent mental health needs.
Patron: Cline
Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services; listing of licensed providers. Requires the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to list providers included on a website of the Department's Office of Licensing by the name under which the provider is doing business in the Commonwealth, and to provide any other name of such provider upon request.
Patron: Alexander
Schools that have been denied accreditation and fail to make progress toward accreditation; turnaround specialist. Requires the Board of Education to designate for further corrective action any school that has been denied accreditation and that has failed, per the Board of Education's assessment, to demonstrate progress toward full accreditation during the subsequent school year in accordance with the corrective action plan submitted by the local school board and the memorandum of understanding between the Board and the local school board. The bill also requires the Board to direct the school principal, in conjunction with the Office of School Improvement, to act as a turnaround specialist and to implement certain changes in order to meet the unique needs of the school until the school achieves full accreditation status.