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2013 SESSION

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Senate Committee on Education and Health

Chairman: Stephen H. Martin

Clerk: Patty Lung, Cheryl Law
Staff: Thomas Stevens, Ryan Brimmer
Date of Meeting: February 20, 2013
Time and Place: Upon Adjournment of the Senate / Senate Room B
UPDATED TO INCLUDE: HB 2344

H.B. 2343 Public school security equipment; issuance of bonds for purpose of grant payments.

Patron: Sherwood

School Security Infrastructure Improvement Fund and Local School Safety Fund. Establishes the School Security Infrastructure Improvement Fund and the Local School Safety Fund, to be administered by the Department of Criminal Justice Services.

The School Security Infrastructure Improvement Fund shall be used to make grants and loans to local school divisions for capital infrastructure improvements related to school safety and security. A school division would be required to provide a minimum 10 percent project match for a loan from the Fund and a minimum 50 percent project match for a grant from the Fund. The bill requires the Department of Criminal Justice Services to develop guidelines concerning the grants and loans.

The Local School Safety Fund shall be used to make grants to local school divisions to be used to address school safety, security, and violence prevention needs. The bill requires the Department of Criminal Justice Services, in consultation with the Department of Education, to develop guidelines concerning the grants.

H.B. 2344 School safety; threat assessment teams, model critical incident response training program, etc.

Patron: Cole

School safety; threat assessment teams and oversight committees. Requires local school divisions to establish policies and procedures for the establishment of threat assessment teams in each school, to be overseen by a division-level committee. The bill requires each threat assessment team to (i) provide guidance to students, faculty, and staff regarding recognition of threatening or aberrant behavior that may represent a threat to the community; (ii) identify members of the school community to whom threatening behavior should be reported; and (iii) develop policies and procedures for the assessment of individuals whose behavior may present a threat, appropriate means of intervention with such individuals, and sufficient means of action to resolve potential threats. The bill requires threat assessment teams to report to the division superintendent upon a preliminary determination that an individual poses a threat of violence to self or others; the superintendent is then permitted to obtain that individual's criminal history record information and health information.

H.B. 2345 School Safety, Va. Center for; development of model critical incident response training program.

Patron: Yost

Virginia Center for School Safety; duties. Requires the Virginia Center for School Safety, in conjunction with the Department of State Police, the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, and the Department of Education, to develop a model critical incident response training program for public school personnel and those providing services to schools. The bill also requires the Virginia Center for School Safety, in consultation with the Department of Education, to provide schools with a model policy for the establishment of threat assessment teams for each school, including procedures for the assessment of and intervention with individuals whose behavior poses a threat to the safety of school staff or students.

H.B. 2346 Lock-down drills; every public school is required to have at least two practices per year, etc.

Patron: Ransone

Yearly school lock-down drills, school safety audits, and school crisis, emergency management, and medical emergency response plans. Requires each school safety audit committee to conduct a school inspection walk-through using a standardized checklist and make the completed walk-through checklist available to the chief law-enforcement officer of the locality or his designee upon request. The bill requires the division superintendent to make the results of each school safety audit available to the chief law-enforcement officer of the locality and requires the local school board to provide copies of each school crisis, emergency management, and medical emergency response plan to the chief law-enforcement officer of the locality upon request. The bill also requires each school division to designate an emergency manager. The bill finally requires each public school to conduct at least two lock-down drills: one in September and one in January of each school year.