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2013 SESSION

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Senate Committee on Education and Health
Subcommittee Public Education

Carrico, Howell, Locke, Black, Newman

Clerk: Patty Lung, Cheryl Law
Staff: Thomas Stevens, Ryan Brimmer
Date of Meeting: January 28, 2013
Time and Place: 1/2 Hour After Adjour. - 3rd Fl. East

S.B. 782

Patron: McEachin

Standards of Accreditation. Adds high school graduation rates, the rate of student academic progress in all student subgroups identified pursuant to the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, P.L. 89-10, as amended, and progress toward narrowing gaps in student proficiency on Standards of Learning assessments among all student subgroups to the list of special school division accomplishments that the Board of Education shall consider in its criteria for recognizing educational performance. The bill also prohibits the Board from identifying a school as fully accredited if any such student subgroup in the school fails to demonstrate proficiency on any Standards of Learning assessment. The bill finally alters the objectives of Standards of Learning Assessments. The bill contains technical amendments.

S.B. 934

Patron: Obenshain

Charter schools; personnel. Allows public charter schools to designate in its application whether their employees will participate in the Virginia Retirement System. The bill directs the Board of Trustees of the Virginia Retirement System to develop procedures allowing school boards who approve such applications to exempt the charter school employees from participation. The bill also (i) requires at least 75 percent of public charter elementary school teachers to be licensed and at least 50 percent of public charter middle and high school teachers to be licensed, and (ii) specifies that all teachers otherwise be "highly qualified," as defined by the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

S.B. 935

Patron: Obenshain

Public schools; teacher contract and evaluation policies. Makes several changes to the processes by which teachers and certain administrators are evaluated and retained. Teachers, assistant principals, principals, and supervisors who have not achieved continuing contract status prior to the 2014-2015 school year may be eligible for three-year term contracts. Under the bill, five years of service is required to attain term contract status. Teachers, assistant principals, and principals with term contract status will be evaluated in the third year of their term contract and will be informally evaluated at least once during each of their first two years. Teachers, assistant principals, and principals who have achieved continuing contract status prior to the 2014-2015 school year will retain their continuing contract status. Teachers, assistant principals, and principals with continuing contract status will be formally evaluated every three years, and evaluated informally at least once each year in which they are not formally evaluated. The bill also defines the standard 10-month contract as 200 days, of which a minimum must be 180 days of instructional time. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2014.

S.B. 998

Patron: Marsh

Virginia Public School Improvement Program. Creates the Virginia Public School Improvement Program to offer maximum educational options and flexibility for parents, teachers, and students. The bill authorizes local school boards to designate or approve any public school within its school division to participate in the Program if (i) it has not applied for, converted to, or received permission from the local school board to operate as a public charter school, or (ii) a majority of parents and teachers of students at the school have petitioned the school board to participate in the Program, or (iii) the school board has determined that, notwithstanding having satisfied the requirements of the Standards of Learning and Standards of Accreditation, less than 81 percent of the students enrolled in a public school within the school division have failed to demonstrate proficiency in reading and less than 79 percent of the students enrolled have failed to demonstrate proficiency in mathematics for three consecutive school years. Local school boards would continue to receive state basic school aid funding for such schools; participating schools would be exempt from certain school division policies and state regulations, but would have to meet SOQ, SOL, SOA, and certain federal requirements; participation can be rescinded by petition of a majority of parents and teachers, violation of the contract with the local school board, or failure of students to achieve satisfactory academic progress each year for two consecutive school years. The Board of Education must establish guidelines to assist school boards in implementing the Program in the school division and provide technical assistance to school boards upon request.

S.B. 999

Patron: Marsh

Temporarily employed teachers. Provides that no school board shall hire temporarily employed or unlicensed teachers to fill vacancies at the elementary grade levels or in the core subjects of English, mathematics, science, and history and social studies at the middle and high school grade levels in a manner that results in the staffing of elementary grade levels or core subject areas with a majority of temporarily employed or unlicensed teachers or shall employ such teachers for consecutive or alternating teaching assignments for more than 90 teaching days in the same class during a school year.

S.B. 1069

Patron: Carrico

Public schools; Virginia Longitudinal Data System established. Requires the Board of Education to establish the Virginia Longitudinal Data System to track and examine student progress from early childhood to postsecondary education to the student entering the workforce. The bill also establishes the Virginia Longitudinal Data System Advisory Council to advise the Board of Education on all matters related to the Virginia Longitudinal Data System.

S.B. 1097

Patron: Hanger

Deaf and hearing-impaired children; special education. Requires local school divisions to ensure that individualized education program (IEP) teams consider the specific communication needs of hearing-impaired children and address those needs as appropriate in the child's IEP.

S.B. 1364

Patron: Miller

Standards of Quality; waivers from third grade Standards of Learning assessments. Requires the Board of Education to grant a two-year waiver from the science or the history and social science Standards of Learning assessment requirement for third grade students in certain schools and requires elementary schools that have been granted a two-year waiver to use the additional instruction time for study in reading and mathematics.