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2014 SESSION

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House Committee on Education
Subcommittee Elementary and Secondary Education

Bell, Richard P. (Chairman), Lingamfelter, Cole, Pogge, LeMunyon, Farrell, Morrissey, Hester, Brink

Clerk: Jay Baxa
Date of Meeting: January 30, 2014
Time and Place: 4:00 PM; 8th Floor West; GAB;
This is an additional meeting of the subcommittee

H.B. 11 Public schools; textbooks approved by BOE to note Sea of Japan is also referred to as East Sea.

Patron: Hugo

Public school textbooks; East Sea. Requires all textbooks approved by the Board of Education to note that the Sea of Japan is also referred to as the East Sea.

H.B. 197 Virginia history and United States Constitution; supplementary written materials on documents.

Patron: Landes

Supplementary written materials on documents of Virginia history and the United States Constitution. Requires teachers to ensure that all supplementary written materials used to teach the Declaration of American Independence, the general principles of the Constitution of the United States, including the Bill of Rights, the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, the charters of the Virginia Company of April 10, 1606, May 23, 1609, and March 12, 1612, and the Virginia Declaration of Rights contain accurate restatements of the principles contained in these documents and directs the Board of Education to develop guidelines for such supplementary written materials used by teachers. The bill contains technical amendments.

Impact Statements

H.B. 198 Elementary and secondary school students; sufficient cause for suspension or expulsion.

Patron: Landes

Elementary and secondary school students; sufficient cause for suspension or expulsion. Prohibits an incident that occurs in any setting other than on a school bus, on school property, or at a school-sponsored activity from being deemed sufficient cause for the suspension or expulsion of a student, except in cases in which the division superintendent has received a report of an adjudication of delinquency or a conviction for a certain criminal offense. The bill contains technical amendments.

Impact Statements

H.B. 207 Science; Board of Education, et.al.,to encourage students to explore scientific questions.

Patron: Bell, Richard P.

Instruction in science. Requires the Board of Education, local school boards, division superintendents, and school board employees to (i) create an environment in public elementary and secondary schools that encourages students to explore scientific questions, learn about scientific evidence, develop critical thinking skills, and respond appropriately and respectfully to differences of opinion about scientific controversies in science classes; (ii) assist teachers to find effective ways to present scientific controversies in science classes; and (iii) allow teachers to help students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in science classes.

H.B. 221 Students; admission to certain children's residential facilities.

Patron: Bell, Richard P.

Students admitted to certain children's residential facilities. Requires each student admitted under a physician's order, due to medical necessity and not solely for school purposes, to a children's residential facility licensed by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to immediately be enrolled in an education program that is comparable to that which is provided in the child's school division of residence. The bill requires the school division of residence to (i) transfer on a monthly basis to each children's residential facility funds necessary to cover the expenses of providing a comparable education program for each student, (ii) help facilitate the discharge of each such student, and (iii) upon discharge, facilitate the reenrollment of each student in the appropriate school in the school division.

H.B. 229 Comprehensive Services for At-Risk Youth and Families; special education programs.

Patron: Cole

Comprehensive Services for At-Risk Youth and Families; special education programs. Expands eligibility for services through the Comprehensive Services for At-Risk Youth and Families program to students placed in public school special educational programs established by a school division for the purpose of providing special education when the public school special educational program is able to provide services comparable to those of an approved private school special educational program, and the student would require placement in an approved private school special educational program but for the availability of the public school special educational program.

H.B. 449 Student information; release to federal government agencies and commercial educational entities.

Patron: Bell, Robert B.

Student information; release to federal government agencies and commercial educational entities. Prohibits a member or employee of a local school board or the Department of Education from transmitting personally identifiable information from a student's record to a federal government agency or any commercial educational entity or an authorized representative of such agency or entity for purposes permitted by local, state, or federal law unless the member or employee first notifies the student's parent or the student, in the case of a student who is eighteen years of age or older, and provides the parent or student with the opportunity to opt out of the transmission.

Impact Statements

H.B. 613 Mandatory school attendance laws, certain; violations, penalty.

Patron: Robinson

Violations of certain mandatory school attendance laws; penalty. Provides that individuals who violate certain compulsory school attendance laws are guilty of a misdemeanor and may be confined not more than 30 days or fined not more than $500 or both. Under current law, such individuals may be found guilty of a Class 3 misdemeanor and fined not more than $500. The bill removes the requirement that second or subsequent offenders must have knowingly and willfully violated such compulsory school attendance laws to be guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor. The bill also permits judges to take cases involving first-time offenders of such compulsory school attendance laws under advisement and discharge the individual and dismiss the charges upon satisfaction of terms and conditions.

H.B. 720 School board policy, local; employee lactation support.

Patron: McClellan

School board policy; employee lactation support. Requires each local school board to adopt a policy to set aside, in each school in the school division, a non-restroom location that is shielded from the public view to be designated as an area in which any mother who is employed by the local school board may take breaks of reasonable length during the school day to express milk to feed her child until the child reaches the age of one.

H.B. 725 Advisory Board on Teacher Education and Licensure, increases membership.

Patron: McClellan

Advisory Board on Teacher Education and Licensure; membership. Increases from 19 to 21 the total number of members and increases from two to four the number of members who shall be faculty members in teacher preparation programs in public or private institutions of higher education on the Advisory Board on Teacher Education and Licensure.

H.B. 726 Students; suspension and expulsion, continuation of curriculum.

Patron: McClellan

Suspension and expulsion of students; continuation of curriculum. Requires that each student who is suspended or expelled from attendance shall be afforded the opportunity to continue to progress in the curriculum of the school division during the suspension or expulsion. The bill requires all committees of the school board, division superintendents, school principals, assistant principals, and teachers considering disciplinary action for a student to exercise discretion, consider ways to reengage the student in the learning process, and consider all alternatives to suspension or expulsion before suspending or expelling a student. The bill also requires any student who is suspended for more than 10 days cumulatively in a school year to receive a plan of positive behavioral interventions, strategies, and supports to address the student's behavior so that it does not continue to impede the student's learning or other students' learning.

H.B. 865 STEAM Summer Learning Center Fund; established.

Patron: Yancey

STEAM Summer Learning Center Fund established. Creates the STEAM Summer Learning Center Fund to award competitive grants to local school divisions in certain regions to train public high school teachers in STEAM education and project-based learning and to provide teachers with skills to conduct workshops to engage public high school students in hands-on, project-based learning in science, technology, engineering, and applied mathematics, including design-build, manufacturing, and modeling and simulation.

H.B. 947 School board policy, local; designated breastfeeding area for employees.

Patron: O'Quinn

Local school board policy; designated breastfeeding area for employees. Requires each local school board to adopt a policy to set aside, in each school in the school division, space that is shielded from the public view to be designated as a breastfeeding area in which any mother who is employed by the local school board may breastfeed her child until the child reaches the age of one.

H.B. 1205 Student teachers; fingerprinting, criminal history records check, and child abuse and neglect data.

Patron: Yost

Student teachers; fingerprinting, criminal history records check, and child abuse and neglect data. Permits education preparation program faculty to require student teachers at public institutions of higher education, as a condition of participation in a classroom teaching, internship, clinical, or field experience in a public elementary or secondary school, to submit to fingerprinting and a criminal history records check. The bill permits education preparation program faculty to require student teachers to provide the necessary personal information to conduct a search of the registry of founded complaints of child abuse and neglect in the Commonwealth and to obtain such information from other states if the individual has lived in another state in the past five years. The bill further requires the Board of Education to develop guidelines for each education preparation program director to use to decide whether to deny student teachers placement in a public elementary or secondary school on the basis of the findings of the criminal history records check and registry search.