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2014 SESSION

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Senate Committee on Education and Health
Subcommittee Public Education

Carrico (Chairman), Howell, Locke, Black, Newman, Martin

Clerk: Patty Lung, Wesley Bland
Staff: Thomas Stevens, Ryan Brimmer
Date of Meeting: January 13, 2014
Time and Place: 1/2 Hour After Adj. - 3rd Fl. East Conference Room
Revised - SB 242 Moved to Pub. Ed. Subcommittee

S.B. 2

Patron: Marsden

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.

S.B. 15

Patron: Black

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.

S.B. 43

Patron: Favola

Teachers; dismissal. Extends from five business days to 10 business days the deadline for a teacher to request a hearing after receiving written notice of a recommendation of dismissal.

S.B. 144

Patron: Edwards

Standards of Learning assessments; revisions. Requires that all revisions to any Standards of Learning assessment are finalized by December 31 of the school year prior to the school year in which the revised assessment is administered.

S.B. 155

Patron: Miller

Public schools; physical activity requirement. Requires at least 30 minutes of physical activity per day during the regular school year for students in grades kindergarten through eight. This requirement becomes effective beginning with the 2016-2017 school year.

S.B. 160

Patron: Miller

Policies on concussions in student-athletes. Requires each non-interscholastic youth sports program utilizing public school property to establish policies and procedures based on either the local school division's guidelines or the Board of Education's guidelines regarding the identification and handling of suspected concussions in student-athletes. The bill also directs the Board of Education to review and revise the Board's guidelines on concussions as necessary.

S.B. 172

Patron: Stuart

Policies on concussions in student-athletes. Requires each non-interscholastic youth sports program utilizing public school property to either (i) establish policies and procedures based on either the local school division's guidelines or the Board of Education's guidelines regarding the identification and handling of suspected concussions in student-athletes or (ii) follow the policies and procedures regarding the identification and handling of suspected concussions required of local school divisions in existing law. The bill also directs the Board of Education to review and revise the Board's guidelines on concussions as necessary.

S.B. 236

Patron: Carrico

Student religious viewpoint expression. Codifies the right of students to (i) voluntarily pray or engage in religious activities or religious expression before, during, and after the school day in the same manner and to the same extent that students may engage in nonreligious activities or expression; (ii) organize prayer groups, religious clubs, "see you at the pole" gatherings, or other religious gatherings before, during, and after school to the same extent that students are permitted to organize other activities and groups; and (iii) wear clothing, accessories, or jewelry that display religious messages or religious symbols in the same manner and to the same extent that other types of clothing, accessories, and jewelry are permitted. The bill also requires each school division to adopt a policy to permit a student speaker to express a religious viewpoint at any school event at which a student is permitted to publicly speak. The policy shall declare each such school event to be a limited public forum, provide a neutral method for the selection of student speakers, and require each school principal to provide a disclaimer in advance of each such school event that the school division does not endorse any religious viewpoint that may be expressed by student speakers.

S.B. 240

Patron: Carrico

Public schools; withholding child from custodial parent. Makes it a Class 3 misdemeanor for any principal, assistant principal, or supervisor employed by a local school board who fails to or refuses to release a child into the custody of the child's custodial parent or other legal custodian, unless such failure or refusal is necessitated by a critical event or emergency governed by the school crisis, emergency management, and medical emergency response plan.

S.B. 270

Patron: Miller

Third grade SOLs; math and English only. Directs the Board of Education to require only math and English reading Standards of Learning assessments for third graders.

S.B. 291

Patron: Carrico

Visually impaired students; Braille. Requires each visually impaired student to be evaluated by a certified Teacher of the Visually Impaired and requires the student to receive instruction in Braille or the use of Braille unless the team responsible for developing the student's IEP (IEP team) or the team responsible for developing the student's plan pursuant to § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (504 team) determines that instruction in Braille or the use of Braille is not appropriate to the student's educational needs. Current law requires a determination of the appropriateness of Braille but does not require the evaluation. The bill allows IEP teams and 504 teams to provide other specialized educational services and assistive technology devices in addition to Braille. The bill disallows the presence of some residual vision from precluding instruction in Braille and the use of Braille. The bill permits IEP teams and 504 teams to provide blind students with instruction in Nemeth Braille and the use of Nemeth Braille in addition to Braille.

S.B. 305

Patron: Deeds

Standards of Learning; expedited retakes. Requires the Board of Education to promulgate regulations to (a) increase the number of students and the number of grade levels that are eligible for an expedited retake of Standards of Learning assessments and (b) permit students in grades three through five who score in the 390 to 399 range on a Standards of Learning assessment to receive focused remediation and to take an alternative assessment in the established testing window.

S.B. 306

Patron: Deeds

Standards of Learning assessments. Requires the Standards of Learning assessments administered to students (i) in grades three and four to be limited to English and mathematics; (ii) in grade five to be limited to English, mathematics, and science; and (iii) in grade six to be limited to English, mathematics, and history and social science. The bill requires local school boards to develop grading and evaluation systems to measure the academic progress of students in grades three through six in all Standards of Learning content areas in accordance with guidelines established by the Board of Education and requires the Board of Education to establish such guidelines.

S.B. 324

Patron: Miller

Public schools; individual school performance grading system. Delays from October 1, 2014, to October 1, 2017, the date by which the Board of Education is required to implement the A to F individual school performance grading system. The bill requires the Board to provide a clear series of A to F grades for schools and to take into account certain factors in assigning grades including all state mandated assessments; any assessment developed or approved for use by the relevant local school board; student mobility; the experience and qualifications of staff; total cost and funding per pupil; extracurricular activities and the number of participants in such activities; and parental engagement and satisfaction levels. The bill also requires the Board to make the system and grades available to the public in a format which allows for a comparison of similarly situated schools in terms of percentage of students who qualify for free or reduced lunch, percentage of English language learners, local funding beyond what is required by the composite index, student mobility, and any other category the Board deems appropriate.

S.B. 325

Patron: Miller

Standards of Quality; waivers from third grade Standards of Learning assessments in certain scenarios. Allows a public elementary school that had an adjusted pass rate of less than 75 percent on the third grade Standards of Learning reading assessment administered during the previous school year to apply to the Board of Education for a two-year waiver from the science or history and social science Standards of Learning assessment requirement, or both, for third grade students. Elementary schools that apply for a two-year waiver must satisfy certain conditions to be granted the waiver. The bill contains an expiration date of July 1, 2016.

S.B. 372

Patron: Edwards

Early childhood education. Requires, on and after July 1, 2019, all school divisions to provide early childhood education programs for four-year-olds and five-year-olds who are not eligible to attend kindergarten or at-risk early childhood education programs and whose parents voluntarily wish to enroll them in such programs. These mandated early childhood education programs must be coordinated with the current at-risk early childhood programs, consistent with the Department's guidelines for early childhood education, and meet the standards established by the Board of Education. The Board of Education is required to promulgate regulations to implement the orderly phase-in of the required programs with the current voluntary programs for at-risk four-year-olds and at-risk five-year-olds who are not eligible to attend kindergarten. Implementation and funding of the required public school early childhood education programs is contingent on funding in the appropriation act. The grants for the at-risk programs may continue to be funded in public schools or other local agencies; however, the Standards of Quality funding of early childhood education will only be provided to public schools.

S.B. 382

Patron: Reeves

Individual school performance; A-to-F grading system. Requires the Board of Education to (i) provide an opportunity for public comment on the A-to-F school grading system and the grades assigned to each public school in the Commonwealth and (ii) include in its report to the General Assembly a summary of the public comments. The bill also requires the Board to make its report to the General Assembly by November 30, 2015. The bill contains an expiration date of July 1, 2016.

S.B. 389

Patron: Barker

Public schools; Standards of Learning tests. Directs the Board of Education to promulgate regulations to provide the same criteria for eligibility for an expedited retake of any Standards of Learning test to each student regardless of grade level or course.