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2014 SESSION

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Senate Committee on Education and Health
Subcommittee Public Education

Miller (Chairman), Howell, Newman, Locke, Smith

Staff: Thomas Stevens, Ryan Brimmer
Date of Meeting: February 21, 2014
Time and Place: 9:00 a.m. - 3rd Floor East Conf. Room
CHANGE IN MEETING TIME FROM 9:00 A.M. TO 8:30 A.M.

H.B. 324

Patron: Bell, Richard P.

Virginia Virtual School established. Establishes the Board of the Virginia Virtual School as a policy agency in the executive branch of state government for the purpose of governing the online educational programs and services offered to students enrolled in the Virginia Virtual School. The Secretary of Education is responsible for such agency. The 13-member Board is given operational control of the School and assigned powers and duties. The bill requires the School to be open to any school-age person in the Commonwealth and provide an educational program meeting the Standards of Quality for grades kindergarten through 12. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2015.

H.B. 333

Patron: Greason

School calendar. Makes local school boards responsible for setting the school calendar and determining the opening date 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.

H.B. 515

Patron: Minchew

Suspension and expulsion of students; parental notification. Requires the school principal or his administrative designee to exercise reasonable efforts to notify the parents of any student who violates a school board policy or the compulsory school attendance requirements when such violation could result in the student's suspension, long-term suspension, or expulsion or the filing of a court petition.

H.B. 577

Patron: Stolle

Opening of the school year; alternative schedules. Permits a division superintendent, with the approval of the local school board, to (i) set the academic calendar for any school within the local school division that has failed to achieve full accreditation status and (ii) set the academic calendar for the entire local school division if more than 15 percent of all public schools within the local school division have failed to achieve full accreditation status. The bill contains technical amendments.

H.B. 610

Patron: Robinson

School calendar. Makes local school boards responsible for setting the school calendar and determining the opening date 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 also prohibits local school boards from requiring students to attend school from either (i) the Thursday immediately preceding Labor Day through Labor Day or (ii) the Friday immediately preceding Labor Day through the Tuesday immediately following Labor Day.

H.B. 751

Patron: Rust

Expulsion of students for certain drugs offenses. Permits the school board to expel from school attendance any student whom the school board has determined to have brought a controlled substance, imitation controlled substance, or synthetic cannabinoids onto school property or to a school-sponsored activity. Under current law, the school board is required to expel such students unless the board determines that special circumstances exist and another disciplinary action is appropriate.

H.B. 786

Patron: Wilt

Dismissal of teachers and other school board employees; grounds. Provides that no school board employee shall be dismissed or placed on probation solely on the grounds that (i) he possessed an unloaded firearm that is in a closed container in or upon his vehicle or in the locked trunk of his vehicle, a knife having a metal blade in or upon his motor vehicle, or an unloaded shotgun or rifle in a firearms rack in or upon his motor vehicle or (ii) the employee, who has a valid concealed handgun permit, possessed a concealed handgun while in his motor vehicle in a parking lot, traffic circle, or other means of vehicular ingress or egress to the school.

H.B. 887

Patron: Peace

Board of Education; Academic-Year Career and Technical Education Governor's School. Requires the Board of Education to develop model criteria and procedures for establishing a jointly operated high school with a career and technical education focus to be recommended to the Governor and the General Assembly for funding as a Governor's Career and Technical Education School.

H.B. 930

Patron: Greason

Standards of Learning assessments; reform. Provides that the number and type of Standards of Learning assessments shall not exceed 17 specified assessments in grades three through eight. The bill requires each local school board to certify that is has provided instruction and administered an alternative assessment, in conformance with Board guidelines, for each subject area in which the Standards of Learning assessment was not administered. The bill also requires the Secretary of Education to establish the Standards of Learning Innovation Committee to periodically review the Standards of Learning and assessments.

H.B. 1086

Patron: Bell, Richard P.

Special education; full-time virtual school programs. Requires each local school board to provide free and appropriate special education for each student with a disability who attends a full-time virtual school program in the school division but resides in another school division in the Commonwealth. The bill provides that the school division in which the student resides shall (i) be released from the obligation to provide free and appropriate special education for such student and (ii) transfer to the school division in which the student attends a full-time virtual school program state and federal funds for the education of such students.

H.B. 1110

Patron: Toscano

Children placed in child-caring institutions or group homes; reimbursement of costs to educate. Requires a school division to be reimbursed by the school division in which a child's custodial parent or guardian or most recent custodial parent or guardian resides for the costs of educating such child, whether disabled or not, who has been placed, not solely for school purposes, in a licensed child-caring institution or group home that is located within the geographical boundaries of the school division to be reimbursed.

H.B. 1115

Patron: Greason

Virtual Virginia; local school divisions; shared online courses. Permits the Department of Education to contract with one or more local school boards that have created online courses to make such courses available to other school divisions through Virtual Virginia. The bill permits such school divisions to charge a per-student or per-course fee, subject to Board of Education approval. The bill requires the Department to establish the Virtual Learning Advisory Committee to advise the Department on (i) online courses, in-service training, and digital instructional resources that school divisions need to meet the Commonwealth's graduation requirements and (ii) strategic planning to expand blended and online learning opportunities in Virginia's public schools. The bill permits the Department to charge school divisions requesting to offer a course through Virtual Virginia and multidivision online providers an application fee.