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ACROSS SESSIONS
- Subject Index: Since 1995
- Bills & Resolutions: Since 1994
- Summaries: Since 1994
Developed and maintained by the Division of Legislative Automated Systems.
2016 SESSION
Chairman: Stephen D. Newman
Clerk: Patty Lung
Staff: Thomas Stevens, Ryan Brimmer
Date of Meeting: February 11, 2016
Time and Place: 8:00 A.M. - Senate Room B
Patron: Edwards
Department of Criminal Justice Services; teacher licensure; human trafficking training. Requires the Department of Criminal Justice Services to establish compulsory training standards for law-enforcement personnel involved in criminal investigations or assigned to vehicle or street patrol duties to ensure that law-enforcement personnel are sensitive to and aware of human trafficking offenses and identification of human trafficking offenses. The bill also requires every person seeking initial licensure as a teacher and every person seeking renewal of a license who has not completed such training to complete training in human trafficking recognition, intervention, and prevention in accordance with curriculum guidelines developed by the Board of Education and the Department of Social Services.
Patron: Miller
Public schools; tobacco. Requires each school board, by July 1, 2017, to develop and implement a policy to prohibit the use of tobacco products on a school bus, on school property, or at a school-sponsored activity. The bill also replaces the term "electronic cigarette" with a defined term, "nicotine vapor product".
Patron: Petersen
Virginia College Building Authority; projects; participating institutions. Permits any organization that is exempt from federal income taxation pursuant to § 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and that is owned or controlled by a public institution of higher education in the Commonwealth or whose purpose is to support or otherwise benefit a public institution of higher education in the Commonwealth to finance projects through the Virginia College Building Authority.
Patron: DeSteph
Certificates of public need. Creates a three-phase process to sunset certificate of public need requirements for many categories of medical care facilities and projects, with the requirement for a certificate of public need (i) for the establishment of a new imaging service or addition of new equipment for imaging services eliminated beginning July 1, 2016, for ambulatory and outpatient surgery centers eliminated beginning July 1, 2017, and (iii) for hospitals and all other categories of projects other than nursing homes and facilities and equipment for open heart surgery and organ or tissue transplant services eliminated beginning July 1, 2018. The bill also creates a new permitting process for categories of facilities and projects exempted from the certificate of public need process that requires the Commissioner of Health to issue a permit but allows the Commissioner to condition a permit (a) on the agreement of the applicant to provide a specified level of care at a reduced rate to indigents, accept patients requiring specialized care, or facilitate the development and operation of primary medical care services in designated medically underserved areas of the applicant's service area or (b) on compliance of the applicant with quality of care standards. The bill allows the Commissioner to refuse to issue a permit if he determines that the project for which the permit is sought would be detrimental to the provision of health services in underserved areas of the Commonwealth.
Patron: DeSteph
Certificates of public need; cataract surgery. Eliminates the requirement for a certificate of public need for the establishment of a new medical care facility for the provision of cataract surgery, the addition at an existing medical care facility of any new cataract surgery service, or the addition at any existing medical care facility of any new equipment for cataract surgery.
Patron: Miller
Standards of Learning assesments; administration time frame. Provides that, beginning in the 2016-2017 school year, the Standards of Learning assessments in grades three through five shall be administered over two consecutive school days and limited to two hours each day.
Patron: McEachin
Public schools; suspensions. Provides that a student may only be suspended after all feasible alternatives to suspension have been considered.
Patron: Sturtevant
Standards of Learning assessments; reporting results. Requires the Department of Education to report the results of individual students on the Standards of Learning assessments to the local school divisions by June 30 of each year.
Patron: Cosgrove
Nursing facilities; electronic monitoring. Prohibits a nursing facility from refusing a resident's request for electronic monitoring of his room.
Patron: Newman
Certificates of public need. Creates a three-phase process to sunset certificate of public need requirements for many categories of medical care facilities and projects, with the requirement for a certificate of public need (i) for the establishment of a new imaging service or addition of new equipment for imaging services eliminated beginning July 1, 2016, for ambulatory and outpatient surgery centers eliminated beginning July 1, 2017, and (iii) for hospitals and all other categories of projects other than nursing homes and facilities and equipment for open heart surgery and organ or tissue transplant services eliminated beginning July 1, 2018. The bill also creates a new permitting process for categories of facilities and projects exempted from the certificate of public need process that requires the Commissioner of Health to issue a permit but allows the Commissioner to condition a permit (a) on the agreement of the applicant to provide a specified level of care at a reduced rate to indigents, accept patients requiring specialized care, or facilitate the development and operation of primary medical care services in designated medically underserved areas of the applicant's service area or (b) on compliance of the applicant with quality of care standards. The bill allows the Commissioner to refuse to issue a permit if he determines that the project for which the permit is sought would be detrimental to the provision of health services in underserved areas of the Commonwealth.
Patron: Ruff
Comprehensive community colleges; noncredit workforce credentials; Virginia Pathway to the Middle Class: Noncredit Workforce Credentials Act. Establishes the Virginia Pathway to the Middle Class: Noncredit Workforce Credentials Program (Program), to be administered by the Virginia Community College System (System). The bill requires the System to approve (i) a plan and funding formula to support capacity building for and development and expansion of noncredit workforce credential programs at comprehensive community colleges that prepare students for in-demand noncredit workforce credentials that are aligned with the knowledge and skill sets that are required for the available occupations in each region, (ii) a plan for providing financial incentives to comprehensive community colleges that demonstrate exceptional performance or improvement in the development and expansion of such noncredit workforce credential programs, and (iii) a plan and timeline for assessing the impact of a pilot set of noncredit workforce credentials on short-term and long-term job attainment and wages. The bill requires the System to submit a report to the General Assembly and the Virginia Board of Workforce Development no later than January 1 of each year with certain data from the previous fiscal year on noncredit workforce credential attainment by students at comprehensive community colleges.
Patron: Ruff
Community colleges; workforce training. Establishes the Community College Workforce Training Grant Program to provide a $1,000 incentive payment to a community college for each student who (i) has successfully completed a noncredit workforce training program at the community college and (ii) subsequently obtains an industry-recognized certification or license in a high employer demand field in the region served by the community college, with such fields to be identified by the State Board for Community Colleges.
Patron: Barker
Certificates of public need; conditions. Authorizes the State Health Commissioner to condition the approval of a certificate of public need upon an agreement of the applicant to support charitable organizations specifically concerned with the provision of health care services to disabled veterans and that have a memorandum of understanding with the State Department of Health to meet specific unmet or partially unmet community health needs identified by the Department. The bill contains technical amendments.
Patron: Howell
Student loan servicers; student loan ombudsman. Prohibits any person from acting as a student loan servicer without first obtaining a license from the State Corporation Commission (SCC) and establishes procedures pertaining to such licenses. Banks and credit unions are exempt from the licensing provisions. The servicing of a student loan encompasses (i) receiving any scheduled periodic payments from a student loan borrower pursuant to the terms of a student education loan; (ii) applying the payments of principal and interest and such other payments with respect to the amounts received from a student loan borrower, as may be required pursuant to the terms of a student education loan; and (iii) performing other administrative services with respect to a student education loan. Student loan servicers are prohibited from, among other things, (a) misrepresenting the amount, nature, or terms of any fee or payment due or claimed to be due on a student loan, the terms and conditions of the loan agreement, or the borrower's obligations under the loan; (b) knowingly misapplying or recklessly applying student loan payments to the outstanding balance of a student loan; and (c) failing to report both the favorable and unfavorable payment history of the borrower to a nationally recognized consumer credit bureau at least annually if the loan servicer regularly reports information to such a credit bureau. The measure also establishes the Office of the Student Loan Ombudsman within the SCC's Bureau of Financial Institutions. The Office of the Student Loan Ombudsman is required to provide timely assistance to any student loan borrower of any student education loan in the Commonwealth. The Office of the Student Loan Ombudsman is further required to establish and maintain a student loan borrower education course, which shall cover key loan terms, documentation requirements, monthly payment obligations, income-based repayment options, loan forgiveness, and disclosure requirements. The bill has a delayed effective date of October 1, 2016.
Patron: Stanley
Certificate of public need. Makes changes to the Medical Care Facilities Certificate of Public Need Program. The bill (i) removes specialized centers or clinics or that portion of a physician's office developed for the provision of lithotripsy, magnetic source imaging (MSI), or nuclear medicine imaging from the list of reviewable medical care facilities; (ii) provides that establishment of a medical care facility to replace an existing medical care facility with the same primary service area does not constitute a project; (iii) removes introduction into an existing medical care facility of any new lithotripsy, magnetic source imaging, or obstetrical service that the facility has never provided or has not provided in the previous 12 months and addition by an existing medical care facility of any medical equipment for the provision of lithotripsy and magnetic source imaging (MSI) from the definition of project; (iv) creates a new process for registration of projects exempted from the definition of project by the bill; (v) establishes an expedited 45-day review process for applicants for projects determined to be uncontested or to present limited health planning impacts; (vi) renames the State Medical Facilities Plan as the State Health Services Plan and establishes a State Health Services Plan Advisory Council to provide recommendations related to the content of the State Health Services Plan; (vii) clarifies the content of the application for a certificate; and (viii) reduces the timeline for a person to be made party to the case for good cause from 80 calendar days to four days following completion of the review and submission of recommendations related to an application.
The bill also (a) directs the Department to develop recommendations to reduce the duration of the average review cycle for applications for certificates of public need to not more than 120 days and to report on its recommendations to the Governor and the General Assembly no later than December 1, 2016; (b) directs the Secretary of Health and Human Resources to review charity care services delivered throughout the Commonwealth and recommend changes to the definition of charity and to the types of charity care requirements imposed on various health care services and report to the Governor and the General Assembly by December 1, 2016; (c) directs the Secretary of Health and Human Resources to convene a group of stakeholders to study and make recommendations related to the appropriate authority of the State Health Commissioner to impose additional conditions on certificates; (d) directs the Secretary of Health and Human Resources to implement a system to ensure that data needed to evaluate whether an application for a certificate is consistent with the State Health Services Plan is timely and reliable, to make all public records pertaining to applications for certificates and the review process available in real-time in a searchable, digital format online, to make an inventory of capacity authorized by certificates of public need, both operational and not yet operational, available in a digital format online, and to make charity care conditions, charity care compliance reporting status, and details on the exact amount of charity care provided or contributed and to whom it was provided or contributed available in a digital format online; (e) directs the Commissioner of Health to develop an analytical framework to guide the work of the State Health Services Plan Advisory Council; and (f) directs the Joint Commission on Health Care to develop specific recommendations for eliminating differences in the certificate of public need review process from one region to another and report on the recommendations to the Chairmen of the House Health, Welfare and Institutions and Senate Education and Health Committees by December 1, 2016.
Patron: Obenshain
Public charter schools. Makes several changes to the provisions for the establishment and operation of public charter schools, including (i) requiring public charter schools to be administered and managed by a nonprofit education organization under the control of a governing board in lieu of a management committee and (ii) making changes and providing greater specificity regarding (a) the applicability of various laws, regulations, policies, and procedures to public charter schools; (b) the contents of charter applications; (c) the procedure for executing charter contracts and the contents of such contracts; and (iv) the method of funding public charter schools.
Patron: Surovell
Access to electronic textbooks and adequate connectivity. Prohibits school boards from making electronic textbooks available for use by students in their residence unless the school board adopts a plan to ensure that by July 1, 2019, every student in the local school division will have access to (i) a personal computing device capable of supporting such textbooks and (ii) adequate connectivity, which the bill defines as bandwidth of at least 1 megabit per second per student. The bill permits a local school board to establish a pilot program for the use of electronic textbooks at any secondary school in the local school division provided that (a) each student at the secondary school has access to a personal computing device capable of supporting such textbooks, (b) each student at the secondary school has access to adequate connectivity, and (c) the secondary school is receiving federal funds pursuant to Title I of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 or no more than five percent of the students in the local school division or 300 students, whichever is greater, participate in the pilot program.
Patron: Black
Public schools; dyslexia advisor. Requires each local school board to employ one full-time equivalent advisor who specializes in the identification of, and the appropriate interventions accommodations, and teaching techniques for students with dyslexia or a related disorder.
Patron: Dance
Special education; recording of classrooms. Requires a local school division, upon written request by a parent or school board employee, to place, operate, and maintain one or more cameras in each self-contained classroom or other special education setting in which a majority of the students in regular attendance are (i) provided special education and related services and (ii) assigned to a self-contained classroom or other special education setting for at least 50 percent of the instructional day.
Patron: Barker
Public schools; residency of children in kinship care. Allows a child receiving kinship care from an adult relative to enroll in the school division where the kinship care provider resides. The bill also allows local school divisions to require one legal parent and the kinship care provider to sign affidavits detailing the kinship care arrangement as well as a power of attorney authorizing the adult relative to make educational decisions regarding the child.
Patron: Barker
Certificate of public need program. Clarifies that the Certificate of Public Need program is established to address cost containment in the delivery of health care services, indigent care, and the health care needs of underserved populations; quality of care and patient safety; access to care; distribution of essential health care services; and support for the unique research, training, and clinical mission of teaching hospitals in the Commonwealth. The bill directs the Board of Health (the Board) to adopt regulations establishing concise procedures for evaluating emerging technologies and health care delivery models, equipment, and facility types to determine whether such technologies, models, equipment, or facility types should be subject to the requirement of a certificate of public need and provides that the Commissioner of Health (the Commissioner) may condition certificates on the agreement of the applicant to (i) participate in the Commonwealth's program of medical assistance and provide access to medical care services to individuals receiving medical assistance under the state plan for medical assistance services and (ii) establish and maintain a charity care policy to provide free and discounted care to indigent individuals. The bill requires the Commissioner to develop recommendations for guidelines for the uniform implementation of such conditions and report his recommendations to the Board by November 1, 2016.
The bill also requires the Commissioner to develop recommendations related to establishment of concise procedures for evaluating emerging technologies and health care delivery models, equipment, and facility types to determine whether such technologies, models, equipment, or facility types should be subject to the requirement of a certificate of public need and report such recommendations to the Board no later than November 1, 2016; requires the Board to adopt regulations establishing concise procedures for evaluating emerging technologies and health care delivery models, equipment, and facility types to determine whether such technologies, models, equipment, or facility types should be subject to the requirement of a certificate of public need by November 1, 2017; and requires the Commissioner to establish an advisory group composed of stakeholders to develop recommendations related to the role of regional health planning agencies in the certificate of public need process, and barriers to the continued role of regional health planning agencies in the certificate of public need process, and report such recommendations to the Board by October 1, 2016.
Patron: Black
Home instruction or religious exemption; information disclosure. Provides that a division superintendent or local school board may disclose, to the extent provided by the written consent of a student's parent, certain information that is provided by a parent or student regarding the parent's election to provide home instruction in lieu of school attendance or the parent's claim of a religious exemption.