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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.
2020 SESSION
Chair: L. Louise Lucas
Clerk: Patty Lung, Catherine Dent
Staff: Julia Carlton, Anna Moir
Date of Meeting: February 13, 2020
Time and Place: 8:00 a.m. - Senate Room A, Pocahontas Bldg.
Updated to add HB 1235
Patron: Hope
Programs to address career fatigue and wellness in certain health care providers; civil immunity. Expands civil immunity for health care professionals serving as members of or consultants to entities that function primarily to review, evaluate, or make recommendations related to health care services to include health care professionals serving as members of or consultants to entities that function primarily to address issues related to career fatigue and wellness in health care professionals licensed to practice medicine or osteopathic medicine or licensed as a physician assistant. The bill also clarifies that, absent evidence indicating a reasonable probability that a health care professional who is a participant in a professional program to address issues related to career fatigue or wellness is not competent to continue in practice or is a danger to himself, his patients, or the public, participation in such a professional program does not trigger the requirement that the health care professional be reported to the Department of Health Professions. The bill contains an emergency clause.
EMERGENCY
Patron: Runion
Department of Education; individualized education program teams; guidelines. Requires the Department of Education to establish guidelines for individualized education program (IEP) teams to utilize when developing IEPs for children with disabilities to ensure that IEP teams consider the need for age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate instruction related to sexual health, self-restraint, self-protection, respect for personal privacy, and personal boundaries of others. The bill requires each local school board, in developing IEPs for children with disabilities, in addition to any other requirements established by the Board, to ensure that IEP teams consider such guidelines.
Patron: Simon
Public elementary and secondary schools; treatment of transgender students; policies. Requires the Department of Education to develop and make available to each school board, no later than December 31, 2020, model policies concerning the treatment of transgender students in public elementary and secondary schools that address common issues regarding transgender students in accordance with evidence-based best practices and include information, guidance, procedures, and standards relating to (i) compliance with applicable nondiscrimination laws; (ii) maintenance of a safe and supportive learning environment free from discrimination and harassment for all students; (iii) prevention of and response to bullying and harassment; (iv) maintenance of student records; (v) identification of students; (vi) protection of student privacy and the confidentiality of sensitive information; (vii) enforcement of sex-based dress codes; and (viii) student participation in sex-specific school activities, events, and athletics and use of school facilities. The bill requires each school board to adopt, no later than the beginning of the 2021–2022 school year, policies that are consistent with but may be more comprehensive than such model policies developed by the Department of Education.
Patron: Hope
Teledentistry. Defines "teledentistry," establishes requirements for the practice of teledentistry and the taking of dental scans for use in teledentistry by dental scan technicians, and clarifies requirements related to the use of digital work orders for dental appliances in the practice of teledentistry.
Patron: Mullin
School principals; incident reports. Eliminates the requirement for reports to be made to division superintendents and school principals on incidents involving assault or assault and battery, without bodily injury, of any person on a school bus, on school property, or at a school-sponsored activity. The bill also eliminates the requirement that school principals report certain enumerated acts that may constitute a misdemeanor offense to law enforcement. This bill incorporates HB 695.
Patron: VanValkenburg
Public schools; school resource officers; data. Requires the Department of Criminal Justice Services, in coordination with the Department of Education and the Department of Juvenile Justice, to annually collect, report, and publish data related to incidents involving students and school resource officers. The bill also requires the Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety to analyze and disseminate submitted data.
Patron: VanValkenburg
School boards; teachers; planning time and planning periods. Requires each local school board to ensure that each elementary school teacher has an average of one 45-minute period per school day of planning time and that each middle and high school teacher is provided an average of one planning period per school day or the equivalent, which shall be at least 45 minutes or one class period, whichever is longer. The bill permits local school boards and teachers to enter into an appropriate contractual arrangement providing for compensation in lieu of such planning time or period. Under current law, public elementary school teachers are guaranteed at least an average of 30 minutes of planning time per school day during a school week.
Patron: VanValkenburg
School boards and local law-enforcement agencies; memorandums of understanding; frequency of review and public input. Shortens from every five years to every two years the frequency of the review period for memorandums of understanding between school boards and local law-enforcement agencies. The bill also requires local school boards to conspicuously publish the current division memorandum of understanding on its division website and provide notice and opportunity for public input during each memorandum of understanding review period. This bill incorporates HB 897 and HB 1135.
Patron: Sickles
Medical assistants; administration of fluoride varnish. Allows an authorized agent of a doctor of medicine, osteopathic medicine, or dentistry to possess and administer topical fluoride varnish pursuant to an oral or written order or a standing protocol issued by a doctor of medicine, osteopathic medicine, or dentistry.
Patron: Rasoul
Capacity determinations; physician assistant. Expands the class of health care practitioners who can make the determination that a patient is incapable of making informed decisions to include a licensed physician assistant. The bill provides that such determination shall be made in writing following an in-person examination of the person and certified by the physician assistant.
Patron: Carroll Foy
Public elementary and secondary school teachers; probationary term of service; performance evaluation. Removes (i) the option for local school boards to extend the three-year probationary term of service for teachers by up to two additional years and (ii) the prohibition against school boards reemploying any teacher whose performance evaluation during the probationary term of service is unsatisfactory. This bill incorporates HB 1169 and HB 1326.
Patron: Rasoul
Comprehensive harm reduction programs; public health emergency; repeal sunset. Repeals the sunset on the program established in 2017 that allows the Commissioner of Health to establish and operate local or regional comprehensive harm reduction programs during a declared public health emergency that include a provision for the distribution of sterile hypodermic needles and syringes and the disposal of used hypodermic needles and syringes.
Patron: Hope
Department of Health Professions; conversion therapy prohibited. Prohibits any health care provider or person who performs counseling as part of his training for any profession licensed by a regulatory board of the Department of Health Professions from engaging in conversion therapy, as defined in the bill, with any person under 18 years of age and provides that such counseling constitutes unprofessional conduct and is grounds for disciplinary action. The bill provides that no state funds shall be expended for the purpose of conducting conversion therapy with a person under 18 years of age, referring a person under 18 years of age for conversion therapy, or extending health benefits coverage for conversion therapy with a person under 18 years of age.
Patron: Keam
Menstrual supplies; certain school buildings. Requires each school board to make tampons or pads available at all times and at no cost to students in the bathrooms of each facility that it owns, leases, or otherwise controls that houses a public school at which any student in grades five through 12 is enrolled.
Patron: Collins
Health professionals; unprofessional conduct; reporting. Requires the chief executive officer and the chief of staff of every hospital or other health care institution in the Commonwealth, the director of every licensed home health or hospice organization, the director of every accredited home health organization exempt from licensure, the administrator of every licensed assisted living facility, and the administrator of every provider licensed by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services in the Commonwealth to report to the Department of Health Professions any information of which he may become aware in his professional capacity that indicates a reasonable belief that a health care provider is in need of treatment or has been admitted as a patient for treatment of substance abuse or psychiatric illness that may render the health professional a danger to himself, the public or his patients, or that he determines, following review and any necessary investigation or consultation with the appropriate internal boards or committees authorized to impose disciplinary action on a health professional, indicates that there is a reasonable probability that such health professional may have engaged in unethical, fraudulent, or unprofessional conduct. Current law requires information to be reported if the information indicates, after reasonable investigation and consultation with the appropriate internal boards or committees authorized to impose disciplinary action on a health professional, a reasonable probability that such health professional may have engaged in unethical, fraudulent, or unprofessional conduct.
Patron: Bulova
Public schools; diploma requirements; dual enrollment and work-based learning options. Requires the Board of Education to include in its graduation requirements the options for students to complete a dual enrollment course or high-quality work-based learning experience. This bill incorporates HB 112.
Patron: Bulova
Collaborative practice agreements; nurse practitioners; physician assistants. Adds nurse practitioners and physician assistants to the list of health care practitioners who shall not be required to participate in a collaborative agreement with a pharmacist and his designated alternate pharmacists, regardless of whether a professional business entity on behalf of which the person is authorized to act enters into a collaborative agreement with a pharmacist and his designated alternate pharmacists. This bill is a recommendation of the Joint Commission on Healthcare.
Patron: Guzman
Dismissal of teachers; grounds; incompetency. Removes the definition of "incompetency" for the purpose of establishing grounds for the dismissal of public school teachers.
Patron: Miyares
Public institutions of higher education; governing boards; educational programs. Requires the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia to develop educational materials for board members with more than two years of service on the governing board of a public institution of higher education. The bill requires each such board member to participate in further training on board governance at least once every two years. The bill requires the Council to develop criteria by which such board members shall demonstrate compliance with such requirement for further training on board governance.
Patron: LaRock
School Divisions of Innovation; local assessments. Allows a local school board, when applying for its school division to be designated as a School Division of Innovation, to apply to the Board of Education to replace the Virginia Studies and Civics and Economics Standards of Learning assessments with local assessments that include performance-based assessments. The bill requires any such application to (i) demonstrate that the proposed local assessment requires that students demonstrate the knowledge and skills required by the relevant Standards of Learning and that students demonstrate one or more of the skills and qualities of critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication, or citizenship and (ii) provide evidence of the local school board's capacity to administer and score performance-based assessments.
Patron: Hurst
Prescription Monitoring Program; information disclosed to the Emergency Department Information Exchange; redisclosure. Provides for the mutual exchange of information between the Prescription Monitoring Program and the Emergency Department Information Exchange and clarifies that nothing shall prohibit the redisclosure of confidential information from the Prescription Monitoring Program or any data or reports produced by the Prescription Monitoring Program disclosed to the Emergency Department Information Exchange to a prescriber in an electronic report generated by the Emergency Department Information Exchange so long as the electronic report complies with relevant federal law and regulations governing privacy of health information.
Patron: Askew
Local school boards; lead testing; report; parental notification. Requires each local school board's plan to test and remediate certain potable water sources to be consistent with guidance published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or the Department of Health. The bill require each local school board to submit such testing plan and report the results of any such test to the Department of Health. The bill also requires local school boards to take all necessary steps to notify parents if testing results indicate lead contamination that exceeds 10 parts per billion.
Patron: Hayes
Child abuse and neglect reporting; public sports programs. Adds to the list of mandatory reporters of suspected child abuse and neglect athletic coaches, directors, and other persons 18 years of age or older that are employed by or volunteering with a public sports organization or team.
Patron: VanValkenburg
Elementary and secondary schools and institutions of higher education in the Commonwealth; racial segregation; repeal of provisions. Repeals several Acts of Assembly from 1901 to 1960 that contain provisions relating to the racial segregation of students in elementary and secondary schools and institutions of higher education in the Commonwealth.
Patron: Convirs-Fowler
Child care providers; fingerprint-based criminal background checks; sunset and contingency expiration. Repeals the sunset and contingency expiration of the requirement that the following individuals undergo fingerprint-based national criminal history background checks: (i) applicants for employment by, employees of, applicants to serve as volunteers with, and volunteers with any licensed family day system, child day center exempt from licensure due to its operation by a religious institution, registered family day home, or family day home approved by a family day system; (ii) applicants for licensure as a family day system, registration as a family day home, or approval as a family day home by a family day system, as well as agents of such applicants and any adult living in such family day home; and (iii) individuals who apply for or enter into a contract with the Department of Social Services under which a child day center, family day home, or child day program will provide child care services funded by the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act, as well as the applicant's current or prospective employees and volunteers, agents, and any adult living in the child day center or family day home.
Patron: Adams, D.M.
Certified registered nurse anesthetists; prescriptive authority. Authorizes certified registered nurse anesthetists to prescribe Schedule II through Schedule VI controlled substances and devices to a patient requiring anesthesia, as part of the periprocedural care of the patient, provided that such prescribing is in accordance with requirements for practice by certified registered nurse anesthetists and is done under the supervision of a doctor of medicine, osteopathy, podiatry, or dentistry.
Patron: Guzman
School attendance officers; petitions for violation of a school attendance order. Provides that an attendance officer, or a division superintendent or his designee when acting as an attendance officer, to complete, sign, and file with the intake officer of the juvenile and domestic relations district court, on forms approved by the Supreme Court of Virginia, a petition for a violation of a school attendance order entered by the juvenile and domestic relations district court in response to the filing of a petition alleging the pupil is a child in need of supervision. The bill provides that such actions do not constitute the unauthorized practice of law.
Patron: Keam
Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services. Reorganizes provisions of the Code related to the Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services. The State Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program is relocated in the Code and the Respite Care Grant Program is eliminated. The bill also calls for additional education services to be provided by the Department with respect to Alzheimer's disease and related disorders.
Patron: Wilt
Religious-exempt child day centers; staff-to-children ratios. Provides that, with respect to a child day center that is exempt from licensure due to its operation under the auspices of a religious institution, the applicable staff-to-children ratio for children receiving care in a group shall be based on the age of the youngest child in such group.
Patron: Hodges
Drug Control Act; Schedule I. Adds certain chemicals to Schedule I of the Drug Control Act. The Board of Pharmacy has added these substances to Schedule I in an expedited regulatory process. A substance added via this process is removed from the schedule after 18 months unless a general law is enacted adding the substance to the schedule.
Patron: Hodges
Pharmacy technicians and pharmacy technician trainees; registration. Amends eligibility criteria for registration as a pharmacy technician to include a requirement that (i) the individual has completed a training program that is (a) an accredited training program approved by the Board of Pharmacy, (b) operated through a federal agency or branch of the military, or (c) operated through the Department of Education's Career and Technical Education program and (ii) the applicant has successfully passed a national certification examination administered by the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board or the National Healthcareer Association. The bill defines "pharmacy technician trainee" and sets out requirements for registration as a pharmacy technician trainee.
Patron: Sickles
Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Grant Program; creation. Creates the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Grant Program to make grant payments to an eligible pharmaceutical manufacturer that makes a capital investment of at least $1 billion at a facility in Rockingham County and creates at least 152 new full-time jobs at the facility. The pharmaceutical manufacturer would be eligible for an aggregate of $7.5 million in grants paid out over a three-year period if it meets such performance parameters. The bill also makes available, subject to appropriation, $2.525 million to a comprehensive community college and baccalaureate public institutions of higher education in or near Rockingham County to support the workforce development needs of the manufacturer and other research and development companies in the area.
Patron: Head
Music therapy; licensure. Requires the Board of Social Work to adopt regulations establishing a regulatory structure to license music therapists in the Commonwealth and establishes an advisory board to assist the Board in this process. Under the bill, no person shall engage in the practice of music therapy or hold himself out or otherwise represent himself as a music therapist unless he is licensed by the Board.
Patron: Rush
State Board of Education; technical professional licenses; military science endorsement. Directs the State Board of Education to amend its regulations to require that persons seeking a technical professional license with an endorsement to teach military science have either the appropriate credentials issued by the United States military or a recommendation from a Virginia employing educational agency.