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ACROSS SESSIONS
- Subject Index: Since 1995
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Developed and maintained by the Division of Legislative Automated Systems.
2013 SESSION
Blevins (Chairman), Howell, Locke, Black, Carrico
Clerk: Patty Lung, Cheryl Law
Staff: Thomas Stevens, Ryan Brimmer
Date of Meeting: January 21, 2013
Time and Place: 1/2 Hour After Adjour. - 3rd Fl. East
Patron: McEachin
Standards of Accreditation. Adds high school graduation rates, the rate of student academic progress in all student subgroups identified pursuant to the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, P.L. 89-10, as amended, and progress toward narrowing gaps in student proficiency on Standards of Learning assessments among all student subgroups to the list of special school division accomplishments that the Board of Education shall consider in its criteria for recognizing educational performance. The bill also prohibits the Board from identifying a school as fully accredited if any such student subgroup in the school fails to demonstrate proficiency on any Standards of Learning assessment. The bill finally alters the objectives of Standards of Learning Assessments. The bill contains technical amendments.
Patron: Reeves
Bumper stickers on school buses. Requires local school divisions to place decals on the rear of school buses noting that the buses stop at railroad crossings.
Patron: Obenshain
Charter schools; personnel. Allows public charter schools to designate in its application whether their employees will participate in the Virginia Retirement System. The bill directs the Board of Trustees of the Virginia Retirement System to develop procedures allowing school boards who approve such applications to exempt the charter school employees from participation. The bill also (i) requires at least 75 percent of public charter elementary school teachers to be licensed and at least 50 percent of public charter middle and high school teachers to be licensed, and (ii) specifies that all teachers otherwise be "highly qualified," as defined by the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
Patron: Obenshain
Public schools; teacher contract and evaluation policies. Makes several changes to the processes by which teachers and certain administrators are evaluated and retained. Teachers, assistant principals, principals, and supervisors who have not achieved continuing contract status prior to the 2014-2015 school year may be eligible for three-year term contracts. Under the bill, five years of service is required to attain term contract status. Teachers, assistant principals, and principals with term contract status will be evaluated in the third year of their term contract and will be informally evaluated at least once during each of their first two years. Teachers, assistant principals, and principals who have achieved continuing contract status prior to the 2014-2015 school year will retain their continuing contract status. Teachers, assistant principals, and principals with continuing contract status will be formally evaluated every three years, and evaluated informally at least once each year in which they are not formally evaluated. The bill also defines the standard 10-month contract as 200 days, of which a minimum must be 180 days of instructional time. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2014.
Patron: Favola
Student and school employee conduct; bullying. Defines the term "bullying" and requires school boards to prohibit students and school employees from engaging in any act of bullying. The bill also requires local school boards to implement policies and procedures for reporting, investigating, and addressing acts of bullying by July 1, 2014. The bill contains technical amendments.
Patron: Ruff
Public schools; teacher licensure. Directs the Board of Education to establish criteria in its regulations governing licensure that exempts any person seeking initial licensure from coursework and professional teacher's assessment requirements if such person graduated with a baccalaureate degree in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics in the top 10 percent of his graduating class from a regionally accredited institution of higher education.
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. The provisions of this bill will sunset on June 30, 2016.
Patron: Stuart
Public schools; cardiopulmonary resuscitation and automated external defibrillators. Allows school boards to require current certification or training in emergency first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and the use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) for bus drivers; requires all administrative staff, physical education instructors, and coaches to have such training; and requires such training for those seeking initial teacher licensure, renewal of a license to teach, or a provisional teaching license with a waiver for teachers with disabilities. For students, beginning with first-time ninth grade students in the 2014-2015 school year, the bill adds a requirement that recipients of the standard and advanced diplomas must receive training in emergency first aid, CPR, and the use of AEDs with a waiver for students with disabilities. The bill also requires an AED in every school by the 2014-2015 school year.
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 2015-2016 school year.
Patron: Marsh
Virginia Public School Improvement Program. Creates the Virginia Public School Improvement Program to offer maximum educational options and flexibility for parents, teachers, and students. The bill authorizes local school boards to designate or approve any public school within its school division to participate in the Program if (i) it has not applied for, converted to, or received permission from the local school board to operate as a public charter school, or (ii) a majority of parents and teachers of students at the school have petitioned the school board to participate in the Program, or (iii) the school board has determined that, notwithstanding having satisfied the requirements of the Standards of Learning and Standards of Accreditation, less than 81 percent of the students enrolled in a public school within the school division have failed to demonstrate proficiency in reading and less than 79 percent of the students enrolled have failed to demonstrate proficiency in mathematics for three consecutive school years. Local school boards would continue to receive state basic school aid funding for such schools; participating schools would be exempt from certain school division policies and state regulations, but would have to meet SOQ, SOL, SOA, and certain federal requirements; participation can be rescinded by petition of a majority of parents and teachers, violation of the contract with the local school board, or failure of students to achieve satisfactory academic progress each year for two consecutive school years. The Board of Education must establish guidelines to assist school boards in implementing the Program in the school division and provide technical assistance to school boards upon request.
Patron: Carrico
Public schools; Virginia Longitudinal Data System established. Requires the Board of Education to establish the Virginia Longitudinal Data System to track and examine student progress from early childhood to postsecondary education to the student entering the workforce. The bill also establishes the Virginia Longitudinal Data System Advisory Council to advise the Board of Education on all matters related to the Virginia Longitudinal Data System.
Patron: Hanger
Deaf and hearing-impaired children; special education. Requires local school divisions to ensure that individualized education program (IEP) teams consider the specific communication needs of hearing-impaired children and address those needs as appropriate in the child's IEP.
Patron: Barker
Public schools; kindergarten instructional time. Directs the Board of Education to promulgate regulations, by July 1, 2015, establishing standards for accreditation that include a requirement that the standard school day for students in kindergarten must average at least 5.5 instructional hours in order to qualify for full accreditation. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2015.
Patron: Barker
Teacher compensation; goal. States that it is a goal of the Commonwealth that its public school teachers be compensated at a rate that is competitive with the national average teacher salary.
Patron: Barker
Commonwealth Teaching Fellows Program established. Creates a Commonwealth Teaching Fellows Program in which the Board of Education or a local school division in conjunction with a Virginia college or university with an approved education preparation program may create and serve as Administrator of intensive programs of at least eight weeks in length to prepare career-switchers and recent college graduates who have not completed coursework in education to teach in areas including science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and critical teaching shortage areas in public elementary and secondary schools in the Commonwealth. The Administrator would assist Fellows to secure teaching positions. Any Fellow hired as a teacher by a local school division would be awarded a three-year provisional license to teach, would receive such further training as the Board prescribes, and would have the opportunity to obtain a permanent license upon completion of three years of teaching.
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 an end-of-course Standards of Learning test to each student regardless of grade level or course.
Patron: Barker
Student growth indicators; pilot program. Requires the Department of Education to establish a pilot program that explores the use and effectiveness of employing student growth indicators for school accountability and teacher evaluation. The bill requires the Department to give semiannual reports on the program to the Governor and the General Assembly. The program will expire on July 1, 2018.
Patron: Blevins
Public schools; early intervention services for reading and mathematics. Adds kindergarten and grades one and two to the requirement that local school divisions provide early intervention services to students in grade three who demonstrate deficiencies based on their individual performance on diagnostic reading tests. The bill requires local school divisions to provide algebra readiness intervention services to students in grades six through nine who are at risk of failing the Algebra I end-of-course test as demonstrated by their individual performance on diagnostic tests. The bill also removes the requirement that reading or mathematics specialists hired to provide such intervention services be licensed by the Board of Education.
Patron: Blevins
Standards of Quality; assignment of certain staff. Permits local school divisions that employ a sufficient number of librarians, guidance counselors, and school-based clerical personnel to meet the staffing requirements that are prescribed in Standard 2 of the Standards of Quality to assign librarians, guidance counselors, and school-based clerical personnel to schools within the division according to the area of greatest need, regardless of whether such schools are elementary, middle, or secondary.
Patron: Ruff
Teacher licensure; Teach for America license. Creates a two-year provisional license for participants in Teach for America, a nationwide nonprofit organization focused on closing the achievement gaps among students in low-income areas, who meet certain criteria, including having an offer of employment from a school division in the Commonwealth. The Board of Education may extend each Teach for America license for one additional year and may issue each licensee a renewable license upon completion of two full years of teaching experience, satisfaction of all other requirements for such a license, achievement of satisfactory scores on all professional teachers assessments required by the Board, and achievement of satisfactory end-of-year evaluations. The bill also provides for reciprocity to Teach for America teachers in other states upon satisfaction of certain conditions.
Patron: Deeds
School resource officers; local law-enforcement agencies to provide. Requires every school board throughout the Commonwealth to coordinate with the local law-enforcement agency to provide at least one school resource officer for every public elementary school within the district. The bill provides that funding for these school resource officers shall be provided through the general appropriation act and not by any locality or school board.
Patron: Black
Career and technical education; High School to Work Partnerships. Directs the Board of Education to develop guidelines for the establishment of High School to Work Partnerships whereby each local school division's career and technical education administrator works with the guidance counselor office of each public high school to partner with local businesses to create apprenticeships, internships, and job shadow programs in a variety of trades and skilled labor positions.