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2020 SESSION

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Senate Committee on Education and Health
Subcommittee Public Education

Hashmi (Chair), Howell, Locke, Dunnavant, Peake

Staff: Julia Carlton, Anna Moir
Date of Meeting: January 10, 2020
Time and Place: 8:30 am - Subcommittee Room 2, 5th Fl. Pocahontas Bldg.

S.B. 98

Patron: Locke

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.

S.B. 129

Patron: Norment

Public schools; firearm safety education program. Requires local school boards to provide firearm safety education programs for students in all grades. The bill requires (i) the Board of Education to establish curriculum guidelines for the program, in consultation with the Department of Criminal Justice Services; (ii) school boards to offer a minimum of two hours of instruction consistent with such guidelines; and (iii) that the program be taught by a school resource officer, other law-enforcement officer, or a United States Armed Forces instructor. The bill prohibits the use of firearms in the program. Current law allows local school boards to provide a firearm safety education program for students in the elementary grades and does not specify who may instruct such program.

S.B. 132

Patron: Chase

Public schools; electives on the Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament and the New Testament. Requires the Board of Education to authorize local school boards to offer as an elective in grades nine through 12 with appropriate credits toward graduation a course on the Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament of the Bible or the New Testament of the Bible or a combined course on both. The bill requires the Board of Education to develop Standards of Learning and curriculum guidelines for such courses. The bill provides that the purpose of such courses is to introduce students to biblical content, characters, poetry, and narratives that are prerequisites to understanding contemporary society and culture, including literature, art, music, mores, oratory, and public policy. The bill prohibits students from being required to use a specific translation of a religious text when taking the courses and provides that such courses shall maintain religious neutrality and shall not endorse, favor, promote, disfavor, or show hostility toward any particular religion or nonreligious perspective.

S.B. 151

Patron: Stuart

School personnel; staffing ratios; school nurses. Excludes school nurse positions from requirements for student support positions and instead requires each local school board to employ at least one full-time equivalent school nurse position in each elementary school, middle school, and high school in the local school division or at least one full-time equivalent school nurse position per 550 students in grades kindergarten through 12.

S.B. 161

Patron: Boysko

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.

S.B. 176

Patron: Chase

School holidays; certain election days. Prohibits local school boards from requiring students to attend school on the second Tuesday in June or the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. The bill also prohibits parent-teacher conferences and meetings from being held on those dates.

S.B. 221

Patron: Locke

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 and discussion during each memorandum of understanding review period.

S.B. 232

Patron: Boysko

Menstrual supplies; certain school buildings. Requires each school board to make tampons and pads available at all times and at no cost to students in the bathrooms of each public school at which any student in grades five through 12 is enrolled and at which at least 40 percent of enrolled students are eligible for free or reduced lunch.

S.B. 249

Patron: Favola

School Divisions of Innovation; performance-based 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 performance-based assessments. The bill requires any such application to (i) demonstrate that the proposed performance-based 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.