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ACROSS SESSIONS
- Subject Index: Since 1995
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Developed and maintained by the Division of Legislative Automated Systems.
2020 SESSION
Hashmi (Chair), Howell, Locke, Dunnavant, Peake
Clerk: Patty Lung, Catherine Dent
Staff: Julia Carlton, Anna Moir
Date of Meeting: January 16, 2020
Time and Place: 30 min. after Adj., Subcommittee Room 2, 5th Fl. Pocahontas Bldg.
Patron: Marsden
Student journalists; freedom of speech and the press. Declares that, except in certain limited circumstances, a student journalist at a public middle school or high school or public institution of higher education has the right to exercise freedom of speech and the press in school-sponsored media, including determining the news, opinion, feature, and advertising content of school-sponsored media, regardless of whether the media is supported financially by the school board or governing board, supported through the use of school or campus facilities, or produced in conjunction with a class or course in which the student is enrolled. The bill defines "school-sponsored media" as any material that is prepared, substantially written, published, or broadcast by a student journalist at a public middle school or high school or public institution of higher education under the direction of a student media adviser and distributed or generally made available to members of the student body.
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.
Patron: Stuart
Children's Services Act; special education programs. Expands eligibility for services under the Children's Services Act to students who transfer from an approved private school special education program to a public school special education program established and funded jointly by a local governing body and school division located within Planning District 16 for the purpose of providing special education and related services when (i) the public school special education program is able to provide services comparable to those of an approved private school special education program and (ii) the student would require placement in an approved private school special education program but for the availability of the public school special education program.
Patron: Favola
Dismissal of teachers; grounds; incompetency. Removes receipt of one or more unsatisfactory performance evaluations from the list of factors that "incompetency" may be construed to include for the purpose of establishing grounds for the dismissal of public school teachers.
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.
Patron: Barker
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, may complete, sign, and file a petition for a violation of a school attendance order in response to the filing of a petition alleging the pupil is a child in need of supervision with the intake officer of the juvenile and domestic relations district court on a form approved by the Virginia Supreme Court.
Patron: Stanley
Potable water; purified water bottle filling station. Requires each local school board to install at least one purified water bottle filling station in every public school in the local school division. The bill requires that each purified water bottle filling station (i) dispense filtered, clean drinking water; (ii) be regularly cleaned and maintained; and (iii) be accompanied by a cup dispenser if there is no drinking fountain on the same floor and wing as the water bottle filling station.
Patron: Barker
High school graduation requirements; advanced diploma; standard units of credit; certain substitutions. Requires the Board of Education, in establishing high school graduation requirements, to pemit any student who is pursuing an advanced studies diploma to substitute two standard units of credit in computer science for two standard units of credit in a foreign language.
Patron: Deeds
School bus drivers; critical shortages. Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction, with the assistance of each school board or division superintendent, to survey each local school division to identify critical shortages of school bus drivers by geographic area and local school division and to report any such critical shortage to each local school division and to the Virginia Retirement System.
Patron: Lewis
Cost of competing adjustment; eligibility; certain school boards. Declares the Accomack County School Board and the Northampton County School Board eligible to receive the cost of competing adjustment to salaries for instructional and support positions as part of the state share of basic aid pursuant to the general appropriation act.
Patron: Stuart
Public schools; immunization rates. Requires each school board to publish on the official school division website for each school in the school division the number of students admitted to the school with documentary proof of immunization, the number of students who have been admitted with a medical or religious exemption, and the number of students who have been conditionally admitted.
Patron: Bell
Teacher grievance procedures; hearing; three-member fact-finding panel. Permits a school board to conduct a teacher grievance hearing before a three-member fact-finding panel consisting of one member selected by the teacher, one member selected by the division superintendent, and an impartial hearing officer selected by the other two panel members, to serve as the chairman of the panel. Under current law, the school board has the option of appointing a hearing officer or conducting such hearing itself. The bill also removes the requirement that a teacher grievance hearing be set within 15 days of the request for such hearing and extends from five days to 10 days the minimum period of advanced written notice to the teacher of the time and place of such hearing.
Patron: Boysko
Public schools; anti-hate instruction. Requires the Department of Education to develop a model curriculum and teacher training module for providing age-appropriate instruction on genocide, racism, harassment, discrimination, and historical injustice in grades kindergarten through 12. Each local school board is required to implement the model curriculum and teacher training module by the 2022%962023 school year.
Patron: Favola
Department of Education; common statewide definition; "students with limited or interrupted formal education." Requires the Department of Education to develop and adopt a common statewide definition for the term "students with limited or interrupted formal education" and to require school boards to report on the number of students who fall under such definition as part of the required data collection and reporting on average daily membership for the purposes of documenting any changes in such numbers over time and allowing for comparisons of such numbers across local school divisions. The bill provides that in developing and adopting such common statewide definition, the Department of Education shall consider and may adopt existing definitions of "students with limited or interrupted formal education."
Patron: Favola
Board of Education; certain English language learner students; removal from certain non-academic school performance indicator calculations. Requires the Board of Education to permit any English language learner student who enters high school with an English language proficiency level of 1 or 2, has been enrolled in public schools in the Commonwealth for fewer than four semesters, and has a final four-year cohort status of dropout or unconfirmed to be removed from the calculation of the dropout rate and graduation and completion index non-academic school performance indicators for English language learner students under the Standards of Accreditation.