Fairfax County Public Schools, Office of Government Relations

Final Report - Standards of Quality/Standards of Accreditation 

This report describes all Standards of Quality/Standards of Accreditation-related legislation considered during the 2024 General Assembly Regular and Special Sessions.  Bills are listed as “Passed”, “Failed” or “Continued to 2025”.

Passed legislation will go into effect on July 1, 2024, unless otherwise specified in the legislation itself.

Bills identified as Continued to 2025 are no longer active for the 2024 Session but can be picked back up by the continuing committee where they were left off in the legislative process during the 2025 Session.  While possible, it is rare for a continued bill to be picked back up. Typically, such legislation is simply reintroduced in the next Session.

UPDATED: 05/29/2024

Standards of Quality/Standards of Accreditation – Passed

Public secondary schools; satisfaction of physical education requirements; participation in Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps. HB 98 (Green) permits each local school board to accept participation in the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps as fulfillment of any physical education requirements applicable to students in grades nine through 12.

Public schools; opioid antagonist procurement, possession, and administration; school board employee training and certification; opioid overdose prevention and reversal instruction; guidelines and requirements. HB 732 (Sewell) and SB 726 (Pillion) require each local school board to develop, in accordance with the guidelines developed by the Department of Health in collaboration with the Department of Education, plans, policies, and procedures for (i) providing at each public secondary school that includes grades nine through 12 a program of instruction on opioid overdose prevention and reversal and for encouraging each student to complete such program of instruction prior to graduation; (ii) the procurement, placement, and maintenance in each public elementary and secondary school of a supply of opioid antagonists in an amount equivalent to at least two unexpired doses for the purposes of opioid overdose reversal; and (iii) the possession and administration of an opioid antagonist by any employee of the school board who is authorized by a prescriber and trained in the administration of an opioid antagonist, including policies (a) requiring each public elementary and secondary school to ensure that at least one employee is authorized by a prescriber and trained and certified in the administration of an opioid antagonist, (b) for partnering with a program administered or approved by the Department of Health to provide such training and certification, and (c) for maintaining records of each such trained and certified employee.

The bills provide for the disciplinary, civil, and criminal immunity of any employee of a public school, school board, or local health department, regardless of whether such employee was trained or certified in opioid antagonist administration, for any act or omission made in connection with the good faith administration of an opioid antagonist for the purposes of opioid overdose reversal during regular school hours, on school premises, or during a school-sponsored activity, unless such act or omission was the result of gross neglect or willful misconduct. The bills require each school board to adopt and each public elementary and secondary school to implement policies and procedures in accordance with the provisions of the bill and, in doing so, to utilize to the fullest extent possible programs offered by the Department of Health for the provision of opioid antagonist administration training and certification and opioid antagonist procurement. In addition, the bills modify the school board employees who are authorized to administer opioid antagonists to include any school board employee who has completed training and is certified in the administration of an opioid antagonist by a program administered or authorized by the Department of Health. Finally, the bills direct the Department of Health and the Department of Education to collaborate to develop guidelines and policies for the implementation of the provisions of the bill and require each school board to implement the provisions of the bill by the beginning of the 2025–2026 school year. 

Student transportation; innovative alternatives to school buses. HB 937 (Bolling) states that the intent of the General Assembly is that school boards encourage the implementation of innovative low-cost or no-cost alternatives to transporting students to and from school on school buses, including organizing or otherwise facilitating, encouraging, or supporting biking or walking school buses whereby groups of students ride bicycles or walk to and from school.

Public school staffing ratios; teachers; English language learner students. HB 1247 and SB 272 require state funding to be provided pursuant to the general appropriation act to support ratios of instructional positions to English language learner students based on each such student's English proficiency level, as established in the general appropriation act. 

High school graduation requirements; satisfaction of certain course credits with workforce credentials; development and maintenance of list of accepted credentials. HB 1345 (Anthony) and SB 199 (Diggs) require the Board of Education, in collaboration with the Virginia Community College System, Career and Technical Education directors, and industry partners, to develop and maintain a current, comprehensive, and uniform list of industry-recognized workforce credentials that students may take as a substitute for certain units of credit required for graduation, including such credentials that are accepted as substitutes for electives credits and credentials completed outside of regular school hours. The bills require each school board to accept as a substitute for a required credit any credential listed as an accepted substitute for such required credit. The bill also requires any College and Career Access Pathways Partnership entered into between a school board and a comprehensive community college to specify, consistent with the list, industry-recognized credentials that are accepted as substitutes for certain credits required for high school graduation. Finally, the bills require the Board, in establishing graduation requirements, to permit any student to substitute elective credits for completion of any industry-approved workforce credential that is included on the list as an accepted substitute for such credits. HB 1345 incorporates HB 1009 (Lovejoy).

Public schools; instructional time; competency-based education. HB 1477 (Rasoul) requires the Board of Education to provide local school boards maximum flexibility to waive existing instructional clock hour requirements by developing alternative instructional time models in accordance with the Board's regulations and guidelines relating to instructional time waivers. The bill directs the Board, when revising its regulations and adopting Standards of Accreditation, to provide flexibility for school boards to develop programs that provide for acceleration, remediation, and multiple pathways to graduation that permit students to demonstrate competency at different rates. The bill also requires the Board to update, by December 1, 2024, its Guidelines for Graduation Requirements: Local Alternative Paths to Standard Units of Credit (Alternatives to the 140-Clock-Hour Requirement) to include guidance regarding (i) waiver pathway options to allow students time within the school day to complete work-based learning opportunities; (ii) advanced learning opportunities focused on problem-solving, critical and creative thinking, communication, collaboration, and citizenship skills; (iii) content that provides technical knowledge, skills, and competency-based applied learning; (iv) a method for approving alternative programs, including dual enrollment courses as specified in the bill; (v) other instructional time models adopted to meet instructional hour requirements through a variety of learning modalities; and (vi) offering instructional and learning opportunities including innovative, advanced, and enrichment programs for the full school year. Finally, the bill requires the Board to submit to the Chairs of the Senate Committee on Education and Health and the House Committee on Education by November 1, 2024, a report on its progress in implementing the provisions of the bill. This legislation incorporates HB 663 (Tata) and HB 1081 (Coyner).

Standards of Quality/Standards of Accreditation – Continued to 2025 and Failed

Study; joint committee of the House Committee on Education and the Senate Committee on Education and Health to study fair school funding reform; report. HJ 67 (Simonds) would have established a joint committee consisting of five members of the House Committee on Education and three members of the Senate Committee on Education and Health to study fair school funding reform by, among other things, utilizing the recommendations from the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission in its July 2023 report, "Virginia's K-12 Funding Formula," and any stakeholder input and feedback received by the joint committee to produce and submit to the Division of Legislative Automated Services by the first day of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly an executive summary of its findings and recommendations. This resolution was Continued to 2025 in Senate Finance and Appropriations.

High school graduation requirements; passing score on select questions from the U.S. Naturalization Test. HB 10 (Ware) would have required the Board of Education, in establishing high school graduation requirements, to require, except in the case of a high school student whose individualized education program indicates otherwise, each high school student to take and correctly answer at least 70 percent of the questions on a test composed of at least 50 but not more than 60 of the questions on the civics portion of the U.S. Naturalization Test in order to graduate high school with a standard or advanced studies diploma, provided that such student may take such test at any time during grades nine through 12 and as many times during such period as necessary to achieve the minimum 70 percent passing score.

High school graduation requirements; passing score on select questions from U.S. Naturalization Test. HB 13 (Ware) would have required the Board of Education, in establishing high school graduation requirements, to require, except in the case of a high school student whose individualized education program indicates otherwise, each high school student to take and correctly answer at least 70 percent of the questions on a test composed of at least 25 but not more than 50 of the questions on the civics portion of the U.S. Naturalization Test in order to graduate high school with a standard or advanced studies diploma, provided that such student may take such test at any time during grades nine through 12 and as many times during such period as necessary to achieve the minimum 70 percent passing score.

Public school staffing ratios; school counselors. HB 181 (Feggans) would have decreased from one to 325 to one to 250 the ratio of full-time equivalent school counselors required to be employed by each local school board per student enrolled in the local school division. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Appropriations.

Average teacher salary in the Commonwealth; national average. HB 187 (Clark) and SB 104 (Lucas) would have required the Governor's introduced budget bills for the 2025, 2026, and 2027 Regular Sessions of the General Assembly to propose funding for, and state funding to be provided pursuant to the general appropriation act enacted during any regular or special session of the General Assembly during 2025, 2026, or 2027 to fund, the Commonwealth's share of compensation supplement incentives for Standards of Quality-funded instructional and support positions sufficient to increase the average teacher salary in the Commonwealth to at least the national average teacher salary by the end of the 2026–2028 biennium and establishes a detailed timeline and process for satisfying such requirement. Note that both HB 187 and SB 104 passed the General Assembly but were vetoed by the Governor.  

Public school funding; nonpersonal cost categories; federal fund deduction methodology; support services. HB 359 (Simonds) would have required the Department of Education, (i) in calculating nonpersonal costs in the Standards of Quality funding formula, to include the costs associated with leased facilities and work-related employee travel and (ii) in calculating the deduction of federal funds in the Standards of Quality funding formula, to examine actual school division spending on support costs as a percentage of actual school division spending on all public education costs, with certain exceptions such as food service. The bill would have also required support services positions, which includes positions in each local school division that the school board deems necessary for the efficient and cost-effective operation and maintenance of its public schools, to be funded based on a calculation of prevailing costs and prohibits such positions from being subject to any method of funding calculation that caps the number of funded support services positions based on a ratio of such positions to students enrolled in the local school division. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Appropriations.

Superintendent of Public Instruction; duties; fixed and actual school staffing ratios. HB 360 (Simonds) would have required the Superintendent of Public Instruction to biennially calculate, compare, and report to the Board of Education and the General Assembly the differences between the fixed staffing ratios in the Standards of Quality funding formula and the actual staffing ratios in local school divisions in the Commonwealth so that such fixed staffing ratios can be regularly adjusted as needed to more closely approximate such actual staffing ratios. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in Senate Finance and Appropriations.

Public school staffing ratios; specialized student support positions. HB 386 (Hernandez) would have increased the number of specialized student support positions required to be employed by each local school board from at least three to at least four such positions per 1,000 students in the local school division. Such specialized student support positions include school social workers, school psychologists, school nurses, licensed behavior analysts, licensed assistant behavior analysts, and other licensed health and behavioral positions. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Appropriations.

Board of Education; Standards of Quality; Standards of School Safety. HB 495 (Garrett) would have required the Board of Education, in collaboration with the Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety and such other stakeholders as it deems appropriate, to establish pursuant to regulation the Standards of School Safety for the purpose of assessing school safety in each local school division in the Commonwealth and each school building therein based on such objective, quantifiable measures of safety as the Board deems appropriate. The bill would have required the Board to incorporate compliance with the Standards of School Safety as a school and school division accountability measure for the purposes of the Standards of Accreditation.

Public high schools; personnel; career coach required. HB 582 (Simonds) would have required each school board to employ at least one career coach in each public high school in the local school division whose duties are required to include assisting students with securing internships, externships, and credentialing opportunities as required by the Profile of a Virginia Graduate, providing students with information on apprenticeship programs, and connecting students to career opportunities. The bill would have provided that each such individual shall be employed in addition to and not as a replacement for the required school counselor positions, specialized student support positions, or support services positions. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Appropriations. 

Public school staffing and funding; National Teacher Certification Incentive Reward Program and Fund; At-Risk Program; English language learner students. HB 624 (Rasoul) and SB 105 (Lucas) would have renamed the National Teacher Certification Incentive Reward Program and Fund as the National Board Certification Incentive Reward Program and Fund, expands eligibility for incentive grant awards from such Fund pursuant to such Program from solely teachers who have obtained national certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards to all public school staff who are candidates for initial national certification or maintenance of national certification to cover certain costs of obtaining or maintaining such certification and all public school staff who have successfully obtained or maintained such certification, and permits certain teachers to apply for additional incentive grants pursuant to such Program and Fund. The bills also would have established the At-Risk Program for the purpose of supporting programs and services for students who are educationally at risk, including prevention, intervention, or remediation activities required pursuant to relevant law, teacher recruitment programs and initiatives, programs for English language learners, the hiring of additional school counselors and other support staff, and other programs relating to increasing the success of disadvantaged students in completing a high school degree and providing opportunities to encourage further education and training. The bills also contained provisions relating to certain funding requirements for the At-Risk Program. Finally, the bills would have required state funding to be provided pursuant to the general appropriation act to support ratios of instructional positions to English language learner students based on each such student's English proficiency level, as established in the general appropriation act. Note that both HB 624 and SB 105 passed the General Assembly but were vetoed by the Governor. 

Public school funding; At-Risk Program established. HB 825 (Cousins) would have established the At-Risk Program for the purpose of supporting programs and services for students who are educationally at risk, including prevention, intervention, or remediation activities required pursuant to Standard 1 (§ 22.1-253.13:1); teacher recruitment programs and incentives; Dropout Prevention; community and school-based truancy officer programs; Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID); Project Discovery; programs for English language learners; the hiring of additional school counselors, testing coordinators, and licensed behavior analysts; and programs relating to increasing the success of disadvantaged students in completing a high school degree and providing opportunities to encourage further education and training and requires a portion of the state funding provided for such At-Risk Program to be allocated to school divisions on a flat per-student percentage rate set out in the general appropriation act and a portion of such funding to be allocated to school divisions on a variable rate set out in the general appropriation act based on the concentration of poverty in the school division.

Certain school divisions; cost-savings agreements; requirements. HB 1029 (Runion) would have removed the limitation on any school board that enters into certain cost-savings agreements with a school board that governs a contiguous school division for the consolidation or sharing of educational, administrative, or support services and thus qualifies for adjustment of state share of basic aid computed annually on the basis of the composite index of local ability-to-pay of such contiguous school division that caps such adjusted basic aid payment at an amount equal to the basic aid payment appropriated to such locality by the 2007 Session of the General Assembly. The bill would have also permitted, notwithstanding the requirement set forth in relevant law that a school division has 65 percent or more of its local taxes coming from real estate taxes in order for the school board that governs such school division to be eligible to enter into such cost-savings agreements with a contiguous school division, the Bath County School Board to enter into such cost-savings agreements with the Augusta County School Board, provided that all other conditions and limitations set forth in relevant law apply to any such agreement. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Education.

Public education; dual enrollment and concurrent enrollment; high school graduation. HB 1051 (Batten) would have made several changes relating to graduation from a public high school in the Commonwealth, including (i) eliminating the requirement for a student to complete one virtual course in order to graduate from high school and (ii) specifying that various options and requirements relating to earning career and technical education credentials for the purpose of satisfying high school graduation requirements are required to be high-demand career and technical education credentials. The bill also defined and thereby distinguished the concepts of dual enrollment and concurrent enrollment in the context of high school students' participation in college-level coursework and requires the agreements for postsecondary attainment between school boards and comprehensive community colleges to specify the credit available for dual enrollment and concurrent enrollment courses. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Education.

Board of Education; high school graduation; alternative pathways to the advanced studies diploma and associated diploma seals. SB 139 (Carroll Foy) would have directed the Board of Education to establish two pathways to the advanced studies high school diploma, and associated diploma seals for students who successfully follow and demonstrate excellence on such pathways: one pathway that requires advanced coursework in a career and technical education field but does not require coursework in world language and another pathway that requires advanced coursework in world language but does not require coursework in a career and technical education field. The bill would have required such pathways and associated diploma seals to become effective for the 2025–2026 school year and to be available to any student, regardless of the school year during which the student enters ninth grade.

Board of Education; high school graduation; alternative pathway to advanced studies diploma and associated diploma seal; career and technical education. SB 161 (McGuire) would have directed the Board of Education to establish an alternative pathway to the advanced studies high school diploma and an associated diploma seal for students who successfully follow and demonstrate excellence on such pathway, that requires advanced coursework in a career and technical education field but does not require coursework in laboratory science. Under current law, one computer science course credit may count as one of the laboratory science course credits required for an advanced studies high school diploma but there is no pathway to an advanced studies diploma that does not require any laboratory science coursework. The bill would have required such pathway and associated diploma seal to become effective for the 2025-2026 school year and to be available to any student, regardless of the school year during which the student enters ninth grade.

Public schools; instructional time. SB 434 (Sutterlein) would have made several changes relating to student instructional time in public elementary and secondary schools, including (i) defining "instructional hour" for the purpose of minimum annual instructional hour requirements; (ii) establishing several provisions and requirements relating to the enrollment of part-time students in public elementary and secondary schools; (iii) requiring the Board of Education to adopt rules for approving alternative programs for which course credit may be granted for the purpose of satisfying high school graduation requirements to any student who completes such course and masters the course content by demonstrating at least 80 percent of the competencies required by course standards, regardless of time, place, or pace; and (iv) permitting school boards that govern school divisions of innovation to adopt instructional time models that allow students to personalize the pace of learning and accelerate their learning based on the mastery of course content by demonstrating at least 80 percent of the competencies required by course standards, regardless of time, place, or pace.

Public high schools; personnel; college and career specialist required. SB 518 (Williams Graves) would have required each school board to employ at least one college and career specialist, as defined in the bill, in each public high school in the local school division. The bill would have provided that each such individual shall be employed in addition to and not as a replacement for the required school counselor positions, specialized student support positions, or support services positions. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in Senate Education and Health.

Department of Education; Virginia Community College System; regional career and technical education program. SB 563 (Hackworth) would have directed the Department of Education, in collaboration with the Virginia Community College System, the Virginia Board of Workforce Development, the Board of Education, the school board and division superintendent of Tazewell County Public Schools, and representatives of the governing boards of comprehensive community colleges located in Tazewell County and contiguous counties to study the feasibility of and make recommendations on developing a plan for establishing a regional career and technical education program for all students in grade levels six through 12 who reside in Planning District 2. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Rules.