2020 General Assembly Update
Key Education-Related Subjects
Week ending Friday, January 31, 2020

Fairfax County Public Schools, Office of Government Relations

Additional information regarding the education-related legislation described below, as well as for all other bills related to education can be found in the thirteen subject categories located on the web pages of the FCPS Office of Government Relations at https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps/departments-and-offices/government-relations/virginia-general-assembly.  Bills in these categories are linked to the Virginia Division of Legislative Services web pages, which provide up-to-date summary, fiscal impact and bill status information.

The week of February 3rd marks the final week prior to “crossover” – the point at which each chamber must finish its work on all bills introduced in their chamber.  After crossover, the House can only consider bills already passed by the Senate, and the Senate can only consider bills already passed by the House. 

Amended Bills Reported for Consideration by Either the House or Senate

Planning Time and Planning Periods HB 273 (VanValkenburg) would require 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 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 an appropriate contractual arrangement providing for compensation in lieu of such planning time or period.

Amendments would require an “average” of 45 minutes or one class period of planning time in middle and high schools.

School Meals; Availability to Students HB 1426 (Roem) would require each school board to participate in the federal National School Lunch Program and the federal School Breakfast Program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and to make meals available pursuant to such programs to any student who requests such a meal, regardless of such student's family income or whether such student has the money to pay for the meal or owes money for meals previously provided, unless the student's parent has provided written permission to the school board to withhold such a meal from the student. 

Amendments would extend the deadline for required participation in the federal Lunch and Breakfast programs to the 2021-2022 school year and would eliminate only the use of third-party non-governmental agents for collecting meal debts.

Family Life Education Programs; Materials; Summaries HB 1394 (Leftwich) would require the summary of each family life education program that is provided to the parents of students who participate in such program to include a complete description of the process for parental review of program materials. The bill requires each local school board to post for public viewing on the local school division's official website each such summary, a complete copy of all non-copyrighted, printed family life education program materials, and a description of all family life education program audio-visual materials. The bill would require each local school board to implement the foregoing provisions no later than the start of the 2020-2021 school year.

Amendments would allow for posting of family life materials on a school division’s parental portal.

Public schools; possession of undesignated stock albuterol inhalers; administration by certain individuals. HB 1174 (Lopez) would require each local school board to adopt and implement policies for the possession and administration of undesignated stock albuterol inhalers in every school in the local school division, to be administered by any school nurse, employee of the school board, employee of a local governing body, or employee of a local health department who is authorized by a prescriber and trained in the administration of albuterol inhalers for any student believed in good faith to be in need of such medication. The bill would limit the liability of (i) any such individual who provides, administers, or assists in the administration of an albuterol inhaler for a student believed in good faith to be in need of such medication and (ii) the prescriber of such medication. 

Amendments would remove the requirement to possess undesignated stock albuterol inhalers and make such possession permissive.

School boards; duties; assistance with student bus pass applications. HB 1208 (Tran) would require each school board to establish a process for assisting any student whose family members have one or more medical conditions that preclude them from providing transportation for the student to attend school to apply for and obtain a pass to ride a regionally operated or locally operated bus to school. 

Amendments would require each school board that provides for the transportation of students pursuant to § 22.1-176 and that has established a rule, regulation, or policy to exclude certain students who reside within a certain distance from the school at which they are enrolled from accessing such transportation shall establish a process for waiving, on a case-by-case and space-available basis, such exclusion and providing transportation to any such student whose parent is unable to provide adequate transportation for his child to attend school because the parent is providing necessary medical care to another family member who resides in the same household, as evidenced by a written explanation submitted by a licensed health care provider who provides care to such family member.

Public schools; lock-down drills; frequency; exemptions. HB 420 (Keam) would require every public school at which sixth grade is the highest grade taught to hold at least one lock-down drill after the first 60 days of the school session and every public school at which seventh grade or any grade above seventh grade is taught to hold at least two lock-down drills after the first 60 days of the school session, in addition to the two lock-down drills required to be held during the first 20 days of the school session at each such school. Current law requires each public school to hold at least two lock-down drills after the first 20 days of the school session. The bill would require kindergarten students to be exempt from mandatory participation in lock-down drills during the first 60 days of the school session and require the principal at each relevant school to implement such exemption by either (i) conducting teacher-only drills or otherwise providing suitable training for kindergarten teachers or (ii) notifying each parent of a kindergarten student at least five school days in advance of each planned lock-down drill and permitting each such parent to opt his child out of participation in such lock-down drill.

Amendments would specify that in every public school there should be a lock-down drill at least twice during the first 20 school days of each school session and that there should be at least one additional lock-down drill after the first 60 days of the school session.

 

Additional K-12 Education Related Bills

Public schools; alternative accountability process. SB 1020 (Stanley) would allow a school board to adopt an alternative accountability process to provide a principal and parties involved in an incident involving assault, or assault and battery without bodily injury, that occurs on a school bus, on school property, or at a school-sponsored event an option to enter into a mutually agreed-upon process between the involved parties as an alternative to reporting such incident to law enforcement. The bill would provide that a principal in a school division with such an alternative accountability process may attempt to engage the parties involved in such an incident in the process prior to reporting such incident to the local law-enforcement agency and prohibits, if provided for by the school board, a principal from reporting a party who successfully completes the alternative accountability process.

Guidelines for use of digital devices in public schools. HB 817 (Hope) Requires the Department of Education, in collaboration with the Department of Health and medical professional societies, to develop and implement health and safety best practice guidelines for the use of digital devices in public schools no later than the 2021 - 2022 school year.

Health Insurance Credits for Retired School Division Employees HB 1513 (McQuinn) would require school divisions to provide a health insurance credit of $4 per year of service to all retired members of local school divisions with at least 15 years of total creditable service. An enactment clause would provide that this measure would not apply to any local school division employee who retired on disability prior to July 1, 2020, if this measure would reduce the monthly credit currently payable to such former member. Eligible employees who retired prior to July 1, 2020, and did not receive a health insurance credit prior to that date would only receive the $4 per year of service health insurance credit prospectively.

Family Life Education; Standards of Learning and Curriculum Guidelines; Contemporary Community Standards; Review HB 1336 (Keam) would require the Board of Education, in conducting its regular review and revision of the Standards of Learning and curriculum guidelines for family life education, to consult relevant stakeholders representing the interests of students, parents, health care providers, faith communities, and other public interest groups to ascertain and ensure that such standards and guidelines reflect contemporary community standards. The bill would require the next such review and revision to be completed no later than June 30, 2021. The bill would require each school board to conduct a review of its family life education curricula at least once every seven years.

Electives on the Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament and the New Testament HB 1122 (Robinson) would require local school boards to offer as an elective in grades nine through 12 with appropriate credits toward graduation a course, either in a traditional classroom setting or in a virtual classroom setting, on the Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament of the Bible or the New Testament of the Bible or a combined course on both.

Parental Educational Information; Tobacco and Nicotine Vapor Products HB 1073 (Kory) would require each school board to annually provide parents of pupils in grades kindergarten through 12 information regarding the health dangers of tobacco and nicotine vapor products.

Standards of Learning; Social-Emotional Learning and Development HB 753 (Rasoul) as amended would require the Department of Education to establish a uniform definition of social-emotional learning and develop guidance standards for social-emotional learning for all public students in grades kindergarten through 12 in the Commonwealth.  Such standards would be made available to each local school division no later than July 1, 2021.  No later than November 1, 2021, the Department would issue a report on the resources needed to successfully support local school divisions with the implementation of a statewide social-emotional learning program.

Children with Disabilities; Alternative Placements; State Funds HB 231 (Freitas) would require the parent of any child with a disability who is placed in a public school pursuant to his individualized education program who subsequently places his child in a nonpublic school setting to receive from the school board, upon request, the applicable Standards of Quality per pupil state funds appropriated for public school purposes and apportioned to the school division, including the per pupil share of state sales tax funding in basic aid and any state per pupil share of special education funding for which the child is eligible, to pay for tuition and fees associated with such nonpublic school setting, subject to such rules, regulations, or procedures as the Department of Education may establish. The bill would require each such parent to submit annually to the division superintendent an evaluation or assessment that indicates that the child is achieving an adequate level of educational growth and progress.

Status of Bills Containing Mandates

This past week, several of the mandate bills previously reported in the January 17, 2020 Update were on the committee and sub-committee dockets of both bodies.   An overview of action taken on many of the bills is as follows:
 

Passed House

HB 270 (VanValkenburg) Public schools; lock-down drills, notice to parents.

HB 1073 (Kory) Tobacco and nicotine vapor products; parental educational information.

HB 1336 (Keam) Family life education; SOL & curriculum guidelines, contemporary community standards. (Amended)

HB 1394 (Leftwich) Family life education programs; materials, summaries (Amended)

Reported for Consideration by the House

HB 405 (Keam) Menstrual supplies; certain school buildings (Amended)

HB 410 (Delaney) Parental notice; literacy and Response to Intervention screening and services (Substitute)   

HB 271 (VanValkenburg) Public schools; school resource officers and school security officers; data (Amended)

HB 273 VanValkenburg) School boards; teachers; planning time and planning periods (Amended)

HB 292 (VanValkenburg) School boards and local law-enforcement agencies; memorandums of understanding; frequency of review and public input – Incorporated HB 897(Guzman) and HB 1135 (Lopez)

HB 415 (Delaney) Discipline; suspension; access to graded work (Amended)

HB 797 (Askew)  Local school boards; lead testing; report; parental notification (Substitute)

HB 1174 (Lopez) Public schools; possession of undesignated stock albuterol inhalers; administration by certain individuals (Substitute)

HB 1208 (Tran) School boards; duties; assistance with student bus pass applications (Substitute)
 

Reported & Rereferred to House Appropriations 

HB 376 (Willet) Teacher and support staff shortages; data; reporting  (Amended)

HB 975 (Guzman) Standards of Quality; state funding; ratios of teachers to English language learners Incorporated HB 1323 (Kory)

HB 916 (Sickles) Holocaust and Genocide Education Advisory Committee; report (Substitute) – Incorporated HB 483 (Kory) and HB 1110 (Hudson)

HB 1316 (Aird) Standards of Quality; work-based learning; teacher leaders and mentors; principal mentors; certain personnel positions and initiatives

HB 1508 (McQuinn) Minimum staffing ratio for school counselors - Incorporated HB 398 (Keam)

Passed Senate

SB 221 (Locke) School boards and local law-enforcement agencies; memorandums of understanding, frequency of review (Amended)

SB 232 (Boysko) Menstrual supplies; school boards shall make available in each school building. (Amended)

SB 238 (Barker) Public schools; increases kindergarten instructional time.

Reported for Consideration by the Senate

SB 170 (Locke) School resource officers and school security officers; data (Amended)

SB 171 (Locke) School resource officers and school security officers; training standards

SB 366 (Dunnavant) Learning management system

SB 392 (McPike) Lead testing; report (Amended)

SB 420 (DeSteph) Seizure treatment and training (Substitute)

SB 463 (Reeves) Sudden cardiac arrest prevention in student-athletes (Amended)

SB 845 (Ebbin) Local school boards; mold testing; parental notification (Substitute)

Reported and Rereferred to Senate Finance and Appropriations

SB 367 (Dunnavant) Student growth measurement system

SB 410 (Hashimi) Testing for Legionella bacteria, review, report  

SB 880 (Locke) Minimum staffing ratio for school counselors

Failed

HB 64 (Miyares) Child's school activities; employers to allow parental leave for activities

HB 424 (McGuire) School resource officers; required in every school.

HB 683 (LaRock) Family life education programs; student participation

HB 678 (LaRock) Parental Choice Education Savings Accounts established

HB 693 (Simonds) Paid maternity leave benefit policy

HB 701 (Roem) School meal policies; parental notification and opt-out

HB 939 (Webert) Public schools; firearm safety education program

HB 1085 (Hayes)  Public schools; potable water

HB 1177 (Poindexter) School board policies; homework assignments; Internet connection

HB 1415 (Roem) School library clerical personnel; ratios of positions to students

HB 1515 (McQuinn) School boards; staffing ratios; school counselors

SB 129 (Norment) Public schools; firearm safety education program

SB 132 (Chase) Electives on the Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament and the New Testament

SB 151 (Stuart) School Personnel; staffing ratios, school nurses

SB 299 (Stanley) Potable water; purified water bottle filling station

SB 319 (Chase) Security of public property.

Continued to 2021

HB 40 (Samirah) Board of Education; mental health break spaces; regulations

HB 1599 (Roem) School boards; staffing ratios; librarians