2020 General Assembly Update
Key Education-Related Subjects
Week ending Friday, February 14, 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.

Budget Sunday

February 16^th will be “Budget Sunday” in Richmond.  This is when the House Appropriations Committee and the Senate Finance & Appropriations Committee release their proposed budget amendments to the Governor’s Introduced budget.  Any unresolved differences in these two proposals will be resolved by conferees appointed by the House and Senate prior to the end of Session, currently scheduled for Saturday, March 7.

Post Crossover

All legislation under consideration at this point in Session has already passed in one chamber and is now being considered by the other.  If a bill passes in identical form in both the House and the Senate, it goes to the Governor for his review.  If a bill passes the House and Senate with differences, and each chamber insists on its own version, such bills are sent to a conference committee, made up of three members from each chamber (usually including the bill’s patron).  If a conference committee comes to a resolution, that resolution is sent to the floor of each chamber for a straight up or down vote.

K-12 Related Legislation

Minimum Wage HB 395 (Ward) would increase the minimum wage from its current federally mandated level of $7.25 per hour to $10 per hour, effective July 1, 2020; to $11.25 per hour, effective July 1, 2021; to $12 per hour, effective July 1, 2022; to $13 per hour, effective July 1, 2023; to $14 per hour, effective July 1, 2024; and to $15 per hour, effective July 1, 2025, unless a higher minimum wage is required by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). For July 1, 2026, and thereafter, the annual minimum wage would be adjusted to reflect increases in the consumer price index.  SB 7 (Saslaw) would increase the minimum wage from its current federally mandated level of $7.25 per hour to $9.50 per hour, effective January 1, 2021; to $10.50 per hour, effective July 1, 2022; to $11.50 per hour, effective July 1, 2023.  By January 1 2024, the Commissioner shall establish wage regions in the Commonwealth by dividing the state into contiguous regions with similar median household incomes and costs of living. By March 1, 2024, and annually thereafter, the Commissioner of Labor and Industry shall establish the adjusted minimum wage for each wage region that shall be in effect during the 12-month period commencing on the following July.

Prohibited discrimination; public accommodations, employment, credit, and housing: causes of action; sexual orientation and gender identity. HB 1663 (Sickles) and SB 868 (Ebbin) would create explicit causes of action for unlawful discrimination in public accommodations and employment in the Virginia Human Rights Act. Currently, under the Act there is no cause of action for discrimination in public accommodations, and the only causes of action for discrimination in employment are for (i) unlawful discharge on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, including lactation, by employers employing more than five but fewer than 15 persons and (ii) unlawful discharge on the basis of age by employers employing more than five but fewer than 20 persons. The bills would allow the causes of action to be pursued privately by the aggrieved person or, in certain circumstances, by the Attorney General. The bills would prohibit discrimination in public and private employment on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The bills would also codify for state and local government employment the current prohibitions on discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, age, marital status, disability, or status as a veteran. Additionally, the bills would (a) prohibit discrimination in public accommodations on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or status as a veteran; (b) prohibit discrimination in credit on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, disability, and status as a veteran; and (c) add discrimination on the basis of an individual's sexual orientation, gender identity, or status as a veteran as an unlawful housing practice.

Office of the Children's Ombudsman established HB 1301 (Hurst) would establish the Office of the Children's Ombudsman as a means of effecting changes in policy, procedure, and legislation; educating the public; investigating and reviewing actions of the State Department of Social Services, local departments of social services, child-placing agencies, or child-caring institutions; and monitoring and ensuring compliance with relevant statutes, rules, and policies pertaining to children's protective services and the placement, supervision, treatment, and improvement of delivery of care to children in foster care and adoptive homes. The Office of the Children's Ombudsman would be headed by the Children's Ombudsman, who is appointed for a term of four years by the Governor and subject to confirmation by the General Assembly. 

Teachers, Other Instructional Personnel, and Support Staff; Shortages; Data; Reporting HB 376 (Willet) would require each school board to report to the Department of Education annually the number and type of teacher, other instructional personnel, and support staff vacancies in the school division and each approved education preparation program to report to the Department of Education annually the number of individuals who completed the program by endorsement area.

Department of Emergency Management; Responsibilities of Political Subdivisions; Provision of Emergency Preparedness Information to Individuals With Limited English Proficiency or Access and Functional Needs HB 420 (Price) would direct the Department of Emergency Management (the Department) to ensure that the model school crisis and emergency management plan developed by the Board of Education in consultation with the Department is designed to include and reach individuals with limited English proficiency or access and functional needs. The bill would also direct the Department to develop an emergency response plan to  address the needs of such individuals in the event of a disaster, including the provision of competent interpretation services and translated documents, and assist and coordinate with local agencies in developing similar emergency response plans for such individuals. The bill would require that every local and interjurisdictional emergency management agency include in its emergency operations plan provisions to ensure that adequate and timely emergency relief assistance, including competent interpretation services and translated documents, is provided to such individuals. The bill would require the governing body of each locality that is required to establish an alert and warning plan to ensure that such plan provides adequate and timely warnings for such individuals.

Parental Educational Information; Tobacco and Nicotine Vapor Products HB1073 (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. The bill would require that the information provided be consistent with guidelines set forth by the Department of Education. 

School Boards; Career and Technical Education; Academic and Career Plans; Contents HB 1276 (O’Quinn) would require each school board to include, as part of each student's academic and career plan in the career and technical education curricula, a list of the top 100 professions in the Commonwealth by median pay and the education, training, and skills required for each such profession and the top 10 degree programs at institutions of higher education in the Commonwealth by median pay of program graduates.

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 to ensure that revisions 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. 

Department of Education; Learning Management System SB 366 (Dunnavant) would direct the Department of Education to obtain a statewide learning management system for use in public schools by the start of the 2022-2023 school year. 

Tax Credit for Teaching Material Expenses SB 500 (Reeves) would establish an individual nonrefundable income tax credit of up to $250 for licensed teachers in taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2020, but before January 1, 2025, for the purchase price of materials used in teaching public primary or secondary school students that were purchased during the taxable year, provided that such purchases were neither reimbursed nor claimed as a deduction on the teacher's federal income tax return. The total amount of tax credits available for a taxable year would not exceed $1 million. If the amount of the credit exceeds the taxpayer's tax liability for the taxable year in which the teaching materials were purchased, such excess may be carried over for five years. The provisions of the bill are contingent on funding in a general appropriation act.

Commission on School Construction and Modernization Established; Report SB 888 (McClellan) would establish the Commission on School Construction and Modernization for the purpose of providing guidance and resources to local school divisions related to school construction and modernization and making funding recommendations to the General Assembly and the Governor. The bill would have a sunset date of July 1, 2026, with a provision that if the Commission does not receive funding in the appropriation act after its first year, it would sunset on July 1 of the following year. 

Amended K12 and Mandate Legislation  

Local school boards; lead testing; report; parental notification HB 797 (Askew) and SB 392 (McPike) as amended, would require each local school board's plan to test and remediate certain potable water sources to be consistent with guidance published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or the Department of Health. The bills would require each local school board to submit such testing plan and report the results of any such test to the Department of Health. The bills would also require local school boards to take all necessary steps to notify parents if testing results indicate lead contamination that exceeds 10 parts per billion. 

Menstrual supplies; certain school buildings HB 405 (Keam), as amended, would require each school board to make tampons or pads available at all times and at no cost to students in the bathrooms of each facility that it owns, leases, or otherwise controls that houses a public school at which any student in grades five through 12 is enrolled.  SB 232 (Boysko) as amended, would require each school board to make tampons and pads available at all times and at no cost to students in the bathrooms of each facility that it owns, leases, or otherwise controls that houses a public school at which any student in grades five through 12 is enrolled.

School boards; mental health awareness training HB 74 (Kory) would require each school board to adopt and implement policies that require each teacher and other relevant personnel, as determined by the school board, employed on a full-time basis, to complete a mental health awareness training or similar program at least once and provide such training, which may be provided pursuant to a contract with the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, a community services board, a behavioral health authority, a nonprofit organization, or other certified trainer or via an online module.  SB 619 (Deeds) would require each local school board to adopt and implement policies that require each school board employee deemed to be in need of such training to complete mental health awareness training once every 10 years. The bill would require the Department of Education to make mental health awareness training available to employees in need of such training.   

Public Institutions of Higher Education; Student Journalists; Freedom of Speech and the Press HB 36 (Hurst) was amended and would now only apply to student journalists at public institutions of higher education and not to K12 student journalists.