2022 General Assembly Update
Week ending February 18, 2022
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”

Sunday, February 20^th is “Budget Sunday”.  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 between their proposed amendments will be resolved by conferees appointed by the House and Senate prior to the end of the Session.  The conferees’ proposed resolution is then sent to each chamber for a final vote by the final day of Session (currently scheduled for Saturday, March 12).

Post Crossover

All legislation under consideration at this point in the Session has already passed in one chamber and is now being considered by the other.  Remaining legislation can be categorized into the following 4 categories: 1) bills that have passed in one chamber without similar legislation in the other; 2) bills on the same topic that have passed in each chamber with differences that must be resolved; 3) bills that have passed in one chamber, with a similar bill rejected by the other; and 4) bills that have passed in each chamber with no differences.  Note that in this last category, even identical bills must pass in both bodies.

If a bill passes in identical form in both the House and Senate, it goes to the Governor for his review (and signature, amendment, or veto).  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.

KEY K-12 ACTIVE EDUCATION BILLS FOLLOWING CROSSOVER

Active Bills – Passed One Chamber Without Similar Legislation in the Other

Academic Year Governor’s Schools Admissions

• Academic Year Governor’s Schools Admissions HB 127 (Davis) would prohibit the use of regional allocations of seats or consideration of demographic or socioeconomic factors in the admissions process for academic year governor’s school admissions. 

Collective Bargaining

• Compensation for Union Activities HB 337 (Freitas) would prohibit any employer of public employees authorized to engage in collective bargaining from entering into a collective bargaining agreement to compensate any public employee or third party for an employee organization's or union's activities.
• Labor Union Dues Deduction Authorization HB 341 (Freitas) would require consent by public employees authorized to engage in collective bargaining before union or employee association dues are deducted from the employees' pay directly by their employers. 

COVID

• Immunizations; authority of the Commissioner of Health; religious exception HB 306 (Freitas) would exempt a person, including a parent or guardian on behalf of a child, who objects to administration of a vaccine on religious grounds from mandatory immunization requirements during an epidemic.
• COVID-19; guidelines; emergency.  SB 431 (Dunnavant) would require the Department of Education, in collaboration with the Department of Health, to (i) recommend options for isolation and quarantine for students and employees at public schools who contract or are exposed to COVID-19 and (ii) develop guidelines for such schools and recommend such guidelines for use as an alternative to quarantine.

Cultural Competency/Equity

• Cultural Competency Training HB 1093 (Batten) would require school boards to conduct a public hearing prior to the adoption of any policies regarding cultural competency training.

Family Life

• Family Life Opt In Provision HB 789 (La Rock) would change current family life opt out provisions to an opt in. 

Instructional Technology/Cybersecurity

• Broadband Annual Report SB 724 (Pillion) would require an annual report on student households without broadband service.
• Digital tools, accessibility. HB 1246 (Tran) would require convening a work group to provide input and recommendations regarding procurement of accessible digital tools. 
• Statewide Learning Management System Established SB 384 (Dunnavant) would direct the Department of Education to establish the Statewide Learning Management System (VaLMS) to be made available to each public school in the Commonwealth.

Instruction/Curriculum

• Local School Boards and Comprehensive Community Colleges; Compensation Structure HB 271 (Byron) would encourage local school boards and comprehensive community colleges to enter into local or regional agreements for the establishment and implementation of a competitive compensation structure to recruit and retain adjunct instructors.
• Public Middle Schools; Physical Education to Include Personal Safety Training HB 1215 (Ransone) would require grade seven and eight physical education classes to include at least one hour of personal safety training per school year in each such grade level that is developed and delivered in partnership with the local law-enforcement agency and consists of situational safety awareness training, social media education, and self-defense tactics training.

Interscholastic Sports

• Home School Participation, Interscholastic Sports HB 511 (March) would require the Virginia High School League to deem home instruction students eligible for interscholastic sports.

Personnel

• Rights of State and Local Employees; Freedoms of Conscience and Expression HB 384 (Davis) would protect state and local government employees from being penalized by their employer for expressing their opinion regarding a current or proposed regulation, rule, policy, position, or other action or purpose of a unit of state or local government at a hearing of a public body during the time designated for public comment when such employees are speaking on their own behalf as members of the public.

School Buses/Drivers 

• Commercial Driver's Licenses HB 553 (O’Quinn) would direct the Secretary of Transportation, in consultation and working with various agencies of the Commonwealth, to implement various initiatives related to commercial driver's licenses.
• Commercial Driver’s License Examinations HB 1146 (Bell, R) would authorize school boards to issue a commercial driver’s license skills test certificate to employees of other school boards and would extend the validity of a skills test certification from 60 days to six months. 

School Health

• Health, Department of; Certain Communication Prohibited HB 156 (Byron) would prohibit any person employed by or who has entered a contract to provide services on behalf of the Department of Health or a local department of health from initiating communication regarding health-related matters with a minor on behalf of the Department or local department of health without the consent of the minor's parent, except as otherwise required by law. 
• School Health Services Information; Survey SB 704 (Kiggans) would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to, at least annually, survey all local school divisions and use such data to strengthen the comprehensive availability of school health services information. 

School Meals Program

• School Breakfast Program and National School Lunch Program; Processing of Applications HB 587 (Roem) would require processing of applications for participation in the federal School Breakfast Program or the National School Lunch Program within six working days after the date of receipt of the completed application. The bill would have a delayed effective date of August 1, 2023.

Standards of Accreditation/Graduation Requirements

• High School Graduation; Alternative Pathways to the Advanced Diploma HB 340 (Davis) – would direct the Board of Education to establish two pathways to the advanced studies diploma; including one that requires advanced coursework in career and technical education but not in world languages and another that requires advanced coursework in world language but not career and technical education.

Standards of Quality

• School Quality Profiles; Teacher Data SB 662 (Lucas) would require the Department of Education to include on each School Quality Profile data on teachers’ race and proficiency in any language other than English.

Student Counseling

• Parental Consent HB 1034 (Ransone) would require the Department of Education to develop and each local school board to adhere to guidelines for the provision of counseling services in public schools, to include provisions for parental consent, written parental notification, and parental involvement.

Student Discipline

• Disorderly Conduct HB 89 (Walker) would reinstate the criminal charge of disorderly conduct for high school students on school grounds.
• Juvenile Law-Enforcement Records; Disclosures to School Principals SB 649 (Hanger) would make mandatory that the chief of police of a city or chief of police or sheriff of a county disclose to a school principal all instances where a juvenile at the principal's school has been charged with a violent juvenile felony, an arson offense, or a concealed weapon offense. 

Student Safety

• Annual School Safety Audits – Building Blueprints HB 741 (Bell) would require each local school board, as part of each annual school safety audit, to create a detailed and accurate floor plan for each public school building that may be withheld from public disclosure.

Student Testing

• Middle and High School End-of-Course Assessments; Number and Type HB 585 (VanValkenburg) would, by the 2027-2028 school year, reduce the number of state mandated end-of-course Standards of Learning assessments; would embed performance based elements in assessments for Virginia Studies, Civics and Economics, Virginia and U.S. history, and biology; and require student performance on the Virginia and U.S. history and biology end-of-course assessments to account for 10 percent of the student's final classroom grade in each such course.

Teacher Licensure Flexibilities

• Authority to Temporarily Extend Certain Teachers’ Licenses HB 236 (Orrock) would permit the Board of Education to grant a two-year extension of the license of any individual whose license expires on June 30, 2022, to provide the individual with sufficient additional time to complete the requirements for licensure or license renewal.

Virginia Freedom of Information Act Records Requests

• Estimated Charges for Records HB 307 (Freitas) would require public bodies to make all reasonable efforts to supply requested records through FOIA at the lowest possible cost and to supply cost estimates to requesters. 

Vouchers/Tax Credits/Educational Savings Accounts

• Scholarship Tax Credits Unsafe Schools HB 294 (Freitas) would grant a scholarship tax credit to students deemed in need of a safer school environment to be used at another public school either within or outside their home district.
• Education Savings Accounts HB 1024 (LaRock) would create education savings accounts allowing public K12 education funding dollars to be used for private school or home schooling and require local school divisions to administer and audit distributed funds.   

Active Bills – Passed in Each Chamber with Differences That Must Be Resolved

College Partnership Laboratory Schools

• College Partnership Laboratory Schools, Application and Establishment HB 346 (Davis) and SB 598 (Pillion) would expand upon current authority granted to the State Board of Education to grant charters to institutions of higher education to create and operate K12 lab schools. HB 346 would allow for memoranda of understanding with any individual or entity, including private charter providers, for elements of school operations. SB 598 would require “collaboration” between lab schools and local school divisions and would clarify the lab schools’ funding sources.

School Buses/Drivers

• Commercial Driver’s License Examinations HB 530 (Batten) and SB 301 (Deeds) would authorize governmental entities, including comprehensive community colleges in the Virginia Community College System, certified as third-party testers to test and train drivers employed by another governmental entity or enrolled in a commercial driver training course offered by a community college. The bills would also repeal the prohibition on applicants 18 years of age and older retaking skills tests within 15 days.  HB 530 would also make immediate instead of contingent on federal regulations the repeal of certain provisions requiring an applicant to, after failing the behind the wheel examination for a third time, take a course prior to reexamination.

Student Discipline

• Incident Reporting HB 4 (Wyatt) and SB 36 (Norment) would require principals to report a broader array of school-based offenses to law enforcement than is currently provided for in law. SB 36 would provide that only written threats must be reported to law enforcement while HB 4 would require all threats to be reported.  SB 36 would provide additional reporting exceptions for students with an Individualized Education Plan (IEP).

Taxation

• Sales Tax; Exemption for Food Purchased for Human Consumption and Essential Personal Hygiene Products HB 90 (McNamara) and SB 451 (Boysko) are both related to the elimination of taxes on food purchased for human consumption and essential personal hygiene products.  HB 90 would eliminate both the state and local components of the tax, with a proposed mechanism to replace some of the lost revenue.  HB 451 would retain the local option sales tax but eliminate the portion dedicated to education, and instead would create an allocation of state revenues to replace the funding distribution to localities for education funding.

Teacher Licensure Flexibilities

• Provisional Teacher Licensure; Teachers Licensed or Certified Outside of the United States HB 979 (Tran) and SB 68 (Favola) would require the Board of Education to provide for the issuance of a provisional license, valid for a period not to exceed three years, to any individual who holds a valid and officially issued and recognized license or certification to teach issued by an entity outside of the United States.  SB 68 would limit such flexibility to individuals currently holding a valid license, while HB 979 would extend such flexibility to anyone who had held a license or certification within the last seven years.

Active Bills – Passed in One Chamber with a Similar Bill Rejected by the Other Body

Charter Schools

• Regional Charter Schools HB 356 (Tata) would bypass local school board chartering authority by allowing the state Board of Education to create new regional school divisions on top of two or more existing districts, which would have a separate governance Board to create and govern charters. These Charter Schools would be governed by Board of Education and local government appointees and be exempt from several requirements/regulations including staffing ratios and Accreditation Standards.  The Senate rejected a similar bill, SB 125 (Obenshain) 

Collective Bargaining

• Collective Bargaining, local authority HB 883 (Byron) would repeal local authority to authorize collective bargaining.  SB 374 (Obenshain) was rejected by the Senate.

Cultural Competency/Equity

• Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion HB 1300 (Freitas) would rename the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to the Director of Diversity, Opportunity, and Inclusion.  The Senate rejected a similar bill, SB 735 (Ruff).

Electronic Meetings

• Electronic Meetings HB 444 (Bennett-Parker) would allow public bodies to conduct a portion of their meetings as all-virtual public meetings where all the members who participate do so remotely and that the public may access through electronic communications means.  SB 214 (McPike) was defeated by the Senate.

 Equity/Curriculum and Instructional Materials Reviews

• Divisive Concepts HB 787 (LaRock) would declare it an unlawful and discriminatory practice for any local school board or employee or contractor thereof to train or instruct any individual on any divisive concept for the purpose of promoting and encouraging such individual to adopt or believe such concept. The Senate rejected a similar bill, SB 570 (Kiggans).

School Resource Officers in Every School

• School Resource Officers HB 873 (Greenhalgh) would require one School Resource Officer (SRO) or a School Security Officer in every school in Virginia.  The Senate rejected a similar bill, SB 415 (DeSteph).

Standards of Quality

• English Language Learners SB 156 (Hashmi) would increase the staffing standard for English learner teachers from 20 per 1,000 students to 22 per 1,000.  The House rejected a bill with related provisions, HB 1184 (Guzman)
• Standards of Quality, Specialized Support Positions SB 490 (McClellan) would increase staffing for specialized student support positions from 3 positions per 1,000 students to 4 positions per 1,000 students.  The House rejected a bill HB 1135 (Bourne) with similar provisions.

Taxation

• Additional Local Sales and Use Tax: Use of Revenues for Construction or Renovation of Schools SB 472 (McClellan) would allow any county or city to levy a local general retail sales tax and a local use tax at a rate not to exceed one percent as determined by its governing body to provide revenues solely for capital projects for the construction or renovation of schools if such levy is approved in a voter referendum. HB 531 (Hudson) and HB 1099 (LaRock) both failed in the House.

Active Bills – Passed in each Chamber in identical form

(Note that even identical bills must still pass both bodies)

In-Person Instruction/Masks

• In Person Instruction HB 1272 (Batten) and SB 739 (Dunnavant) – would require that in person instruction be offered to all students and allow for parental choice on masking.  The Governor signed SB 739 into law with an emergency clause, making the bill’s provisions effective immediately, but provided school divisions until March 1^st to implement new masking policies.

COVID

• Virginia Pandemic Response and Preparedness Council HB 87 (Ware) and SJ 10 (Surovell) would establish a joint subcommittee to study pandemic response and preparedness in the Commonwealth.

Instructional/Library Materials Review

• Policy on Sexually Explicit Instructional Material HB 1009 (Durant) and SB 656 (Dunnavant) would require notification of any potentially sexually explicit instruction material, including identification of specific content, and opportunity to opt out of any related assignments.

Instructional Technology/Cybersecurity

• Public bodies; security of government databases and data communications HB 1290 (Hayes) and SB 764 (Barker) would require notification to the Virginia Fusion Intelligence Center within 24 hours of cybersecurity incidents by all public bodies and would establish a work group to determine future reporting procedures.

Literacy

• Virginia Literacy Act HB 319 (Coyner) and SB 616 (Lucas) would create the Virginia Literacy Act, shifting literacy instruction to science based instructional practices.

School Health

• Early Childhood Care and Education Entities Administration of Epinephrine HB 1328 (Delaney) and SB 737 (Boysko) would require for the possession and administration in cases of emergency of stock, weight-appropriate doses of epinephrine in early childhood care and education programs.
• School Health Services Committee HB 215 (Robinson) and SB 62 (Favola) would establish the School Health Services Committee to review and provide advice to the General Assembly regarding proposals which would mandate school divisions to offer certain health services in a school setting. 

Student Safety

• Law Enforcement Officers HB 1129 (Taylor) and SB 600 (Pillion) would require each local school board to collaborate with the chief law-enforcement officer of the locality or his designee when conducting required school safety audits.

Teacher Licensure Flexibilities

• Applications for Teacher Licensure Reciprocity; Military Spouses; Timeline for Determination HB 230 (Coyner) and SB 154 (Locke) would require the Board of Education's licensure regulations to provide for licensure by reciprocity for any spouse of an active duty or reserve member of the Armed Forces of the United States or a member of the Virginia National Guard who has obtained a valid out-of-state license, with full credentials and without deficiencies. 

Virginia Retirement System (VRS)

• Employer Contributions HB 473 (Bulova) and SB 70 (Newman) would separate the employer contribution for Virginia Retirement System (VRS) employers participating in the Hybrid Retirement Plan into defined benefit and defined contribution components.  The legislation would have a delayed effective date of July 1, 2024.

Bills that FAILED during the week ending 02/18/2022 

Academic Year Governor’s Schools Admissions

• Regional Admissions Working Group HB 438 (Subramanyam)

COVID

• Mask Mandates HB 514 (March)  HB 1036 (LaRock)
• Medical Mandates HB 22 (Walker)
• Vaccinations HB 27 (Anderson) HB 510 (March), HB 512 (March)

Family Life

• Ultrasound Viewing HB 785 (LaRock)

Freedom of Information Act – FOIA Requests

• Allowable Charges for FOIA Requests HB 599 (Roem)

Instructional/Library Materials Reviews

• SOL Curriculum and Textbook Reviews HB 946 (Wampler)
• “Divisive Concepts” HB 786 (LaRock), HB 781 (Williams), HB 1007 (Scott), HB 1032 (LaRock), and HB 1126 (Avoli)

Personnel

• Overtime Pay Requirements; Volunteers HB 61 (McGuire)
• Public School Teachers; Probationary Term of Service, Grounds for Dismissal and Dismissal Hearings HB 9 (Ware)

School Buses/Drivers

• Public School Buses; Decals; "In God We Trust" and "One Nation Under God HB 113 (March)

School Funding

• JLARC; True Cost of Education; At-Risk Add-On and Composite Index of Local Ability-To-Pay. HJ 31 (VanValkenburg)
• JLARC; Increasing the Progressivity of Virginia's Individual Income Tax System; Report HJ 24 (Watts)

Student Safety

• Control of Firearms by School Boards and Localities HB 391 (Freitas), HB 26 (Anderson), HB 483 (Freitas), and HB 1033 (Davis)

Taxation

• Sales Tax on Food HB 1008 (Durant) 

Vouchers/Tax Credits/Education Savings Accounts Vouchers

• Tax Credits  HB 293 (Freitas), HB 784 (LaRock), HB 982 (Scott), and HB 1025 (LaRock)