2022 General Assembly Update
Week ending March 4, 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 Discussions

The House and Senate have both named budget conferees who will begin meeting to resolve differences between the budgets passed in each chamber.  Fairfax delegation member Delegate Mark Sickles was named as a House budget conferee, while Senators Janet Howell, Dick Saslaw, and George Barker were all named Senate conferees.  Final budget action continues to be anticipated by Saturday, March 12, the scheduled last day of Session.

Committee Action

This past week, Committees in both chambers rushed to clear their dockets prior to the scheduled end of Session on Saturday, March 12^th.  While the Senate Education and Health Committee considered 27 education-related bills at its final meeting on Thursday, March 3^rd, the House Education Committee will conduct its final meeting to act on their few remaining bills this coming Monday, March 7^th

Among the 27 education related bills before the Senate Education and Health Committee, action taken on some of the key bills of interest to FCPS was as follows:

Reported

• Academic Year Governor’s School HB 127 (Davis) The bill was amended and would prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the process of admitting students to academic year Governor’s Schools and would require each local school board that jointly manages and controls a regional academic year Governor's school pursuant to § 22.1-26 shall collaborate to ensure that each public middle school that is eligible to send students to attend such Governor's school offers coursework, curriculum, and instruction that is comparable in content and in rigor in order to provide each student in each such middle school with the opportunity to gain admission to and excel academically at such Governor's school.  The bill passed in Senate Education and Health and will now be considered on the Senate floor. 

Just as a reminder of the remaining legislative process for this and other bills with differences between House and Senate versions:  should the bill pass the Senate in its current amended form it would have to return to the House for them to either accept or reject the Senate’s amendments.  If they accept the amendments, the bill moves on to the Governor for his signature, amendment, or veto.  If they reject the amendments and the Senate insists on their version, a committee of conference is convened to address the differences in the bill.  If a conference committee adopts a conference report to resolve the differences in the bill, that report goes to the floor of each chamber for a straight up or down vote.

• College Partnership Laboratory Schools; Application and Establishment HB 346 (Davis) A substitute which made the bill identical to SB 598 (Pillion) was adopted and will now be considered on the Senate floor.  SB 598 is still pending in the House Education Committee.
• Employment of School Resource Officers or School Security Officers HB 873 (Greenhalgh) This bill was amended to eliminate the requirement for additional SRO’s and would now require training of local law-enforcement officers and collaboration with law enforcement in divisions that did not use SRO’s.  It will now be considered on the Senate floor.
• Through-year growth assessment system; BOE to seek & incorporate input & suggestions into system.  HB 197 (Webert) was amended to request that the Board of Education seek input from local school divisions regarding the implementation of the state’s through-year growth assessment system, including how the administration of such assessments and the reporting of assessment results can be improved.  The bill will now be considered on the Senate floor.
• Authority to Temporarily Extend Certain Teachers’ Licenses HB 236 (Orrock) – the Senate included an emergency clause on the bill in Committee and it will now be considered on the Senate floor.
• School Counselors; Staffing Ratios; Flexibility HB 829 (Wilt) was approved in Committee and will be considered on the Senate floor.

Failed to Report

• Parental Choice Education Savings Accounts Established HB 1024 (LaRock)
• Students Who Receive Home Instruction; Participation in Interscholastic Programs HB 511 (March)
• Family Life Education Programs; Opt-In for Student Participation HB 789 (LaRock)
• Teaching or Promotion of Certain Concepts in Public Elementary and Secondary Education; Declaration as Unlawful and Discriminatory Practice HB 787 (LaRock)
• Cultural Competency Training; Evaluations HB 1093 (Batten)
• Guidelines for the Provision of Counseling Service in Public Schools HB 1034 (Ransome)
• Immunizations; Authority of the Commissioner of Health; Religious Exception HB 306 (Freitas
• High School Graduation; Alternative Pathways to the Advance Studies Diploma HB 340 (Davis)

Also note that the bill related to Virginia Freedom of Information Act; meetings conducted through electronic meetings (HB 444, Bennett-Parker) was amended and passed in the Senate General Laws and Technology Committee and now awaits consideration on the Senate floor.

Bills Requiring a Conference Committee

• Provisional Teacher Licensure: Teachers Licensed or Certified Outside of the United States 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.  The House conformed SB 68 to HB 979 (Tran) which would expand flexibility to anyone who has held a license or certification within the last seven years. The Senate insisted on its substitute, so the bills will go to a conference committee. 

• 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.  The only remaining difference in the two proposals is the proportional representation of House and Senate members on the committee.

• Sales Tax: exemption for food purchased for human consumption & essential personal hygiene products. HB 90 (McNamara) and SB 451 (Boysko) Retail Sales and Use tax; exemption for essential personal hygiene products.  Differences remain between the two bills regarding whether they affect both local and schools revenue and the proposed mechanisms they propose to replace lost revenues.

Bills Passed in both the House and Senate

These bills will now be forwarded to the Governor for his approval, amendment, or veto.

Family Life

• Family Life Education Curricula, Certain; Optional Instruction on Human Trafficking HB 1023 (Guzman)

In Person Instruction/Mask Mandates

• Public Elementary and Secondary Schools and Public School-Based Early Childhood Care and Education Programs; Student Instruction HB 1272 (Batten) This in-person, no mask instruction bill is similar but not identical to SB 739 (Dunnavant) which has already received the Governor’s approval and became effective on March 1, 2022.  HB 1272 lacks the amendments proposed by the Governor to SB 739, including the emergency clause.

Instructional/Library Materials Review

• Policy on Sexually Explicit Instructional Material SB 656 (Dunnavant)

Literacy

• Virginia Literacy Act; Early Student Literacy; Evidence-Based Literacy Instruction; Science-Based Reading Research SB 616 (Lucas).  HB 319 (Coyner) is still in the process of being considered by the Senate.

School Health

• Early Childhood Care and Education Entities; Administration of Epinephrine HB 1328 (Delaney) and SB 737 (Boysko)

Special Services

• High School Students; Instruction Concerning Post-Graduate Opportunities HB 1299 (Coyner) and SB 738 (Morrisey)
• Children Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing; Language Development Assessment Resources  SB 265 (Hashmi).  HB 649 (Carr) is still in the process of being considered by the Senate.

Student Discipline

• Principal’s Required Incident Reporting HB 4 (Wyatt) and SB 36 (Norment)

Student Safety

• Annual School Safety Audits SB 600 (Pillion) and HB 1129 (Taylor)

Teacher Licensure Flexibilities

• Applications for Teacher Licensure by Reciprocity; Military Spouses; Timeline for Determination SB 154 (Locke) and HB 230 (Coyner)

Bills that were Continued to 2023 During the week ending 03/04/2022

During the first Session of each biennium, the General Assembly has the option to “continue” bills to the following year.  Functionally speaking, that makes them inactive for the remainder of the current Session, but they can be picked back up where they were in the legislative process during the next Session by the committee that continued the bill.  If picked back up for the next Session, such bills would still have to continue through the normal legislative process prior to final approval (adoption in both houses, signed by the Governor).

• STEM+C; Virginia STEM Education Advisory Board HB 221 (Davis) would add science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and computing (STEM+C), which includes real-world, interdisciplinary, and computational instruction and preparation of students in STEM+C, to the list of topics that shall be included in the Standards of Learning for the Commonwealth.

 Digital Tools, Accessibility HB 1246 (Tran) would require the Department of Education to convene a work group to examine ways in which school divisions can effectively identify and receive responsive and responsible bids from vendors to procure digital tools, including online platforms, courses, digital applications, information and communication technology services, and digital content, that comply with the federal accessibility standard and any statutory or regulatory changes that may assist school divisions to procure such digital tools that comply with such standard.

• Local School Boards and Comprehensive Community Colleges; Compensation Structure HB 271 (Byron) would encourage local school boards and comprehensive communities colleges to enter into local or regional agreements for the establishment and implementation of a competitive compensation structure to recruit and retain adjunct instructors to be jointly compensated by the relevant school boards and colleges to prepare both high school students and college students to earn credit-bearing workforce credentials and noncredit workforce credentials, as that term is defined in relevant law.

Bills that FAILED during the week ending 03/04/2022

Instructional Technology/Cybersecurity

• Statewide Learning Management System; Established SB 384 (Dunnavant)

School Construction & Modernization

• School Boards and Local Governing Bodies; Unexpended Local Funds; School Maintenance, Renovation, and Construction SB 481 (McClellan)

School Health

• Health, Department of and local health departments; certain communication prohibited. HB 156 (Byron)

School Resource Officers

• School Security Officers; Scope of Employment; Certain Veterans HB 8 (Anderson)

Standards of Accreditation/Graduation Requirements

• High School Graduation; Alternative Pathways to the Advanced Studies Diploma; Associated Diploma Seals HB 340 (Davis)

Student Discipline

• Disorderly Conduct HB 89 (Walker)