2022 General Assembly Update
Week ending March 12, 2022 – Adjournment Sine Die
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.

Adjournment Sine Die

The General Assembly adjourned Sine Die on Saturday, March 12, which marks the end of the 2022 Regular Session.  However, they adjourned prior to completing work on the budget as well as on several bills that were in conference committees prior to adjournment.  Our understanding is that the General Assembly will return in a Special Session (date to be determined) to both finalize the budget as well as to complete work on the bills left in conference as of the Saturday adjournment.

Bills Remaining in Conference Committee

As part of its adjournment, the General Assembly allowed bills still in conference (including HB 29 and HB 30, the budget bills) to continue on for consideration at the anticipated budget special session, particularly as a number of the bills have potential fiscal impacts. 

Sales Tax: exemption for food purchased for human consumption & essential personal hygiene products. HB 90 (McNamara) and SB 451 (Boysko) As passed by the House, the bill would provide an exemption from the Retail Sales and Use Tax (“RSUT”) for food purchased for human consumption and essential personal hygiene products. This bill would also require the distribution of a supplemental school payment (“SSP”) to localities beginning in Fiscal Year 2023. For Fiscal Years 2023 and 2024, the total SSP distribution to all localities would be an amount equal to revenue generated by a 0.182 percent sales and use tax and would be distributed monthly to each locality in proportion to the locality’s estimated average share of monthly distributions of revenue from the local option 1% sales and use tax attributable to food for human consumption and essential personal hygiene products. Beginning in Fiscal Year 2025, the distribution to localities would be based on each locality’s pro rata share of all local option revenues. The bill would also increase the current distribution of sales and use tax revenues to localities for local education based on school age population from a 1 percent sales and use tax to a 1.182 percent sales and use tax.

As passed the Senate, the bill would, beginning January 1, 2023, provide an exemption from the state Retail Sales and Use Tax (“RSUT”) for food purchased for human consumption and essential personal hygiene products. Such sales would continue to be subject to the one percent

local option sales tax. The bill would also provide, beginning February 1, 2023, an allocation of state revenues to fund the distribution to localities for educational funding that would have otherwise been distributed to them absent the exemption created by the bill.

Standards of Quality; specialized student support SB 490 (McClellan) as passed by the Senate would require each school board to provide at least four specialized student support positions per 1,000 students. Under current law, each school board is required to provide at least three such positions per 1,000 students.  As passed by the House, the bill would require one full time principal in each elementary school, middle school, and high school and also require one full time assistant principal per 500 elementary school, middle school, and high school students.

College partnership laboratory schools; application and establishment. HB 346 (Davis) and SB 598 (Pillion)  As passed by the House, would permit any public institution of higher education or private institution of higher education to apply to the Board of Education (the Board) to establish a college partnership laboratory school as a new school or through the conversion of all or part of an existing school. Under current law, only public and private institutions of higher education that operate approved teacher education programs are permitted to apply to the Board to establish such a school and no explicit provision is made for the conversion of an existing school. The bill would permit college partnership laboratory schools to enter into a memorandum of understanding with any individual or entity to provide apprenticeships, career training, and curriculum support to carry out the provisions of law relating to such schools. The bill would require the Board, in reviewing such applications, to give substantial preference to any application from a historically black college or university and any application to establish a college partnership laboratory school in an underserved community, which the bill defines as a geographical area that is served by public schools in which a high percentage of students are eligible to receive free or reduced-price lunch, as determined by the Board.

As passed by the Senate, would permit any public institution of higher education and any nonprofit private institution of higher education that is eligible for the Tuition Assistance Grant Program to establish a college partnership laboratory school as a new school or through the conversion of all or part of an existing school. The bill would require applications for formation of a college partnership laboratory school to describe how the applicant will cooperate with local school boards, including allowing the local school board to elect to name a board member to the governing board of the college partnership laboratory school, and to include assurances that the applicant will work with the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia to develop programs that may award college credits. The bill would require the Board, among other criteria for reviewing and ruling on such applications, to give substantial preference to any application from a historically black college or university; any application to establish a college partnership laboratory school in an underserved community, which the bill defines as a geographical area that is served by public schools in which a high percentage of students are eligible to receive free or reduced-price lunch, as determined by the Board; and any joint application submitted by an institution of higher education in partnership with one or more local school boards. The provisions of the bill would be contingent on funding in a general appropriation act.

School Construction Fund and Program; created and established. HB 563 (O’Quinn) and SB 473 (McClellan) As passed by the House, would require the Department of Education, in consultation with the Department of General Services, to develop or adopt and maintain a data collection tool to assist each school board to determine the relative age of each public school building in the local school division and the amount of maintenance reserve funds that are necessary to restore each such building. The bill would also establish the School Construction Fund and Program for the purpose of awarding grants from the Fund to local school boards to fund the construction of new public school buildings in the local school division. The bill also would provide that any remaining revenues not appropriated by the Gaming Proceeds Fund shall be appropriated to the School Construction Fund and Program. Under current law, any remaining revenues in the Gaming Proceeds Fund not appropriated remain in the Fund until appropriated by the General Assembly for programs established to address public school construction, renovations, or upgrades.

As passed by the Senate, would establish the School Construction Fund as a special non-reverting fund in the state treasury and requires the Department of Education to establish the School Construction Program for the purpose of providing grants from the Fund, subject to certain conditions, to school boards that leverage federal, state, and local programs and resources to finance the design and construction of new school buildings and facilities or the modernization and maintenance of existing school buildings and facilities. The bill also would provide that any remaining revenues not appropriated by the General Assembly from the Gaming Proceeds Fund shall be appropriated to the School Construction Fund and Program. Under current law, any remaining revenues in the Gaming Proceeds Fund not appropriated remain in the Fund until appropriated by the General Assembly for programs established to address public school construction, renovations, or upgrades.

Literary Fund; open application process for loans, maximum loan amounts, etc. SB 471 (McClellan) would require the Board of Education (the Board) to establish an annual open application process for Literary Fund loans to finance the construction and renovation of public elementary and secondary school buildings in the Commonwealth to occur during the period that the Board deems most suitable and requires the Board to prioritize applications based on the composite index of local ability-to-pay. The bill would increase from $7.5 million to $25 million the maximum Literary Fund loan amount and requires the Board to offer a loan add-on not to exceed $5 million per loan for projects that result in school consolidation and the net reduction of at least one existing school. The bill would further require the Board, in consultation with the Department of Treasury, to establish loan interest rates that are benchmarked to a market index on an annual basis, not to exceed two percent per year for the localities with a school division composite index of local ability-to-pay between 0.0 and 0.299 and requires the Board to utilize a sliding scale based on the local school division's composite index of local ability-to-pay to determine the interest rate on each such loan. Under current law, such rates are required to be set between two and six percent per year. The bill would require the Board to establish a competitive program for the award of up to $25,000 to a school division that receives a Literary Fund loan for the purpose of subsidizing all or a portion of the closing costs for such loan. In addition, the bill would permit the Board to remove any project that has been inactive for at least five years from any Literary Fund loan project waiting list that it maintains. As introduced, this bill is a recommendation of the Commission on School Construction and Modernization.  The only difference in House and Senate position is that the House wishes to add a re-enactment clause on the bill, meaning the legislation wouldn’t become effective unless reenacted during the 2023 General Assembly Session.

Income tax, state; deduction for eligible educator qualifying expenses. HB 103 (Greenhalgh) would provide an individual income tax deduction of up to $500 for the amount actually paid or incurred for eligible educator qualifying expenses. “Eligible educator” would be defined as an individual who for at least 900 hours during the taxable year served as a Virginia licensed teacher, instructor, student counselor, special needs personnel, principal, or student aide for public or private primary and secondary school students in Virginia.  The Senate’s position on the bill is to add a contingency to require the revenue loss to the Commonwealth to be affirmatively accounted for in total projected revenues set forth in the Appropriations Act.

School Health Services Committee; established, report, sunset provision. HB 215 (Robinson) and SB 62 (Favola) would establish the School Health Services Committee to review and provide advice to the General Assembly and other policy makers regarding proposals that require local school boards to offer certain health services in a school setting. The bill would require the Committee to submit its findings and recommendations to the General Assembly and the Governor by October 1 of each year. The bill would have an expiration date of July 1, 2025.

Stem Education Advisory Board; required to review federal occupational categories. HB 217 (Simonds) SB 261 (Hashmi)  Would require the Virginia Economic Development Partnership Authority's Office of Education and Labor Market Alignment (the Office) to review the occupational categories in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' standard occupational classification system to determine the occupational categories that are not properly captured in the Commonwealth's existing STEM and Computing (STEM+C) workforce profile and the gaps in the Commonwealth's tracking of careers in these occupational categories for the purpose of furthering the Office's efforts to specifically align STEM+C workforce and education and shall share its findings with the Virginia Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education Advisory Board (the Board) established in Chapter 26 (§ 22.1-364 et seq.) of Title 22.1 of the Code of Virginia for the purpose of better aligning K-16 education priorities and the Board's tracking and coordination of STEM+C. In conducting such review, the Office shall focus on occupational categories that are not currently tracked or categorized by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics as STEM+C career fields. The Office would be required to submit its findings and any recommendations to the General Assembly no later than October 1, 2022.

Driver education programs: parent/student driver education component SB 78 (Norment) would encourage (but not require) school divisions outside of Planning District 8 (Northern Virginia) to include the requirement for an additional minimum 90-minute parent/student driver education component as part of the classroom portion of its driver education program for all public school divisions. Under current law, the parent/student driver education component is required only in for Planning District 8 (Northern Virginia).  The bill would also require the parent driver education component to include instruction in the dangers of distracted driving.

Pandemic response and preparedness study joint subcommittee SJ 10 (Surovell) would establish a joint subcommittee to study pandemic response and preparedness in the Commonwealth. In conducting its study, the joint subcommittee is tasked with examining existing laws in the Commonwealth and developing recommendations regarding the pandemic response and future needs of the Governor, the General Assembly, local governments, public and private health care systems and other facilities and providers, health districts, the judicial system, K-12 and higher education systems, and the business regulatory system.

Bills Passed in both the House and Senate

The follow bills were passed in both the House and Senate in the final flurry of action prior to adjournment, many with last minute changes.  These bills will now be forwarded to the Governor for his approval, amendment, or veto.

COVID

• COVID-19 guidelines 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. The bill would require such guidelines to be immediately distributed to local school boards and reflect the most updated recommendations to limit the amount of time out of the classroom, including options for no quarantine, as recommended for asymptomatic individuals.

Family Life

• High school family life education curricula; optional instruction on human trafficking. HB 1023 (Guzman) would permit any family life education curriculum offered by a local school division in high school to incorporate age-appropriate elements of effective and evidence-based programs on the prevention, recognition, and awareness of human trafficking of children.

Freedom of Information/Electronic Meetings

• Virginia Freedom of Information Act; meetings conducted through electronic meetings HB 444 (Bennett-Parker) passed, but prior to passage was amended such that the provisions related to all virtual public meetings included in the bill no longer directly apply to local school boards.

• Virginia Freedom of Information Act; estimated charges for records HB 307 (Freitas) was amended prior to passage and would now provide that, except regarding (i) scholastic records requested pursuant to subdivision A 1 of § 2.2-3705.4 or (ii) property records requested by the owner of the property that is the subject of such records, a public body subject to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act shall make all reasonable efforts to supply records requested by a citizen at the lowest possible cost. The bill also would require a public body, prior to conducting a search for records, to notify the requester in writing of the public body's right to make reasonable charges not to exceed its actual cost incurred in accessing, duplicating, supplying, or searching for requested records and inquire of the requester whether he would like to request a cost estimate in advance of the supplying of the requested records.

Governor’s Schools

• Academic Year Governor’s School HB 127 (Davis) 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. 

Instruction/Curriculum

• Public middle schools; physical education to include personal safety training HB 1215 (Ransone) was amended and now would require any physical education class offered to students in grades seven and eight 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 and social media education.

Instructional Technology/Cybersecurity

• Broadband; annual report. SB 724 (Pillion) was amended and would require each school board to submit an annual report to the Virginia Department of Education and the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development that lists each student's 9-1-1 address that does not have broadband access, as defined by the guidelines set out by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development for it Virginia Telecommunication Initiative, beginning in 2022 through the 2025 school year. The bill would also require the Virginia Department of Education, in consultation with the Department of Housing and Community Development, to develop and publish no later than September 1, 2022, a framework and survey tool for school boards to submit such report and the data contained therein.

Literacy

• Virginia Literacy Act; Early Student Literacy; Evidence-Based Literacy Instruction; Science-Based Reading Research HB 319 (Coyner) and SB 616 (Lucas) would make several changes relating to early student literacy, including requiring (i) each education preparation program offered by a public institution of higher education or private institution of higher education or alternative certification program that provides training for any individual seeking initial licensure with an endorsement in a certain area, including as a reading specialist, to demonstrate mastery of science-based reading research and evidence-based literacy instruction, as such terms are defined in the bill; (ii) the literacy assessment required of individuals seeking initial teacher licensure with endorsements in certain areas to include a rigorous test of science-based reading research and evidence-based literacy instruction; (iii) each local school board to establish a divisionwide literacy plan; (iv) each local school board to employ one reading specialist for each 550 students in kindergarten through grade three; and (v) each local school board to provide a program of literacy instruction whereby, among other things, (a) the program provides reading intervention services to students in kindergarten through grade three who demonstrate deficiencies based on their individual performance on the Standards of Learning reading assessment or an early literacy screener provided or approved by the Department of Education; (b) a reading specialist, in collaboration with the teacher of any student who receives such reading intervention services, develops, oversees implementation of, and monitors student progress on a student reading plan; and (c) each student who receives such reading intervention services is assessed utilizing either the early literacy screener provided or approved by the Department or the grade-level reading Standards of Learning assessment again at the end of that school year. NOTE that the provisions of the bill become effective beginning with the 2024–2025 school year.

School Board Governance

• Student Advisory Board HB 1188 (Davis) would establish a Student Advisory Board for the purpose of providing student perspectives on matters before the Board of Education. The Advisory Board would consist of eight members appointed by the Governor to one year terms and shall meet at least semiannually in either an in-person or virtual format. The Advisory Board would make an annual presentation to the Board of Education that includes analysis of and recommendations on matters before the Board or any other matter that the Advisory Board deems relevant.

School Buses/Drivers

• Commercial Driver's License Examinations HB 553 (O’Quinn) would direct the Secretary of Transportation, in consultation and working with various agencies of the Commonwealth, to promote and implement various initiatives related to commercial driver's licenses. The bill would sunset on July 1, 2023. 

• Commercial driver's license; authorizes governmental entities to issue skills test certificate  HB 1146 (Bell) 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 bill would extend the validity of a skills test certification from 60 days to six months.  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 bill would also repeal the prohibition on applicants 18 years of age and older retaking skills tests within 15 days. Current law authorizes such reexamination upon payment of a $2 fee.  HB 530 (Batten) contains similar provisions to SB 301, but 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. The bill would also clarify that no law or regulation safeguarding driver testing information shall be construed to prohibit (i) the possession, use, or provision of the Department of Motor Vehicles' driver license examination questions by or to any person for the purpose of administering a knowledge examination or (ii) the Department from making sample examination questions available to the public or the public from possessing sample examination questions.

School Construction and Modernization

• School division maintenance reserve tool; Department of Education to develop or adopt and maintain. SB 238 (McPike) would require the Department of Education, in consultation with the Department of General Services, to develop or adopt and maintain a data collection tool to assist each school board to determine the relative age of each public school building in the local school division and the amount of maintenance reserve funds that are necessary to restore each such building. The bill would require each school board to provide to the Department of Education in a timely fashion the local data that is necessary to ensure that such tool remains relevant and useful for the determination of maintenance reserve needs. The bill would require the Department of Education to consider using the Department of General Services' Real Estate and Assets Management system for tracking buildings and infrastructure maintenance status to meet these requirements.

School Health

• Heat-related illness; guidelines SB 161 (Hashmi) would direct the Department of Education, in conjunction with stakeholders, to develop guidelines on policies to inform and educate coaches and student athletes and their parents or guardians of the nature and risk of heat-related illness, how to recognize the signs of heat-related illness, and how to prevent heat-related illness to be distributed to local school divisions by August 1, 2022.

School Meals Programs

• Ability to Pay for Meals and School Meal Debt; Extracurricular School Activities HB 583 (Roem) would require each school board to adopt policies that prohibit the school board or any school board employee from denying a student the opportunity to participate in any extracurricular school activity because the student cannot pay for a meal at school or owes a school meal debt.

• School Breakfast Program and National School Lunch Program; Processing of Applications HB 587 (Roem) would require each public elementary or secondary school to process each web-based or paper-based application for student participation in the School Breakfast Program or the National School Lunch Program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture within six working days after the date of receipt of the completed application. The foregoing provision of the bill has a delayed effective date of August 1, 2023. The bill would require school divisions that cannot currently comply with such requirement to develop a plan for ensuring compliance by August 1, 2023.

School Resource Officers

• Employment of School Resource Officers or School Security Officers HB 873 (Greenhalgh) would require, in the case of any public elementary or secondary school in which a school resource officer is employed, the threat assessment team for such school to include at least one such school resource officer. The bill would require the chief local law-enforcement officer for any local school division in which a public elementary or secondary school does not employ a school resource officer to designate a law-enforcement officer to receive, either in-person or online, the school safety training for public school personnel conducted by the Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety in accordance with relevant law and requires such officer to serve as the law-enforcement liaison for the school administrator in such a school who has also received such training as prescribed by relevant law.

Special Services

• Children who are deaf or hard of hearing, language development, assessment resources. HB 649 (Carr) and SB 265 (Hashmi) would require the Department of Education, in coordination with the Department for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing and Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, to (i) select, with input from an advisory committee that the bill establishes, language developmental milestones and include such milestones in a resource for use by parents of a child from birth to age five who is identified as deaf or hard of hearing to monitor and track their child's expressive and receptive language acquisition and developmental stages toward English literacy; (ii) disseminate such resource to such parents; (iii) select existing tools or assessments for educators for use in assessing the language and literacy development of children from birth to age five who are deaf or hard of hearing; (iv) disseminate such tools or assessments to local educational agencies and provide materials and training on their use; and (v) annually produce a report that compares the language and literacy development of children from birth to age five who are deaf or hard of hearing with the language and literacy development of their peers who are not deaf or hard of hearing and make such report available to the public on its website. The advisory committee function would sunset effective June 30, 2023.

Standards of Accreditation/Graduation Requirements

• Evaluation of and Recommendations for Certain Current and Proposed Policies and Performance Standards for Public Elementary and Secondary Schools HB 938 (Robinson) would require the Board of Education to collaborate with the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Secretary of Education to convene a group of stakeholders to include parents, public school principals, public school superintendents, public school board members, institutions of higher education, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, industry partners and employers, and other concerned stakeholders to evaluate, to implement where possible, and to otherwise make recommendations to the General Assembly regarding six enumerated goals. The bill would require the Secretary of Education and the Superintendent of Public Instruction, no later than November 30, 2022, to report to the chairmen of the House Committee on Education and the Senate Committee on Education and Health the results of such evaluation and recommendations to achieve such goals.

Standards of Quality

• School Counselors; Staffing Ratios; Flexibility HB 829 (Wilt) would permit school boards to fulfill the staffing ratio requirements for school counselors by (i) employing, under a provisional license issued by the Department of Education for three school years with an allowance for an additional two-year extension with the approval of the division superintendent, any professional counselor licensed by the Board of Counseling, clinical social worker licensed by the Board of Social Work, psychologist licensed by the Board of Psychology, or other licensed counseling professional with appropriate experience and training, provided that any such individual makes progress toward completing the requirements for full licensure as a school counselor during such period of employment or (ii) in the event that the school board does not receive any application from a licensed school counselor, professional counselor, clinical social worker, or psychologist or another licensed counseling professional with appropriate experience and training to fill a school counselor vacancy in the school division, entering into an annual contract with another entity for the provision of school counseling services by a licensed professional counselor, clinical social worker, or psychologist or another licensed counseling professional with appropriate experience and training.

Student Discipline

• Juvenile law-enforcement records; disclosures to school principals. SB 649 (Hanger) would change from discretionary to 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 and adds an offense that requires a juvenile intake officer to make a report with the school division superintendent to the list of such instances that must be disclosed to a school principal for the protection of the juvenile, his fellow students, and school personnel.

Student Testing

• Middle and high school end-of-course assessments; number and type HB 585 (VanValkenburg) would require, except for those middle and high school students with significant cognitive disabilities who participate in an alternate assessment, each student in middle and high school to take only those end-of-course Standards of Learning assessments necessary to meet federal accountability requirements and Virginia high school graduation requirements. The bill would require, with such funds as may be appropriated for such purpose, and except in the case of students who participate in an alternate assessment, the Standards of Learning assessments for Virginia Studies, Civics and Economics, Virginia and U.S. history, and biology to include items that require the student to apply knowledge and skills in preparing a response. Such items would include open-ended questions, long-form writing, and other tasks, with student responses scored by the Department of Education according to statewide scoring rubrics. The bill would 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 grade in each such course. The bill would also require the Department of Education to convene and consult a work group to develop a plan for the implementation of such assessment items no later than the beginning of the 2027–2028 school year.

• Through-year growth assessment system; BOE to seek & incorporate input & suggestions into system.  HB 197 (Webert) was amended and would require the Board of Education, in implementing the through-year growth assessment system for the administration of reading and mathematics assessments in grades three through eight, to seek input and suggestions from each interested local school division in the Commonwealth regarding ways in which the administration of such assessments and the reporting of assessment results can be improved, and shall, to the extent possible, incorporate such input and suggestions into the through-year growth assessment system.

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 licensed by the Board of Education pursuant to its statutory authority whose license expires on June 30, 2022, in order to provide the individual with sufficient additional time to complete the requirements for licensure or license renewal. The bill contains an emergency clause and will go into effect immediately should the Governor sign the bill.

• Provisional Teacher Licensure: Teachers Licensed or Certified Outside of the United States HB 979 (Tran) and SB 68 (Favola) was amended and would now allow (but not 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 has held within the last five years a valid and officially issued and recognized license or certification to teach issued by an entity outside of the United States. 

Bills that were Continued to 2023 During the week ending 03/12/2022

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 remainder of the normal legislative process prior to final approval (adoption in both houses, signed by the Governor).

• 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 ay language other than English.  Note:  A letter will be sent to the Department of Education requesting that the data collected be examined to determine how best to improve recruiting teachers from a variety of races and speakers of languages other than English.

• School Health Service Information; Superintendent of Public Instruction to Survey School Divisions SB 704 (Kiggans) would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to at least annually, survey all local school divsions and use such date to strengthen the comprehensive availability of school health service information.  Note:  A letter will be sent to the Department of Education and the new Health Commission to request that the data currently being collected be examined.

• English Language Learners SB 156 (Hashmi) would require state funding to be provided to support, in the 2022-2023 school year and thereafter, a new divisionwide ratio of English learner students in average daily membership to full-time equivalent teaching positions of 22 full-time equivalent instructional positions for each 1,000 students identified as having limited English proficiency.

• STEM+C; Virginia STEM Education Advisory Board HB 221 (Davis) and SB 239 (Hashmi) 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.  The bill would also direct the Virginia STEM Education Advisory Board to develop and submit to the Board of Education (i) a rubric that shall be used by the Board of Education in setting out what factors permit a school to be defined as a STEM school and (ii) recommendations for the Board to create a measurement for quality of STEM programming in general education instruction.

 

Bills that FAILED during the week ending 03/12/2022

Cultural Competency/Equity

• Governor's Office: position of Secretary of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion created SB 153 (Locke)