DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
P.O.
SUPTS. MEMO NO. 101
May 5, 2006
INFORMATIONAL
|
TO: |
Division
Superintendents |
|
FROM: |
Patricia I.
Wright Acting
Superintendent of Public Instruction |
|
SUBJECT: |
Final
Legislative Report for the 2006 General Assembly |
This memorandum provides information regarding
legislation passed by the 2006 session of the Virginia General Assembly that is
of interest to school superintendents and division personnel.
The final legislative reports for the 2006 General
Assembly are posted on the Department of Educations website at: http://www.pen.k12.va.us/VDOE/PolicyPub/legis98. A link is also provided, entitled Legislative Tracking Reports,
on the Web page. These reports reflect final action on
education-related legislation tracked by the Department of Education. The history of any bill or resolution, all
amendments, and the text of the final version are available by clicking on the
bill or resolution number in this memo or in the Final Legislative Tracking
Reports.
All legislation becomes effective on July 1, 2006, unless otherwise indicated. Any information about actions that may or must be taken by local school boards is included in the summary of each bill. These bills include:
Administrative Issues
HB
20 Permits the recording of
scholastic records in any way, including, but not limited to, handwriting,
print, computer media, video or audio tape, film, microfilm, and microfiche.
SB
67 Align language in the Code regarding
the Standards of Learning (SOL) assessments with amendments to the Standards of
Quality made during the 2004 session of the General Assembly. The changes address SOL testing in grades
three through eight rather than just grades three, five, and eight.
SB
66 Amend and clarify 22.1-98 of
the Code of Virginia, which requires a reduction in state aid whenever the
length of the school term is below 180 days or 990 hours.
SB
34 Add a condition to the release
of Standards of Learning assessments by the Board of Education that would limit
the release of test items if such release limits the ability to test students
on demand and provide immediate results in the Web-based assessment system.
HB
1582 Provides that any local
government or combination of governments within planning district 16 may enter
into cooperative agreements with a local school division for the use of school
vehicles for public transportation purposes during non-school hours.
SB
190 Authorizes the Superintendent
of Public Instruction, the Director of the Department of Juvenile Justice, and
the Commissioner of the Department of Social Services to issue orders of
summary suspension of a license to operate a group home or other residential
facility for children, in cases of immediate and substantial threat to the
health, safety, and welfare of residents.
SB
203 Authorizes the Virginia Public
School Authority to implement a pass-through of refunding savings to a locality
without requiring any further local legislative action on the part of the
locality.
SB
502 Authorizes a popularly elected
school board, having an even number of members, to appoint a tiebreaker in case
of a tie vote.
SB
683 Requires for the Board of
Education and Department of Education, in a 1 law, to collect statewide data
on Virginias public school students with limited English proficiency (LEP) and
school division programs for such LEP students.
A report is due to the General Assembly by December 1, 2006. Additional guidance will be provided
regarding the data collection requirements of this bill.
SB
715 Extends the length of a
temporary loan for the purpose of financing new school buses to replace
obsolete buses from five to 10 years.
Health and School Safety
SB
26 Add teacher aides, school bus
drivers, and school bus aides to the list of school personnel who are provided
a limited exception to charges of simple assault or assault and battery while
acting in the course and scope of their official capacity.
HB
1279 Requires that principals
receive notification from local law enforcement authorities when students in
their schools commit certain crimes, whether the student is released to the
custody of the parent, or if 18 years of age, is released on bond. Requires any school division superintendent
who receives notice that a juvenile has committed an act that would be a crime
if committed by an adult to report that information to the principal of the
school in which the student is enrolled.
SB
75 Changes the term school crisis
emergency management plan to school crisis emergency management, and medical
emergency response plan and requires that the plan include a medical emergency
response plan.
SB
499 Amend one of the four options
in 22.1-254.1 of the Code to provide that a parent may elect to home school a
child if the parent has a high school diploma.
The current requirement that a parent must have a baccalaureate degree
has been eliminated. SB 499, as approved
by the General Assembly, also contains an amendment from the Governor that
directs the Department of Education to monitor implementation of the bill and
communicate any findings and make such recommendations as may seem appropriate
to the 2008 session of the General Assembly.
HB
1483 Amends one of the four options under
which a parent may home school a child.
Currently, a parent may home school if he provides a program of study or
curriculum which, in the judgment of the local division superintendent,
includes the Standards of Learning (SOL) objectives for language arts and
mathematics and provides evidence that the parent is able to provide the
child with an adequate education.
Beginning July 1, 2006, only one of these two conditions would have to
be met, not both. In addition, this bill
also changes the provisions concerning the tests needed as evidence of progress
provided to division superintendents.
Current law states that the tests must be approved by the Board of
Education. Beginning July 1, 20006, any
nationally-normed standardized achievement test may be used as evidence of
progress.
HB
1588 Requires local school boards to
implement a plan to make Advanced Placement (AP) tests and the Preliminary
Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) available to students receiving home
instruction.
Instruction
HB
58 Requires school divisions to
integrate a component on Internet safety into the divisions instructional
program and include it in their acceptable use policy. A separate superintendents memorandum was
issued on April 21, 2006, on the requirements of this bill and is available at
the following address: http://www.doe.virginia.gov/administrators/superintendents_memos/2006/adm015.html
SB
656 Require a parent, guardian, or
other person having control or charge of a child of school age to provide to a
public school, upon registration of a student, information concerning certain
criminal convictions or delinquency adjudications.
HB
203 Prohibits state agencies and
localities from denying use of certain public facilities to the Boy Scouts of
America and the Girl Scouts of the
SB
62 Require the Board of Education
to authorize local school boards to offer, as an elective, comparative religion
classes, thereby giving discretion to local school boards to determine whether
such elective courses will be offered in their school divisions.
HB
240 Provides that tuition shall not
be charged to children of active members of the military who are ordered to
locate to military housing in a different school division than the one the
child is attending at the time of the order to relocate. Such children shall be permitted to continue
attending school in the school division they attended immediately prior to the
relocation and shall not be charged tuition.
HB
347 Increases the number of
individuals who are eligible to take the general educational development (GED)
test to include those ordered by the courts and those who are 16 years of age or
older who have been expelled from school.
It also releases any student who has received a GED from compulsory
attendance requirements.
HB
434 Permits local school divisions
to produce and maintain personnel files of all school board employees in
digital or paper format.
HB
650 Increases the maximum speed
limits for school buses to 45 mph on highways with posted speed limits of 55
mph or less and 55 mph on highways with posted speed limits greater than 55
mph.
HB
984 Requires local school boards to
ensure that schools within a division are registered to receive electronic
notice of sex offenders within that school division and to develop and
implement policies to provide the information to parents regarding registration
of sex offenders and the availability of information on the Registry, and are
required to develop protocols governing the release of children to persons who
are not their parents. The Virginia
Council for Private Education is required to provide the State Police with the
location of and e-mail address for every accredited private school in the
Commonwealth.
HB
1109 Requires local school boards,
prior to awarding a contract for the provision of services that require the
contractor or his employees to have direct contact with students, to require
the contractor and when relevant, any employee who will have direct contact
with students, to provide certification that he or she has not been convicted
of a felony or any offense involving the sexual molestation or physical or
sexual abuse or rape of a child and whether he or she has been convicted of a crime
of moral turpitude.
HB
1222 Provides that any person who
knowingly makes a false statement concerning the residency of a child in a
particular school division or school attendance zone, for the purpose of
avoiding the tuition charges or enrollment in a school outside the students
attendance zone, shall be liable to the school division for tuition charges for
the time the student was enrolled in the school division.
HB
1242 Provides that in any case in
which a questionnaire or survey requesting sexual information of students is to
be administered, the school division shall notify the parent in writing not
less than 30 days prior to its administration and the parents may exempt their
child from participating. It also
prohibits the administration of such a questionnaire to students in
kindergarten through grades six, unless required by state or federal law.
HB
1482 Requires each local school
board to receive reports of disappearances of any children living within the
school division from local law enforcement.
The principal is required to mark the childs file upon such
notification. The bill also places
additional responsibilities on the school whenever it receives a request for
copies of the childs scholastic record.
SB
97 Prohibits fire and evacuation
drills from being conducted in schools during periods of mandatory testing
required by the Board of Education. An enactment clause made this bill
effective upon its passage.
SB
410 Direct the Board of Education, in
a 1 law, to develop a plan to identify initiatives or conditions that are
currently being funded by the No Child
Left Behind Act of 2001, but are not an integral and necessary component of
the commonwealths own Standards of Quality, Standards of Accreditation or
Standards of Learning. The plan (due October 1, 2006) will include information
on the consequences (including any potential loss of federal funding) if the
Commonwealth elected to not comply with the identified components.
HB
1428 Encourages the President of the
Board of Education, in a 1 law, to request from the U.S. Department of
Education, in calendar year 2006,
certain waivers and exemptions to the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act. A report shall be made to the General
Assembly prior to the 2007 legislative session.
Standards
of Accreditation/Standards of Quality
HB
19 Amends Standard 4 of the
Standards of Quality. Directs the Board of Education to collect, analyze,
and report high school graduation rates using a standardized formula prescribed
by the Board. The standardized formula
becomes effective on October 1, 2008.
SB
39 Amend Standard 3 of the
Standards of Quality. Authorize the
Board of Education to initiate or cause to be initiated a review or
investigation of any alleged breach in security, unauthorized alteration, or
improper administration of tests by local school board employees responsible
for the distribution or administration of tests.
HB
813 Amends Standard 3 of the
Standards of Quality. Permits the Board
of Education to adopt special provisions related to the administration and use
of any Standards of Learning (SOL) test or tests in a content area as applied
to accreditation ratings for any period during which the SOL content or
assessments in that area are being revised and phased in. Prior to statewide administration of such
tests, the Board of Education shall provide notice to local school boards
regarding such special provisions.
SB
71 Amend the Board of Educations
review of the SOQ from odd-numbered to even-numbered years.
HB
1516 Requires local school boards to
expel students who possess certain weapons on school property and at school sponsored
events.
SB
74 Clarifies statutes governing teacher
licensure regulations and regulation of teacher education programs by repealing
the current statutes and reenacting teacher licensure and teacher education
program provisions.
SB
99 Allows any person retired under
the Virginia Retirement System who is then rehired in a licensed instructional
or administrative position by a local school board to continue to receive his
retirement benefits while employed in such position if the person received the
retirement benefit for a certain period prior to the new employment, the person
is not receiving an early retirement incentive benefit from any Virginia school
division, and is employed in a position designated as a critical shortage area.
SB
324 Requires the Director of Human
Resource Management to consider the states compensation for teachers relative
to member states in the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) when
conducting the biennial review of teacher compensation. Requires local school divisions to evaluate
teachers with continuing contracts at least once every three years. If a teacher with a continuing contract
receives an unsatisfactory evaluation, that teacher must be evaluated within
one year of the unsatisfactory evaluation.
Each local superintendent is required to annually certify divisionwide
compliance with the provisions of this section to the Department.
SB
687 Prohibits, through a 1 law,
the Board of Education from conditioning full approval of teacher education
programs provided by an institution of higher education on the number of
students in individual licensure programs, such as pre-kindergarten through
three, Spanish, music education, high school physics, or other disciplines, or
documented efforts to increase enrollment in such programs.
Individual superintendents memoranda will be issued
to provide additional information regarding the following legislation that was
passed by this years General Assembly and becomes effective on July 1, 2006: one to address the changes to the Standards
of Quality, one to address the new provisions for home instruction, and one to
address the provisions of HB 1242 regarding questionnaires and surveys. An
additional separate superintendents memorandum will be issued
to address House Bill 350 and Senate Bills 116 and 676 once final action is
taken by the Governor and the General Assembly.
I hope this information will assist you in planning
and implementing the state legislative changes with your school boards. Technical assistance to implement the new
legislative responsibilities is available from the Department of Education.
Please do not hesitate to contact the Office of
Policy and Communications, by telephone at (804)225-2403 or by electronic mail
at policy@doe.virginia.gov if you
need additional information.
PIW/MJP/jcj