DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
P.O.
SUPTS. MEMO 81
April 13, 2007
INFORMATIONAL
|
TO: |
Division
Superintendents |
|
FROM: |
Billy K.
Cannaday, Jr. Superintendent
of Public Instruction |
|
SUBJECT: |
Final
Legislative Report for the 2007 General Assembly |
This memorandum provides information regarding
legislation passed by the 2007 session of the Virginia General Assembly that is
of interest to school superintendents and division personnel.
The final legislative reports for the 2007 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, 2007, 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
1791 Adds an additional response to
Freedom of Information Act requests to address situations when a public body
receives a request for public records under FOIA but cannot find the requested
records or the requested records do not exist.
HB
2311 Establishes the Public Charter
School Fund for the purposes of establishing or supporting public charter
schools in the Commonwealth that stimulate the development of alternative
public education programs. The Board of Education must establish criteria for
making distributions from the Fund to a public charter school requesting moneys
from the Fund.
HB
2350 Provides that a school board's
application to the Board of Education for a loan from the Literary Fund must be
authorized by the governing body and the school board. The Board may not
disburse any proceeds of any approved loan before its receipt of the concurrent
approval of the governing body at the time of initial disbursement and an
acceptable opinion of bond counsel obtained by the local governing body as to
the validity of the loan. The bill also repeals 22.1-154 through 22.1-157,
that provide for: (i) the examination of title to property on application for
loan, (ii) the certificate of the clerk of court or copy of lease on the
application for a loan, and (iii) the submission of the application and
certificate of title to the Attorney General.
HB
2381 Specifies that the Virginia
Public-Private Education Facilities and Infrastructure Act can be used for
projects related to the technology and infrastructure necessary to deploy
wireless broadband services to schools, businesses, and residential
areas.
HB
2527 Requires agencies covered by
the Government Data Collection and Dissemination Practices Act to respond to a
data subject for inspection of his record in five working days after receiving
the request or within a time period as may be mutually agreed upon by the
agency and the data subject. The bill references the pertinent section of
the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to indicate that requests made
under the Government Data Collection and Dissemination Practices Act are to be
handled in the same manner as requests under FOIA.
SB
1111 Adds a closed meeting exemption
under the Freedom of Information Act for the discussion of reports or plans
related to the security of any governmental facility, building or structure, or
the safety of persons using such facility, building or structure.
SB
1039 Prohibits the use of wireless
telecommunication devices for drivers holding provisional driver's licenses
while operating a motor vehicle, except in an emergency or when parked or
stopped.
Health and School Safety
SB
1346 Provides that as a condition of
awarding a contract for the provision of services that require the contractor
or his employees to have direct contact with students on school property during
regular school hours, the school board must require the contractor to provide
certification that all employees who will have direct contact with students
have not been convicted of a felony or any offense involving the sexual
molestation or physical or sexual abuse or rape of a child. The bill also
provides that the requirement be waived in emergency situations when it is
reasonably anticipated that the contractor or his employees will have no direct
contact with students.
SB
1230 Requires girls to receive three
properly spaced doses of human papillomavirus (HPV)vaccine. The first dose
shall be administered before the child enters the sixth grade. A parent or
guardian, at the parent or guardians sole discretion, may elect for the child
not to receive the vaccine after having reviewed materials describing the link
between the human papillomavirus and cervical cancer approved for such use by
the Board. This bill contains a delayed effective date of October 1, 2008.
SB
974 Requires the Superintendent of
Public Instruction and the State Health Commissioner to work together to combat
childhood obesity and other chronic health conditions that affect school-age
children.
HB
2271 Requires that local school
boards annually review the written school crisis, emergency management, and
medical emergency response plans and that the local division certify that
review in writing to the Virginia Center on School Safety no later than August
31 of each year.
HB
2344 Provides that an adult who has
been convicted of a sexually violent offense is guilty of a Class 6 felony if
he enters or is present, during school hours, any property he knows or has
reason to know is a public or private elementary or secondary school or child
day center property, unless he (i) is lawfully voting; (ii) is a student
enrolled at the school; or (iii) has received a court order allowing him to
enter upon such property.
SB
915 Provides that school personnel
are authorized to disclose identifying information from a student's education
record for the purpose of furthering the ability of the juvenile justice system
to effectively serve the student prior to adjudication. Identifying
information may be disclosed to attorneys for the Commonwealth, court services
units, juvenile detention centers or group homes, mental and medical health
agencies, state and local children and family service agencies, and the
Department of Juvenile Justice and to the staff of such agencies.
HB 3017 Establishes the Youth Internet Safety Fund for the
purposes of education, public awareness, and other activities to promote the
safe and secure use of the Internet. The bill contains an emergency
clause and provides that the Virginia Public Procurement Act does not apply to
expenditures from the fund.
HB
1916 Requires the Board of Education to incorporate instruction on
dating violence and the characteristics of abusive relationships into its
curriculum guidelines for family life education.
HB
2040 Extends the sunset for the
Advisory Council on Career and Technical Education until July 1, 2012. The bill
repeals the second enactment clause of the Act creating the Council that set
the original sunset date of July 1, 2007.
HB
2601 Requires the Department of
Education to make available information regarding the commemoration of Veterans
Day.
HB
2837 Requires the Department of
Education to make information available to local school divisions regarding the
commemoration of George Washington's birthday.
HB
1729 Increases the maximum speed
limit to 60 miles per hour for school buses traveling on interstates and
highways where the speed limit is greater than 55 miles per hour.
HB
1810 Authorizes any popularly
elected school board to appoint a qualified voter who is a resident of the
county, city, or town to cast the deciding vote in case of a tie vote of the
school board.
HB
1862 Requires that any severance
benefits provided to any departing official appointed by a local school board
shall be publicly announced by that school board prior to such departure.
HB
1920 Provides that local school
boards may display decals relating to local school division bus safety
hotlines. Local school divisions must bear the cost of such decals.
HB
2092 Eliminates the requirement that
a student must have attended a public school in Virginia while residing with
his custodial parent prior to the parent's deployment outside the United States
in order to attend school without paying tuition. The bill clarifies that
children of parents who have been deployed outside the
HB
2216 Provides that the Board of
Education may authorize a local school board's request to assess a surcharge in
order to further recover program costs that exceed state funds distributed
through basic aid to school divisions offering driver education programs.
HB
2302 Permits local school boards to
enter into agreements with nonpublic schools in the school division to provide
student transportation for a fee to and from the nonpublic schools.
HB
2371 Authorizes the participating
school boards of a joint school, including academic year Governor's Schools
operated by two or more school divisions, to select the fiscal agent for the
joint school from among the treasurers of the participating localities. The
participating school boards must agree and the respective local governing
bodies must approve any such selection. This bill contains an emergency clause
that makes it effective upon passage.
Also permits, with the approval of the participating school boards and
the respective local governing bodies, that title to property acquired for a
joint school shall be vested in the governing body of such school.
HB
2893 Authorizes public schools and
public institutions of higher education in
HB
3084 Requires that any new bus
placed into service on or after July 1, 2007, shall be equipped with warning
devices that, at a minimum, include a nonsequential system of red traffic
warning lights, a warning sign with flashing lights, and a crossing control arm
such that when the bus door is opened, the red warning lights, warning sign
with flashing lights, and crossing control arm are automatically activated.
SB
1212 These are 1 bills that require
the Board of Education to request waivers from those provisions of NCLB that
are fiscally and programmatically burdensome to school divisions and are not
instructionally sound or in the best interest of children. The bills allow the Board to withdraw from
NCLB and the Attorney Generals office to bring suit against the U.S. Department
of Education if waivers are not approved.
The Board is required to report on the status of its waiver requests to
the General Assembly by October 1, 2007.
If any or all of the waiver requests are not approved by the U.S.
Department of Education, the Board is required to transmit a summary of all
requests that have not been approved to the
SB
847 Provides that due process
procedures prescribed by the Board of Education must require that testimony be
given under oath or affirmation administered by the hearing officer.
Standards
of Accreditation/Standards of Quality
SB
1148 Requires local school boards to
include in their annual report to the Board of Education, the number of career
and technical education completers that graduated. The bill defines a
"career and technical education completer" as a student who has met
the requirements for a career and technical concentration or specialization and
all requirements for high school graduation or an approved alternative
education program.
SB
1147 Directs the Board of Education
to establish the requirements for a technical diploma. The diploma must meet or
exceed the requirements of a standard diploma and include a concentration in
career and technical education. Also creates an advanced technical diploma that
shall be awarded to students who meet the requirements for the advanced studies
diploma and also fulfill a concentration in career and technical education.
SB
751 Requires the Board of Education
to include the types of activities that qualify as community service and the
number of hours required in its criteria for awarding a diploma seal for
excellence in civics education and understanding of our state and federal
constitutions and the democratic model of government for the standard and
advanced studies diplomas.
SB
795 Makes technical changes to
Standards 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 of the Standards of Quality. Provides for the phasing out of the eighth
grade cumulative history test in the 2007-2008 school year, and the
implementation of the United States History to 1877, United States History:
1877 to the Present, and Civics and Economics tests in the 2008-2009 school year.
Requires that prevention, intervention, and remediation programs include
components that are research-based.
Local school boards must also have in place an early identification
program for students with difficulties in mathematics. Adds effective classroom management to the
listing of professional development programs to be provided to teachers and
principals and requires that division-wide comprehensive plans include
strategies for improving student achievement, particularly the achievement of
educationally at-risk students. Requires local school divisions to post a
current copy of the school division policies, including the Student Conduct
Policy, on the local division's website while ensuring that printed copies of
such policies are available, as needed, to citizens who do not have Internet
access.
HB
1913 Revises and reorganizes the
section of the Code related to the Teaching Scholarship Loan Fund to make it
consistent with language in the general appropriation act. The bill revises the
intent of the Program, so that it is established to (i) increase the number of
teacher candidates pursuing careers in critical teacher shortage areas, as
defined by the Board of Education; (ii) expand eligibility to teacher
candidates, including graduate students and paraprofessionals, enrolled
full-time or part-time in approved teacher education programs; and (iii)
increase diversity of persons pursuing careers in teaching, including male
teacher candidates enrolled in elementary or middle school education programs
and minority teacher candidates enrolled in any teaching endorsement area.
SB
1218 Increases the monthly health
insurance credit for retired teachers. The bill eliminates an overall cap to
the credit, and adds retired full-time, salaried employees of local school
boards as recipients of the credit. The bill establishes a formula for
determining the monthly health insurance credit for teachers whose retirement
was for disability. The bill is applicable for current and future retirees from
positions as teachers or full-time, salaried employees of local school boards.
A separate superintendents memorandum will be
issued to provide additional information regarding the changes to the Standards
of Quality made by SB 795.
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.
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