COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
P.O. BOX 2120
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 23218-2120
SUPTS. MEMO NO. 83
April 22, 2005
INFORMATIONAL
|
TO: |
Division
Superintendents |
|
FROM: |
Jo Lynne
DeMary Superintendent
of Public Instruction |
|
SUBJECT: |
Final Legislative
Report for the 2005 General Assembly |
This memorandum provides information regarding
legislation passed by the 2005 session of the Virginia General Assembly that is
of interest to school superintendents and division personnel.
The final legislative reports for the 2005 General
Assembly are posted on the Department of Educations website at: http://www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/PolicyPub/legis98. 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, 2005, 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 Makes several clarifying and technical changes to the Virginia Public Records Act. The bill removes obsolete definitions, clarifies existing definitions of "archival records" and "public records," and creates a definition for "private record." Also codifies current practice by clarifying that a public record may not be destroyed or discarded unless certain requirements are met.
HB 1967 Provides that upon written request by a local school board or division superintendent, the Department of Planning and Budget shall develop, coordinate, and manage a review process related to the school divisions central operations, including 1) overhead; 2) human resources; 3) procurement; 4) facilities use and management; 5) financial management; 6) transportation; 7) technology planning; and 8) energy management. School divisions are required to pay 25 percent of the cost of the efficiency review.
SB 1304 Requires the Board of Education to promulgate regulations allowing the Department of Education to cooperate with other state departments in licensing and certification of residential schools for students with disabilities, to cooperate with these agencies in fulfilling their respective licensing and certification responsibilities and in reducing and simplifying the regulations involved in the licensing and certification of group homes and residential facilities for children when such homes or facilities include an educational program. Also specifies what the regulations must include.
SB 1107 Makes several changes in the Public Private Education Facilities and Infrastructure Act of 2002, including authorizing the establishment of an interim agreement to provide for partial planning and development activities while other aspects of a qualifying project are being negotiated and analyzed. Also (i) requires the adoption of formal timelines for the review of proposals and outlining the process for review, (ii) provides for accelerated review for priority projects, and (iii) adds factors that a responsible public entity may consider when selecting proposals. Also, provides a process for revisions to the current model guidelines by September 30, 2005.
Brown v. Board of Education 50th
Anniversary Observance
SB
1034 Amends,
reorganizes, and moves the statute creating the Brown v. Board of Education
Scholarship Program and Fund to Title 30 of the Code of Virginia.
HB
1685 Empowers
Virginia Beach Public Schools to sell property to the Virginia Department of
Transportation or the Commonwealth Transportation Commissioner under certain
conditions.
HB
1945 Expands the
definition of qualifying project in the Public-Private Education Facilities
and Infrastructure Act of 2002 to include any improvements necessary or
desirable to any unimproved state or locally owned real estate.
HB
1615 Directs
the Center for School Safety to prescribe a standardized report format for
school safety audits, additional reporting criteria, and procedures for report
submission, which may include instructions for electronic submission.
HB
1716 Requires
principals and division superintendents, in reporting certain serious incidents
and crimes for annual recordation and publication by the Department of
Education, to accurately indicate any offenses, arrests, or charges as recorded
by law enforcement authorities and required to be reported by such authorities.
HB
1743 Adds
self-injected epinephrine to those medications that public school students
diagnosed with asthma or anaphylaxis, or both, may self-administer under
certain conditions. Provides immunity
from civil liability for school and health personnel who supervise the
self-administration of auto-injectable epinephrine by a student. Removes
liability from any principal or school board employee for any civil damages for
any injuries resulting from the misuse of auto-injectable epinephrine.
HB
2217 Adds
possession of a firearm, stun weapon, or taser on school property to the list
of crimes defined as a predicate criminal act. Also provides for enhanced punishments for gang activities taking
place at or near schools, colleges, and school buses.+
HB
2535 Permits a
person who has a valid concealed handgun permit to possess a concealed handgun
while in a motor vehicle in a parking lot, traffic circle, or other means of
vehicular ingress or egress to the school. Clarifies existing provisions in the
Code regarding the possession of a firearm, stun weapon, or other weapon on a
portion of any property open to the public used for school-sponsored functions
or extracurricular activities while such functions or activities are taking
place.
HB
2832 Requires the
Virginia High School League to establish rules making a public school student
athlete who uses anabolic steroids not prescribed by a licensed physician
ineligible to participate for two years in interscholastic sports. Also requires the Board of Education to
suspend or revoke the administrative or teaching license of any person who
knowingly or willfully with the intent to compromise the outcome of an athletic
competition, procures, sells, or administers anabolic steroids or causes such
drugs to be procured, sold, or administered to a student who is a member of a
school athletic team, or fails to report the use of such drugs by a student to
the school principal and division superintendent.
HB
1769 Creates a
23-member advisory Commission on Civics Education to educate students on the
importance of citizen involvement in a representative government, to promote
the study of state and local government among the citizenry, and to enhance
communication and collaboration among organizations in the commonwealth that
conduct civic education programs.
SB
950 Requires,
by July 1, 2006, instruction in principles of the American economic system in
the public middle and high schools.
Also requires the Board of Education to develop and approve objectives
for economics education and financial literacy at the middle and high school
levels and to provide for the systematic infusion of economic principles in the
relevant Standards of Learning and in career and technical education
programs. Requires the Department of
Education to confer with the State Corporation Commissions Bureau of Financial
Institutions, and financial and relevant professional organizations in the
development of guidelines for such literacy objectives.
SB
969 Creates the
Entrepreneurship Education Program consisting of grants administered by the
Board of Education to public secondary schools to support innovative
educational programs to assist students in the development of their
entrepreneurial, academic, and life skills.
SB
1130 Requires
physical education in elementary schools to include activities such as, but not
limited to, cardiovascular, muscle building, or stretching exercises, as
appropriate.
HB 1767 Requires local school boards to implement a plan to notify students receiving home instruction and their parents of the availability of Advanced Placement (AP) tests and Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Tests (PSAT) and the availability of financial assistance to low-income and needy students to take these examinations.
HB
1789 Requires the
Department of Correctional Education, in cooperation with the Department of
Juvenile Justice, to furnish local school boards academic and career and
technical education and related achievement information when children are
returned to the community from the departments care.
HB
2382 Makes it a
class-4 misdemeanor for any person to knowingly make a false statement
concerning the residency of a child in a particular school division or school
attendance zone for the purposes of avoiding tuition charges or enrollment in a
school outside the attendance zone in which the student resides.
HB
2832 Requires the
Virginia High School League to establish rules making a public school student
athlete who uses anabolic steroids not prescribed by a licensed physician
ineligible to participate for two years in interscholastic sports. Also requires the Board of Education to
suspend or revoke the administrative or teaching license of any person who
knowingly or willfully with the intent to compromise the outcome of an athletic
competition, procures, sells, or administers anabolic steroids or causes such
drugs to be procured, sold, or administered to a student who is a member of a
school athletic team, or fails to report the use of such drugs by a student to
the school principal and division superintendent.
SB
981 Provides
that unless a court order has been issued to the contrary, the non-custodial
parent of a student enrolled in a public school or day care center must be
included, upon the request of the non-custodial parent, as an emergency contact
for events occurring during school or day care activities.
SB
1006 Requires
the immediate enrollment of a student when the student has been placed in
foster care and the social services agency is unable to produce the required
documents for enrollment. The person enrolling the student must provide a
written statement that sets forth the students age, provides notice of the
students good standing in the previous school, and states that the student is
in good health and is free from communicable or contagious disease. Additional provisions detail cooperation
between school divisions, funding, and the transfer of the scholastic record of
the student. Social Services agencies
are required to notify relevant school divisions within 72 hours of foster care
placement.
SB
1136 Directs the
Board of Education to seek waivers from compliance from certain provisions of
the No Child Left Behind Act and to examine the fiscal and other implications
for the Commonwealth and its local governments. A report is due to the General
Assembly by October 1, 2005.
Standards
of Accreditation/Standards of Quality
SB
1045 Directs the
Board of Education to provide for the award of verified credits for passing
scores on industry certifications, state licensure examinations, and national
occupational competency assessments approved by the Board of Education.
Requires local boards to report annually to the Board of Education the number
of industry certifications obtained and state licensure examinations passed,
and report the number as a category on the School Performance Report Card.
SJ
403 Requests
the Board of Education to study the permanent use of industry certifications
and state licensure tests for the award of verified units of credit in the
public schools. The Board is required
to (1) examine the suitability of additional industry testing programs that
could be used as substitute tests for students to earn verified units of
credit; (2) determine how to increase the emphasis on career and technical
education for creating greater equity and applicability to the verified credit
system, including, but not limited to, consideration of increasing the number
of potential verified credits obtained through industry certifications; and (3)
consider these issues as it reviews and amends the Standards of Accreditation.
HB
1573 Directs the
Board of Education to add gang-related activity to the Model Student Conduct
Policy Guidelines.
HB
2223 Requires
local school boards to establish schedules for expelled students to apply for
readmission to school that are designed to ensure that any initial petition for
readmission will be reviewed by the school board or a committee thereof, or the
division superintendent. Also provides for an appeal of a denial of a petition for
readmission to the full school board.
HB
2879 Directs the
Board of Education to include bullying in its Model Student Conduct Policy
Guidelines and requires school boards to include instruction on the
inappropriateness of bullying in their character education programs and
bullying provisions in their student conduct codes. It also establishes additional reporting requirements.
SB
761 Extends from
2005 to 2010 the current sunset on the requirements that (i) division
superintendents identify and report critical shortages to the school board,
upon request; and (ii) local school boards identify and report critical shortages
to the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Virginia Retirement System.
HB
1782 Extends from
2005 to 2010 the sunset provision on the requirement that the Superintendent of
Public Instruction annually survey school divisions to identify critical
teacher shortage areas and report the shortages to the Virginia Retirement
System.
SB
817 Extends the
2005 sunset provision to 2007 for allowing retirees to be hired as teachers or
administrative personnel without interruption of their retirement benefits. Requires the Virginia Retirement System to
determine the actuarial cost of the allowance and report its findings prior to
the 2007 Session of the General Assembly.
SB
1243 Provides that
if, after an investigation of a complaint, the local department of social
services determines that the actions or omissions of a teacher, principal, or
other person employed by a local school board or employed in a school operated
by the Commonwealth were within such employees scope of employment and were
taken in good faith in the course of supervision, care, or discipline of
students, then the standard in determining if a report of abuse or neglect is
founded is whether such acts or omissions constituted gross negligence or gross
misconduct.
HB
2267 Immunizes
school employees or volunteers from civil liability for the prompt good faith
reporting to the appropriate school official, in compliance with specified
procedures, of any alleged acts of bullying or any crimes.
HB
2790 Requires the
Board of Education to establish criteria and a procedure to allow persons
seeking initial licensure as teachers through an alternative route as defined
by Board regulations to substitute experiential learning in lieu of coursework.
HB
2912 Requires
local school boards to adopt policies providing for leave without pay for
school board employees who have a debilitating or life-threatening illness or
injury without regard to the employees length of service with the school
board.
SB
949 Requires that
the Board of Educations licensure regulations provide for licensure by
reciprocity for individuals who have obtained a valid out-of-state license that
is in force at the time the application for a Virginia license is made. A professional teachers assessment for the
purposes set forth in 22.1-298 F. of the Code of Virginia and service
requirements shall not be imposed for these licensed individuals.
SJ
428 Requests the
Board of Education to include the mathematics specialist endorsement in the
Licensure Regulations for School Personnel.
The Board must design the endorsement in a manner to facilitate and
improve student achievement in mathematics, and include such endorsement in the
current review and revision of the Virginia Licensure Regulations for
School Personnel.
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.
JLD/MJP/cb