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Education

P Passed

P HB20

School board salaries. Increases the maximum annual salary for school board members in the following jurisdictions: Culpeper, from $3,500 to $4,500; Prince William, from $8,000 to $12,000; the City of Manassas, from $2,400 to $4,800; the City of Roanoke, from $3,000 to $4,200; and the City of Suffolk, from $3,500 to $5,000. In addition, salaries for school board members for the Cities of Colonial Heights, Falls Church, and Lynchburg are set at $2,400, $3,000, and $2,400, respectively. Under current law, no school board can request the General Assembly's consideration of an increase in its annual salary limit unless the school board has taken an affirmative vote on the requested increase. Further, no school board whose membership is elected in whole or in part can be awarded a salary increase, unless a specific salary increase is approved by affirmative vote by that school board. No salary increase may become effective during an incumbent member's term of office; however, this restriction will not apply if the school board members are elected or appointed for staggered terms. This measure incorporates HB 114, HB 431, HB 685, and HB 893.

Patron - Woodrum

P HB53

Teacher-student ratios at detention homes. Provides that teacher staffing ratios for regional or local detention homes will be based on a ratio of one teacher for every 12 beds based on the capacity of the facility; however, if the previous year's average daily attendance exceeds this bed capacity, the ratio will be based on the average daily attendance at the facility as calculated by the Department of Education from the previous year. Adoption of this measure would effectuate the reenactment clause included in HB 1268, which was passed by the 1999 Session and signed by the Governor on April 2, 1999 (1999 Acts of Assembly, c. 511).

Patron - Crittenden

P HB188

Alternative education. Clarifies that regional pilot projects for alternative education are designed for elementary as well as middle and high school students, and directs the Department of Education, in the 2001 fiscal year and upon the appropriation of funds for these purposes, to issue a request for proposals for regional pilot projects for selected alternative education options for elementary school students. The first such grants would be awarded by September 1, 2001. The regional pilot project initiative was created in 1993; funding for middle and high school regional initiatives now covers these programs statewide.

Patron - Diamonstein

P HB203

Standards of Quality; educational technology. Revises Standard 1 (Basic skills, selected programs, and instructional personnel), Standard 3 (Accreditation, other standards and evaluation), Standard 5 (Training and professional development), and Standard 6 (Planning and public involvement) to place educational technology (computer skills and related technology) squarely within the scope of the Standards of Quality. Specifically, this provision requires (i) the Board of Education to include proficiency in the use of computers and related technology in the Standards of Learning; (ii) revises the requirement for local school board K through 12 programs to include "technological proficiency" to specify "proficiency in the use of computers and related technology"; (iii) modifies the requirements for the Standards of Accreditation to include "integration of educational technology into instructional programs" and "staff positions for supporting educational technology"; (iv) modifies the requirement for the Board of Education to provide technical assistance on professional development to local school boards designed "to seek to ensure" proficiency in the use of technology to stipulate "designed to ensure"; (v) each local school board's professional development program in educational technology to be designed to facilitate integration of computer skills and related technology into the curricula; (vi) the Board of Education's six-year technology plan to be developed "to integrate educational technology into the Standards of Learning and the curricula of the public schools in Virginia"; and (vii) local school division technology plans to be "designed to integrate educational technology into the instructional programs of the school division." A few technical syntax amendments are also made. In its initial form, the bill was a recommendation of the Joint Commission on Technology and Science.

Patron - Plum

P HB245

Standards of Quality; elementary school guidance counselors. Amends the Standards of Quality to require, within the Standards of Accreditation, guidance counselors in elementary schools at the following staffing levels: one hour per day per 100 students, one full-time at 500 students, one hour per day additional time per 100 students or major fraction thereof.

Patron - Dillard

P HB254

Reports of certain acts to law-enforcement and school authorities. Adds conduct involving firebombs, explosive materials or devices, hoax explosive devices, chemical bombs, or other incendiary devices on a school bus, on school property, or at a school-sponsored activity and bomb threats or false bomb threats made against school personnel or involving school property or school buses to those incidents to be reported to school principals or their designees. The principal or his designee is to report all such incidents to the division superintendent, who must relay an annual report of these incidents to the Department. School principals must also report these incidents to law-enforcement officials pursuant to subsection D of § 22.1-280.1. The immunity statute for school personnel is also amended to include reporting or investigating these incidents. Law enforcement authorities may report this conduct, wherever committed, by students enrolled at the school if the offense would be a felony if committed by an adult or would be an adult misdemeanor. Possession of materials used in explosive devices or possession or use of such devices is a Class 5 felony. Construction or use of a hoax explosive device "so as to intentionally cause another person to believe that such device is a bomb or explosive" constitutes a Class 6 felony (§ 18.2-85). Threats to bomb or damage buildings constitute Class 5 felonies; however, persons under age 15 committing such acts would be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. Currently, incidents to be reported to school principals, and, in turn, to the division superintendent and, ultimately, to the Department of Education and law-enforcement authorities, involve certain serious offenses involving assault, weapons, or controlled substances. This measure incorporates HB 406.

Patron - Hamilton

P HB391

Virginia Center for School Safety. Establishes, from such funds as may be appropriated, the Virginia Center for School Safety within the Department of Criminal Justice Services. The Center is to (i) provide training for Virginia public school personnel in school safety and the effective identification of students who may be at-risk for violent behavior and in need of special services or assistance; (ii) serve as a resource and referral center for Virginia school divisions by conducting research, sponsoring workshops, and providing information regarding current school safety concerns; (iii) maintain and disseminate information to local school divisions on effective school safety initiatives in Virginia and across the nation; (iv) collect, analyze, and disseminate various school safety data, including school safety audit information, collected by the Department; (v) encourage the development of partnerships between the public and private sectors to promote school safety in Virginia; (vi) provide technical assistance to Virginia school divisions in the implementation of initiatives promoting school safety; and (vii) develop a memorandum of understanding between the Commissioner of the Department of Criminal Justice Services and the Superintendent of Public Instruction to ensure collaboration in areas of mutual concern, such as school safety audits and crime prevention. The bill will not become effective unless an appropriation effectuating the purpose of the bill is included in the 2000 appropriation act and signed into law by the Governor.

Patron - Hamilton

P HB430

Driver education programs. Requires driver education programs to include instruction concerning motorcycle awareness.

Patron - Reid

P HB464

Possession of weapons on school property, school buses, school bus stops, and during school activities. Defines "school property" for the purpose of mandatory expulsion for possession of firearms on school property. School property is defined as any school owned or leased real property or vehicles and a vehicle operated by or on behalf of the school board.

Patron - Tata

P HB473

Teacher licensure by reciprocity. Directs the Board of Education to provide for licensure by reciprocity for individuals holding a valid out-of-state teaching license and national certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) or a nationally recognized certification program approved by the Board of Education. The application for such individuals is to require evidence of such valid licensure and national certification, and shall not require official student transcripts. Current licensure regulations require individuals holding valid out-of-state licenses and seeking reciprocity in Virginia to include official student transcripts in the application process. According to Quality Counts '99, a publication of Education Week, 14 states, including North Carolina and Florida, provide license portability for out-of-state teachers having NBPTS certification. The 1999 Session of the General Assembly established the National Teacher Certification Incentive Reward Program and Fund to award incentive grants to public school teachers obtaining national certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

Patron - Amundson

P HB489

Standard 3 (Accreditation, other standards and evaluation) of the Standards of Quality. Requires the Board of Education to include, in the requirements for verified credits for the standard and advanced studies diplomas, a provision that allows students completing elective classes into which the Standards of Learning (SOL) for any required course have been integrated to take the relevant SOL assessment for the relevant required course and receive, upon achieving a satisfactory score on the specific SOL test, a verified unit of credit for such elective class which must be deemed to satisfy the Board's requirement for verified credit for the required course.

Patron - Orrock

P HB536

Transfer of scholastic records. Conforms current law to the requirements of the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) by directing schools to annually notify parents of students currently enrolled and in attendance of their rights under FERPA and related regulations. In addition, a school responding to a request for the transfer of a student's scholastic record from another school division need not provide written notice of the transfer, to the parent or to a student who is 18 years of age or older, if the school has previously included in this annual notice a statement that it forwards such records to such requesting school divisions.

Patron - Tata

P HB588

Mandatory student drug testing. Permits local school boards to require any student who has been found, in accordance with the due process requirements set forth in § 22.1-277, to have been in possession of, or under the influence of, drugs or alcohol on a school bus, on school property, or at a school-sponsored activity in violation of school board policies, to undergo evaluation for drug or alcohol abuse, or both, and, if recommended by the evaluator and with the consent of the student's parents, to participate in a treatment program. This bill incorporates HB 1432.

Patron - Black

P HB605

Notification of reduction in force for teachers. Directs any school board in a county having the county executive form of government that is adjacent to a county having the urban county executive form of government (Prince William) to notify by May 15 those teachers who may be subject to a reduction in force due to a decrease in the school board's budget as approved by the appropriating body.

Patron - McQuigg

P HB633

Standards of Learning. Requires, by October 1, 2000, the Board of Education to establish a regular schedule for the review and revision as may be necessary of the Standards of Learning (SOL) in all subject areas. The review of each subject area shall occur at least once every seven years; however, the Board may conduct such review and revision on a more frequent basis. A second enactment clause requires the Board to begin, by November 1, 2000, the review and revision of the SOL with a review and revision of the Social Studies Standards of Learning. The Board must concentrate its first cycle of review and revision on those SOLs linked to verified units of credit.

Patron - Darner

P HB635

School boards and appropriating bodies. Provides that references throughout Title 22.1 to "governing body" or "local governing body" means the governing body of the county, city and town responsible for appropriating funds for the locality.

Patron - Dillard

P HB650

Teacher grievance procedure. Amends the teacher grievance procedure to provide that the members of the three-person panel must not be parties to, or witnesses to, the matter grieved and that panel members are prohibited from conducting an independent investigation involving the matter grieved.

Patron - McDonnell

P HB742

Residential charter schools for at-risk students. Permits the creation of residential charter schools for at-risk students by a single school division or by two or more school divisions as a joint school. Applications for residential charter schools are to include a description of the residential program, facilities, and staffing; any parental education and after-care initiatives; funding sources for the residential and other services provided; and any counseling or other social services to be provided and their coordination with any current state or local initiatives. In addition, school boards are authorized to employ such health, mental health, social services, and other personnel for residential charter schools as contemplated in the charter agreement; however, there is no obligation for a school board to fund the residential or other services provided by a residential charter school. The conditions for funding the charter school will include funding for the educational program to be provided by the residential charter school for at-risk students. This measure, as introduced, was a recommendation of the special subcommittee of the House Committee on Education examining residential academies for at-risk students.

Patron - Rhodes

P HB785

Charter schools. Clarifies that school divisions may authorize the crea tion of regional charter schools to be operated and chartered by two or more participating school boards and emphasizes that charter schools are public schools. This bill also clarifies that charter schools, as public schools, are subject to the requirements of the Standards of Quality, including the Standards of Learning and the Standards of Accreditation and directs each local school board to provide public notice by December 31, 2000, of its intent to accept or not to accept applications for charter schools. The requirement that no more than two charter schools per school division be approved prior to July 1, 2000, has been deleted. Finally, the bill provides that charter schools will not be reported in fall membership for purposes of calculating the state and local shares required to fund the Standards of Quality if the enrollment at the charter school is less than 100 students and constitutes less than five percent of the total enrollment of the relevant grades in that school division. This bill is identical to SB 411.

Patron - Harris

P HB805

Donations of obsolete hardware and software to students. Permits school divisions to donate obsolete hardware and software to be replaced pursuant to the technology replacement program to public school students as provided in guidelines to be promulgated by the Board of Education. The guidelines must include criteria for determining student eligibility and need; a reporting system for the compilation of information concerning the number and socioeconomic characteristics of recipient students; and notification of parents of the availability of such donations of obsolete educational hardware and software. Currently, donations from school divisions may be offered to other school divisions and preschools.

Patron - Tata

P HB815

Prohibitions against obscene or profane language or conduct. Requires each school board to include, in its standards of student conduct, prohibitions against profane or obscene language. Several states have enacted similar statutes authorizing these disciplinary actions.

Patron - Joannou

P HB865

Transmission to school boards of records of founded complaints of child abuse and neglect. Requires the Department of Social Services to respond to requests by local school boards in cases where there is no match within the central registry of a founded complaint of child abuse or neglect regarding applicants for employment within 10 business days of receipt of such requests. In cases where there is a match within the central registry, the Department shall respond within 30 business days. The response may be by first-class mail or facsimile transmission. This bill is identical to SB 691.

Patron - Tata

P HB867

Legal action for test security violations. Permits the Office of the Attorney General, on behalf of the Board of Education, to bring a cause of action for injunctive relief or civil penalty, or both, against any person who knowingly and willfully commits specified acts regarding secure mandatory tests administered to students required by the Code of Virginia or by the Board of Education, such as the Standards of Learning assessments. Among the enumerated prohibited acts are permitting unauthorized access to secure test questions; copying all or any portion of any secure test booklet; making available test answer keys; and making false certifications on the test security form established by the Department of Education. The measure defines a "secure test" as an item, question, or test that has not been made publicly available by the Department of Education. The measure is not to be construed as restricting the actions of the Board, the Department, or the Superintendent of Public Instruction in test development or selection, test form construction, standard setting, test scoring and reporting, and other related activities. The civil penalties collected by such actions are not to exceed $1,000 for each violation and are to be deposited in the Literary Fund. In addition, the bill authorizes the Board of Education to suspend or revoke the teaching or administrative license of persons who knowingly and willfully commit specific acts regarding secure mandatory tests. No person whose license has been suspended or revoked will be subject to a civil penalty for the same infraction. This bill is identical to SB 548.

Patron - Tata

P HB903

Lottery Proceeds Nonrecurring Costs Fund. Allows the governing body of any locality to authorize the local treasurer or fiscal officer, by ordinance or resolution, to create a separate escrow account upon the books of the locality for the deposit of that portion of the locality's appropriation from the lottery proceeds which are designated, pursuant to Item 139 B 4 of Chapter 935 of the 1999 Acts of Assembly or any other state law, to be used for nonrecurring costs. Nonrecurring costs are defined, in the budget and in this provision, as including school construction, additions, infrastructure, site acquisition, renovations, technology, and other expenditures related to modernizing classroom equipment, and debt service payments on school projects completed during the last 10 years. The escrow accounts for the school construction grants cannot be used for the deposit of the nonrecurring costs appropriations.

Patron - Diamonstein

P HB927

Northern Neck-Middle Peninsula Public Education Consortium. Establishes the Northern Neck-Middle Peninsula Public Education Consortium, governed by a board consisting of the region's school superintendents, the president or his designee of Rappahannock Community College, the Director of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, and seven citizen members representing business, industry, and community interests in the region. The region's legislators will serve as nonvoting, advisory members of the board. The board may appoint additional nonvoting, advisory members to assist in the performance of its duties. The Consortium is to coordinate with educational institutions and agencies in the Commonwealth and surrounding areas to develop joint educational initiatives; promote and establish, in conjunction with the Department of Education and the region's public school divisions, regional programs to address area educational needs; coordinate the development and sharing of programs, educational techniques, and resources among and between the region's school divisions and institutions of higher education; and provide technical assistance to school divisions for the implementation of effective educational programs. From such funds as may be appropriated or received, an executive director may be appointed and is authorized to employ staff. This bill will not become effective unless an appropriation effectuating its purposes is included in the 2000 appropriation act, passed during the 2000 Session of the General Assembly, and signed into law by the Governor.

Patron - Pollard

P HB975

Remediation program regulations. Directs school divisions to report to the Board of Education the number of students who successfully complete the objectives of remedial programs which they attended due to their performance on the Standards of Learning assessments. The bill also requires that the Board of Education promulgate regulations establishing standards for remediation programs by August 1, 2000. The second and third enactment clauses of Chapter 537 of the Acts of Assembly of 1999 are repealed to eliminate conflicts between the current reporting requirements of the law and the technical capacity of school divisions to comply with the requirements, as referenced in Board regulations. This bill is a recommendation of the Joint Subcommittee on Remediation.

Patron - Van Yahres

P HB983

Health; immunizations and certificates. Allows registered nurses, in addition to physicians and employees of local health departments, to immunize schoolchildren as required by statute and to provide certificates or documentary proof of such immunizations. The bill also deletes the requirement that physicians and nurses who certify that public school employees have been tested and found free of tuberculosis be employees of a local health department.

Patron - Rhodes

P HB987

Certain organizations approving accreditation processes. Provides that the Board of Education may authorize, in a manner it deems appropriate, the Virginia Council for Private Education (VCPE) to accredit private nursery, preschool, elementary, and secondary schools, for purposes of facilitating the transfer of academic credits for students who have attended private schools and are now enrolling in public schools and to satisfy the accreditation requirement for an exemption from licensure for certain child day programs. Private schools are not required to be accredited by state law; however, they may seek accreditation from the Board of Education. In addition, various private organizations perform this accreditation function and may be approved by VCPE, which has an ongoing agreement with the Board acknowledging this arrangement.

Patron - Rhodes

P HB1009

Education; Western Virginia Public Education Consortium. Creates the Western Virginia Public Education Consortium, governed by a board consisting of the region's school superintendents. The region's legislators will serve as nonvoting advisory members. The Consortium is to coordinate with entities providing programs and services to Consortium school divisions to reduce duplication of efforts; identify needs of member school divisions and develop plans and programs responding to those needs; facilitate the coordination of programs affecting K-12 vocational and technical education, workforce development, and other linkages; coordinate technology-related activities; develop and maintain linkages with schools and school divisions in Northern Virginia to promote enhanced usage of educational technology; and create the capacity for development of shared services and activities. The Consortium's offices are to be housed at Radford University. An executive director shall be appointed and authorized to employ staff.

Patron - Shuler

P HB1010

Student possession and self-administration of inhaled asthma medications. Directs school boards to develop and implement policies to permit students who have a diagnosis of asthma to possess and self-administer inhaled asthma medications during the school day. The student must have written consent from a parent; written notice from a doctor or nurse practitioner that identifies the student, notes the diagnosis of asthma and approval to self-administer inhaled asthma medications; specifies the name and dosage of the medication, the frequency of administration, and circumstances which warrant the use of the medication; and attests to the student's demonstrated ability to self-administer safely and effectively. The policies must also provide for development of an individualized health care plan, including emergency procedures for any life-threatening conditions; consultation with the student's parent before any limitations or restrictions are imposed on the student's possession and self-administration of inhaled asthma medications, and before the permission to possess and self-administer inhaled asthma medications is revoked; for the self-administration of inhaled asthma medication to be consistent with the purposes of the Virginia School Health Guidelines and the Guidelines for Specialized Health Care Procedure manuals; and for disclosure or dissemination of information pertaining to the health condition of a student to school board employees to comply with state and federal law relating to student scholastic records. The permission to possess and self-administer asthma medications is effective for one year, defined as 365 calendar days, and must be renewed annually. School principals and other employees of school boards and local health department personnel assigned to public schools, who supervise the self-administration of inhaled asthma medications by a student, will be immune from liability for any civil damages for acts or omissions resulting from the supervision of self-administration of inhaled asthma medications, when such function is performed in good faith, without compensation, and in the absence of gross negligence or willful misconduct. The measure incorporates HB 1386.

Patron - Morgan

P HB1019

Release of Standards of Learning assessments. Directs the Board of Education to make publicly available the Standards of Learning (SOL) assessments in a timely manner and as soon as practicable following the administration of these tests, so long as this release does not compromise test security or deplete the bank of assessment questions necessary to construct subsequent tests. In addition, the SOL assessments, and any other tests or examinations developed or prescribed by the Board pursuant to Standard 3 of the Standards of Quality, are not to be required to be released as "minimum competency tests" if the Board determines the release would breach test security or deplete questions.

Patron - Dillard

P HB1020

Standards of Learning assessments; social studies. Directs the Board of Education, in prescribing the Standards of Learning assessments, to provide local school boards the option of administering tests for United States History to 1877, United States History: 1877 to the Present, and Civics and Economics. Currently, the course content for these social studies areas are taught at different times between the 6th and the 8th grades in Commonwealth's school divisions; the Standards of Learning assessment for social studies at the 8th grade level covers all three areas. This provision will not become effective unless an appropriation effectuating its purposes is included in the 2000 appropriation act, passed during the 2000 Session of the General Assembly, and signed into law by the Governor.

Patron - Dillard

P HB1097

Criminal history record check; Floyd County Public Schools. Adds Floyd County to the list of local school boards that require applicants who are offered or who accept permanent or temporary, part-time or full-time employment with the school board to submit to fingerprinting and a criminal history record check through the Central Criminal Records Exchange of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Patron - Dudley

P HB1147

Parental responsibility for student behavior. Provides that the juvenile and domestic relations court, upon finding that a parent has willfully and unreasonably failed to accompany a suspended student to meet with school officials to discuss improving the student's behavior, or upon the student's receiving a second suspension or being expelled, may order not only the student or his parent, but both parents, if they have legal and physical custody, to participate in such programs or such treatment, including parenting counseling or a mentoring program, as the court deems appropriate to improve the student's behavior. In addition, the court may order both the student and his parents to be subject to such conditions and limitations as the court deems appropriate for the supervision, care, and rehabilitation of the student or his parent. Current language indicates these options are available for the student or his parent. In addition, the bill provides that the principal may request the student's parent or parents, if both parents have legal and physical custody, to meet to discuss student conduct standards and other matters. The measure also includes a technical amendment.

Patron - Barlow

P HB1196

Standard 3 (Accreditation, other standards and evaluation) of the Standards of Quality. Requires the Board of Education, in establishing course and credit requirements for a high school diploma, to establish a procedure that allows qualified students, with the recommendation of the division superintendent, to obtain credit for a class upon demonstration of mastery of the course content and objectives, without completing the 140-hour class. Having received credit for the course, the student will be permitted to sit for the relevant Standards of Learning assessment and, upon receiving a passing score, will earn a verified credit. The bill also includes a technical amendment concerning teacher licensure.

Patron - Hargrove

P HB1212

Certain school board agreements. Amends the statute authorizing school boards to permit the use of school property, under such conditions as will not impair the efficiency of the schools, to allow the school boards to authorize the division superintendent to permit use of the school property, including buildings, grounds, vehicles, and other property, under such conditions as the school board deems will not impair the efficiency of the schools and are, therefore, proper. Permitted uses of buildings are specifically noted to include, but not be limited to, use as voting places in any primary, regular or special election and operation of a local or regional library pursuant to an agreement between the school board and a library board created as provided in § 42.1-35.

Patron - Cantor

P HB1238

School boards; criminal records checks of employees. Directs all school boards to (i) require, as a condition of employment, fingerprinting for applicants who are offered or who accept school board employment, whether on a temporary, permanent, or part- or full-time basis, and (ii) submit the fingerprints and descriptive information through the Central Criminal Records Exchange to the Federal Bureau of Investigation to obtain the applicant's national criminal records history. Similarly, all school boards receiving a report of employee arrests for specific serious crimes are to require the employee to undergo fingerprinting and a criminal records check. The school board (i) may pay for all or a portion of the cost of the fingerprinting or criminal records check, or (ii) may, in its discretion, require the applicant to pay for all or a portion of the cost of such fingerprinting or criminal records checks. The statute now directs 56 jurisdictions (32 counties and 24 cities) to require these criminal records checks. Currently, the records are searched for all felonies and any misdemeanors involving drugs, abuse or neglect of children, moral turpitude, obscenity offenses, and sexual assault. In addition, school boards also receive reports of arrests for these crimes for current employees, who must then submit to fingerprinting and a criminal records check. The school board may now require applicants and employees to pay for the fingerprinting and records check or may pay for these services from such funds as may be available for that purpose.

Patron - Tata

P HB1353

Remediation programs. Re-arranges paragraphs of Standard 1 of the Standards of Quality, pertaining to remediation programs and requirements in order to provide consistency, clarity, and readability. This provision clarifies that any student who does not pass the literacy tests or any of the Standards of Learning assessments in grades three, five, or eight must be required to attend a summer school program or to participate in another form of remediation and that any student who passes one or more, but not all, of the Standards of Learning assessments in grades three, five, or eight may be required to attend a remediation program. In addition, the measure provides that summer school and other remediation must be chosen by the division superintendent to be appropriate to the academic needs of the student. This bill is a recommendation of the Joint Subcommittee on Remediation.

Patron - Van Yahres

P HB1355

Virginia Innovative Remedial Education Pilot Program. Changes the date for which the first grant awards must be made to approved pilot programs to January 1, 2001, and makes technical changes. This bill is a recommendation of the Joint Subcommittee on Remediation.

Patron - Van Yahres

P HB1361

Reports of certain offenses to school authorities. Authorizes law-enforcement officers to report suspected violations of the Drug Control Act by students that occurred on school property, on a school bus, or at a school-sponsored activity to school principals.

Patron - Griffith

P HB1404

Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program. Modifies the Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program to (i) allow support through gifts, donations, grants, bequests, and other funds that may be obtained by the Department of Education; (ii) expand the Program to include scholarships to support critical teacher shortage disciplines, including special education as well as paraprofessional development; and (iii) to expand eligibility to include part-time students, sophomores and graduate students. Board regulations will include in the award criteria consideration of teacher shortages in rural and urban areas and in certain teaching endorsements. Scholarship recipients are to agree to teach in Virginia public schools in a critical teaching shortage discipline or, regardless of teaching discipline, in a school with a high concentration of students eligible for free or reduced lunch or in a rural or urban region of Virginia experiencing a teacher shortage. This bill also renames the Diversity in Teaching Program as the Diversity in Teaching Initiative, a component of the Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program. The Initiative will provide incentives to students of diverse backgrounds and will consist of five pilot projects distributed across Virginia. The Board is to develop criteria for Diversity Initiative scholarships in consultation with the Office of the Attorney General. The bill also designates the present trust fund to cover the umbrella program (the Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program) instead of solely for the Diversity in Teaching Initiative and requires Diversity in Teaching funds to be accounted for separately within the fund and distributed solely for scholarships awarded pursuant to the Diversity in Teaching Initiative. The Board of Education is required to promulgate emergency regulations, regardless of whether additional funds are appropriated for this program. The Board of Education is to promulgate emergency regulations to implement the Program within 280 days of its enactment. This measure is identical to HB 1408, SB 630, SB 652, and SB 737, and incorporates HB 946, HB 1227, HB 1263, HB 1318, HB 1453, and HB 1441.

Patron - Christian

P HB1406

Virginia Gifted Education Pilot Program. Extends the expiration date on the provisions of the Virginia Gifted Education Pilot Program to July 1, 2003.

Patron - Christian

P HB1408

Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program. Modifies the Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program to (i) allow support through gifts, donations, grants, bequests and other funds that may be obtained by the Department of Education; (ii) expand the Program to include scholarships to support critical teacher shortage disciplines, including special education as well as paraprofessional development; and (iii) to expand eligibility to include part-time students, sophomores and graduate students. Board regulations will include in award criteria consideration of teacher shortages in rural and urban areas and in certain teaching endorsements. Scholarship recipients are to agree to teach in Virginia public schools in a critical teaching shortage discipline or, regardless of teaching discipline, in a school with a high concentration of students eligible for free or reduced lunch or in a rural or urban region of Virginia experiencing a teacher shortage. This bill also renames the Diversity in Teaching Program as the Diversity in Teaching Initiative, a component of the Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program. The Initiative will provide incentives to students of diverse backgrounds and will consist of five pilot projects distributed across Virginia. The Board is to develop criteria for Diversity Initiative scholarships in consultation with the Office of the Attorney General. The bill also designates the present trust fund to cover the umbrella program (the Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program) instead of solely for the Diversity in Teaching Initiative and requires Diversity in Teaching funds to be accounted for separately within the fund and distributed solely for scholarships awarded pursuant to the Diversity in Teaching Initiative. The Board of Education is required to promulgate emergency regulations, regardless of whether additional funds are appropriated for this program. The Board of Education is to promulgate emergency regulations to implement the Program within 280 days of its enactment. This measure is identical to HB 1404, SB 630, SB 652, and SB 737, and incorporates HB 946, HB 1227, HB 1263, HB 1318, HB 1453, and HB 1441.

Patron - Crittenden

P HB1438

Preschool physical examinations. Allows a licensed nurse practitioner acting under the supervision of a licensed physician to provide a report of the comprehensive physical examination which is required within the 12 months prior to the date the pupil first enters public kindergarten or elementary school. In addition, the licensed nurse practitioner may summarize any abnormal physical findings and indicate any conditions that might identify the pupil as disabled in the report. Currently, this reporting responsibility is limited to licensed physicians. Pursuant to § 22.1-178, nurse practitioners may currently perform and sign the report of the results of physical examinations required for the employment of school bus drivers.

Patron - O'Brien

P HB1445

Student searches. Directs school boards to adopt and revise, to be effective for the 2001-2002 school year, regulations governing student searches that are consistent with Board of Education's recently issued guidelines.

Patron - Hull

P HB1468

Compulsory school attendance. Provides that a student who has been granted an alternative education plan and who fails to comply with the conditions of the plan will be in violation of the compulsory school attendance law. The division superintendent or attendance officer of the school division in which such student was last enrolled must seek the student's immediate compliance with the compulsory school attendance law.

Patron - Hamilton

P HB1484

Standards of Learning assessments. Authorizes the Board of Education with such funds as may be appropriated for this purpose, to provide, through an agreement with vendors having the technical capacity and expertise to provide computerized tests and assessments, and test construction, analysis, and security, for (i) web-based computerized tests and assessments for the evaluation of student progress during and after remediation and (ii) the development of a remediation item bank directly related to the Standards of Learning. This bill will not become effective unless an appropriation effectuating its purposes is included in the 2000 appropriation act, passed during the 2000 Session of the General Assembly and signed into law by the Governor.

Patron - Rhodes

P HB1517

Planning time for teachers. Requires local school boards to seek to ensure that elementary school teachers in their employment have at least three hours during the students' school week for planning time.

Patron - McEachin

P HB1541

School board policies regarding certain activities. Requires, no later than August 1, 2001, local school boards to develop and implement policies to ensure that public school students are not required to convey or deliver any materials that (i) advocate the election or defeat of any candidate for elective office, (ii) advocate the passage or defeat of any referendum question, or (iii) advocate the passage or defeat of any matter pending before a local school board, local governing body or the General Assembly of Virginia or the Congress of the United States. This provision must not be construed to prohibit the discussion or use of political or issue-oriented materials as part of classroom discussions or projects or to prohibit the delivery of informational materials.

Patron - O'Brien

P SB15

School board salaries. Increases the maximum salary for the Prince William County School Board from $8,000 to $12,000; and adds the Town of Colonial Heights, with its current salary of $2,400, and the City of Falls Church, with a maximum salary of $3,000. Pursuant to subsection C, the chairman may be paid an additional $1,100. This bill now incorporates the provisions of SB 138 (Martin) and SB 500 (Whipple).

Patron - Chichester

P SB113

Teacher licensure. Establishes a mechanism for local school boards to issue three-year local teacher licenses. Such licenses would only be valid within the issuing school division, would not entitle the holder to continuing contract status, would not be renewable, and could be conditioned upon the completion of additional training. No more than 10 percent of the classroom teachers employed by the relevant local school division may hold such local licenses, based on the number of classroom teachers employed by the school division during the preceding school year. The holder of a locally issued license would be a probationary teacher for the entire three years, would be eligible to apply for a regular license issued by the Department of Education upon satisfaction of the relevant requirements, and would be subject to and entitled to all other requirements and rights provided in law and regulation. No applicant could be issued a local license if such person is eligible to be licensed by the Department of Education. This bill amends several existing licensure/terms of employment statutes to provide the appropriate references, etc. to the local licensure procedure.

Patron - Potts

P SB114

Virginia history requirement in middle and high school. Amends the requirement for study of documents of Virginia history and the United States Constitution to require emphasis on the relationship between the various documents and Virginia history and to state the purpose of this study as being to "increase knowledge of citizens' rights and responsibilities thereunder and to enhance the understanding of Virginia's unique role in the history of the United States." Standard 1 is also amended to clarify that the essential skills and concepts of citizenship include knowledge of Virginia history and world and United States history.

Patron - Potts

P SB147

Public school enrollment of homeless pupils. Revises various statutes addressing evidence of residence in the school division for public school enrollment. Added to those persons deemed to reside in a school division are those persons lacking a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence and having a primary nighttime residence located within the school division that is (i) a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations; (ii) an institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized; or (iii) a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings. Corresponding amendments are made to address those residences that may lie in more than one school division. School divisions may, upon receipt of an affidavit from persons seeking to enroll these pupils in public schools denoting that a street address cannot be provided, accept an alternative address in a form it deems appropriate. In addition, the school division is to refer these pupils, upon receipt of an affidavit from the person seeking to enroll the pupil that the requisite health examination report and records cannot be provided due to the pupil's homelessness, to the county or city health department for the required health examination materials.

Patron - Quayle

P SB170

Programs designed to promote educational opportunities. Provides that the guidelines for the at-risk four-year-old preschool program may be differentiated according to the agency delivering the services in order to comply with various federal or state requirements and that the guidelines for the programs delivered by the public schools must require (i) one teacher for any class of nine students or less, (ii) if the average daily membership in any class exceeds nine students but does not exceed 18 students, a full-time teacher's aide must be assigned to the class, and (iii) the maximum class size must be 18 students. Currently, the Department of Education's guidelines require a pupil/teacher ratio of 8/1 and a maximum class size of 18. Pursuant to this provision, the Department may differentiate its service criteria according to the various service providers in order to comply with any relevant federal or state requirements, e.g., Head Start requires a 9/1 ratio and limits the maximum class size to 19 students. Certain provisions of the bill are based on moneys appropriated in the Appropriation Act.

Patron - Puller

P SB209

One minute of silence. Revises the current law authorizing school boards to establish moments of silence for meditation, prayer or other silent activity to require daily observation of a moment of silence, not to exceed one minute, in every classroom in the public schools in Virginia. The current requirement that the teacher responsible for each classroom must take care that all pupils remain seated and silent and make no distracting display during this time is retained. The student may, in the exercise of his or her individual choice, meditate, pray, or reflect or engage in any other silent activity which does not interfere with, distract, or impede other pupils in the like exercise of individual choice. The Office of the Attorney General is authorized to intervene and must provide legal counsel for defense of this provision. In addition, the Commonwealth of Virginia will be responsible for all legal fees incurred by any local school board for defense of this statute.

Patron - Barry

P SB224

Designation of race or ethnicity by public school elementary students. Prohibits school board employees administering tests or other assessment instruments from requiring any public elementary school students being tested to disclose their race or ethnicity on any such tests. This provision will not prevent relevant school division personnel from obtaining such information from the students' permanent records and placing this information on the test or assessment instrument.

Patron - Miller, K.G.

P SB244

Lottery Proceeds Nonrecurring Costs Fund. Allows the governing body of any locality to authorize the local treasurer or fiscal officer, by ordinance or resolution, to create a separate escrow account upon the books of the locality for the deposit of that portion of the locality's appropriation from the lottery proceeds which are designated, pursuant to Item 139 B 4 of Chapter 935 of the 1999 Acts of Assembly or any other state law, to be used for nonrecurring costs. Nonrecurring costs are defined, in the budget and in this provision, as including school construction, additions, infrastructure, site acquisition, renovations, technology, and other expenditures related to modernizing classroom equipment, and debt service payments on school projects completed during the last 10 years. The escrow accounts for the school construction grants cannot be used for the deposit of the nonrecurring costs appropriations.

Patron - Bolling

P SB248

Driver education programs. Requires driver education programs to include instruction concerning motorcycle awareness. This measure is identical to HB 430.

Patron - Houck

P SB289

Teacher licensure by reciprocity. Directs the Board of Education to provide for licensure by reciprocity for individuals holding a valid out-of-state teaching license and national certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) or a nationally recognized certification program approved by the Board of Education. The application for such individuals is to require evidence of such valid licensure and national certification, and shall not require official student transcripts. Current licensure regulations require individuals holding valid out-of-state licenses and seeking reciprocity in Virginia to include official student transcripts in the application process. According to Quality Counts '99, a publication of Education Week, 14 states, including North Carolina and Florida, provide license portability for out-of-state teachers having NBPTS certification. The 1999 Session of the General Assembly established the National Teacher Certification Incentive Reward Program and Fund to award incentive grants to public school teachers obtaining national certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. This measure is identical to HB 473.

Patron - Puller

P SB307

Criminal history record check; Floyd County Public Schools. Adds Floyd County to the list of local school boards that require applicants who are offered or who accept permanent or temporary, part-time or full-time employment with the school board to submit to fingerprinting and a criminal history record check through the Central Criminal Records Exchange of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This measure is identical to HB 1097.

Patron - Reynolds

P SB318

Standards of Learning assessments. Directs the Board of Education to, in consultation with the chairpersons of the eight regional superintendents' study groups, establish a timetable for administering the Standards of Learning assessments to ensure genuine end-of-course and end-of-grade testing.

Patron - Reynolds

P SB364

Western Virginia Public Education Consortium. Creates the Western Virginia Public Education Consortium, governed by a board consisting of the region's school superintendents. The region's legislators will serve as nonvoting advisory members. The Consortium is to coordinate with entities providing programs and services to Consortium school divisions to reduce duplication of efforts; identify needs of member school divisions and develop plans and programs responding to those needs; facilitate the coordination of programs affecting K-12 vocational and technical education, workforce development, and other linkages; coordinate technology-related activities; develop and maintain linkages with schools and school divisions in Northern Virginia to promote enhanced usage of educational technology; and create the capacity for development of shared services and activities. The Consortium's offices are to be housed at Radford University. An executive director shall be appointed and authorized to employ staff. This measure is identical to HB 1009.

Patron - Trumbo

P SB411

Charter schools. Clarifies that school divisions may authorize the creation of regional charter schools to be operated and chartered by two or more participating school boards and emphasizes that charter schools are public schools. This bill also clarifies that charter schools, as public schools, are subject to the requirements of the Standards of Quality, including the Standards of Learning and the Standards of Accreditation and directs each local school board to provide public notice by December 31, 2000, of its intent to accept or not to accept applications for charter schools. The requirement that no more than two charter schools per school division be approved prior to July 1, 2000, has been deleted. Finally, the bill provides that charter schools will not be reported in fall membership for purposes of calculating the state and local shares required to fund the Standards of Quality if the enrollment at the charter school is less than 100 students and constitutes less than five percent of the total enrollment of the relevant grades in that school division. This bill is identical to HB 785.

Patron - Barry

P SB437

Preschool physical examinations. Allows a licensed nurse practitioner acting under the supervision of a licensed physician to provide a report of a comprehensive physical examination of a pupil within the 12 months prior to the date the pupil first enters such public kindergarten or elementary school. In addition, the licensed nurse practitioner may summarize any abnormal physical findings and indicate any conditions that might identify the pupil as disabled in the report. Currently, this reporting responsibility is limited to licensed physicians. Pursuant to § 22.1-178, nurse practitioners may currently perform and sign the report of the results of physical examinations required for the employment of school bus drivers. This measure is identical to HB 1438.

Patron - Potts

P SB483

Special tax district in Westmoreland County. Authorizes the establishment of a special tax district within Westmoreland County. The special tax district will encompass the county school division with the exclusion of the Town of Colonial Beach. This bill provides for a very careful, detailed calculation of the revenues attributable to the county and those revenues attributable to the town, with the calculations drawn according to state law and pro rata allocation of each jurisdiction's tax revenue, etc. using fractions (percentages) and committing the jurisdictions to using baseline data that is clearly identifiable. Any dispute will be settled by an arbitration panel, consisting of one person not associated with the county but selected by the county, one person not associated with the town but selected by the town, and the Auditor of Public Accounts, with the majority decision binding on both jurisdictions. The bill contains an emergency clause.

Patron - Chichester

P SB487

Study of the contributions to society of diverse people. Amends the Standards of Quality to require that the Board of Education supplement the Standards of Learning for Social Studies to ensure the study of contributions to society of diverse people. "Diverse" is defined as including consideration of disability, ethnicity, race, and gender.

Patron - Lambert

P SB499

Admission to public schools for certain students; tuition charges. Revises the provision authorizing school boards to admit nonresident students and charge such students tuition to provide that persons of school age who reside beyond the boundaries of the Commonwealth but near thereto in a state or the District of Columbia which grants the same privileges to residents of the Commonwealth may be admitted and so charged. Currently, the nearby jurisdiction must border the admitting school division.

Patron - Whipple

P SB545

Extended School Year Incentive Program. Creates the Extended School Year Incentive Program from such funds as may be appropriated, to be administered by the Board of Education, for incentive grants for public school divisions for the operation of schools beyond the 180-day school year required by the Standards of Accreditation. The grants shall not be awarded to support summer school initiatives. The provisions of the bill will not become effective unless an appropration is included in the 2000 appropriation act, passed by the General Assembly, and signed into law by the Governor.

Patron - Marye

P SB548

Legal action for test security violations. Permits the Office of the Attorney General, on behalf of the Board of Education to bring a cause of action for injunctive relief or civil penalty, or both, against any person who knowingly and willfully commits specified acts regarding secure mandatory tests administered to students required by the Code of Virginia or by the Board of Education, such as the Standards of Learning assessments. Among the enumerated prohibited acts are permitting unauthorized access to secure test questions; copying all or any portion of any secure test booklet; making available test answer keys; and making false certifications on the test security form established by the Department of Education. The measure defines a "secure test" as an item, question, or test that has not been made publicly available by the Department of Education. The measure is not to be construed as restricting the actions of the Board, the Department, or the Superintendent of Public Instruction in test development or selection, test form construction, standard setting, test scoring and reporting, and other related activities. The civil penalties collected by such actions are not to exceed $1,000 for each violation and are to be deposited in the Literary Fund. In addition, the bill authorizes the Board of Education to suspend or revoke the teaching or administrative license of persons who knowingly and willfully commit specific acts regarding secure mandatory tests. No person whose license has been suspended or revoked will be subject to a civil penalty for the same infraction. This measure incorporates SB 547.

Patron - Newman

P SB606

Standards of Learning. Requires, by October 1, 2000, the Board of Education to establish a regular schedule for the review and revision as may be necessary of the Standards of Learning (SOL) in all subject areas. The review of each subject area shall occur at least once every seven years; however, the Board may conduct such review and revision on a more frequent basis. A second enactment clause require the Board to begin, by November 1, 2000, the review and revision of the SOL with a review and revision of the Social Studies Standards of Learning. The Board must concentrate its first cycle of review and revision on those SOLs linked to verified units of credit. This measure is similar, but not identical, to HB 633.

Patron - Saslaw

P SB630

Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program. Modifies the Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program to (i) allow support through gifts, donations, grants, bequests and other funds that may be obtained by the Department of Education; (ii) expand the Program to include scholarships to support critical teacher shortage disciplines, including special education as well as paraprofessional development; and (iii) to expand eligibility to include part-time students, sophomores and graduate students. Board regulations will include in award criteria consideration of teacher shortages in rural and urban areas and in certain teaching endorsements. Scholarship recipients are to agree to teach in Virginia public schools in a critical teaching shortage discipline or, regardless of teaching discipline, in a school with a high concentration of students eligible for free or reduced lunch or in a rural or urban region of Virginia experiencing a teacher shortage. The measure also renames the Diversity in Teaching Program as the Diversity in Teaching Initiative, a component of the Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program. The Initiative will provide incentives to students of diverse backgrounds and will consist of five pilot projects distributed across Virginia. The Board is to develop criteria for Diversity Initiative scholarships in consultation with the Office of the Attorney General. The bill also designates the present trust fund to cover the umbrella program (the Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program) instead of solely for the Diversity in Teaching Initiative and requires Diversity in Teaching funds to be accounted for separately within the fund and distributed solely for scholarships awarded pursuant to the Diversity in Teaching Initiative. The Board of Education is required to promulgate emergency regulations, regardless of whether additional funds are appropriated for this program to implement the Program within 280 days of the enactment of this measure. This measure is identical to HB 1404, HB 1408, SB 652, and SB 737.

Patron - Miller, Y.B.

P SB652

Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program. Modifies the Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program to (i) allow support through gifts, donations, grants, bequests and other funds that may be obtained by the Department of Education; (ii) expand the Program to include scholarships to support critical teacher shortage disciplines, including special education as well as paraprofessional development; and (iii) to expand eligibility to include part-time students, sophomores and graduate students. Board regulations will include in award criteria consideration of teacher shortages in rural and urban areas and in certain teaching endorsements. Scholarship recipients are to agree to teach in Virginia public schools in a critical teaching shortage discipline or, regardless of teaching discipline, in a school with a high concentration of students eligible for free or reduced lunch or in a rural or urban region of Virginia experiencing a teacher shortage. The measure also renames the Diversity in Teaching Program as the Diversity in Teaching Initiative, a component of the Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program. The Initiative will provide incentives to students of diverse backgrounds and will consist of five pilot projects distributed across Virginia. The Board is to develop criteria for Diversity Initiative scholarships in consultation with the Office of the Attorney General. The bill also designates the present trust fund to cover the umbrella program (the Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program) instead of solely for the Diversity in Teaching Initiative and requires Diversity in Teaching funds to be accounted for separately within the fund and distributed solely for scholarships awarded pursuant to the Diversity in Teaching Initiative. The Board of Education is required to promulgate emergency regulations, regardless of whether additional funds are appropriated for this program to implement the Program within 280 days of the enactment of this measure. This measure is identical to HB 1404, HB 1408, SB 630, and SB 737.

Patron - Marsh

P SB654

Virginia Gifted Education Consortium. Extends the expiration of the provisions of the act to July 1, 2003. This bill is a recommendation of the Joint Subcommittee Studying the Educational Needs of Certain Underserved Gifted Students.

Patron - Houck

P SB673

Advisory Commission on the Virginia Schools for the Deaf and the Blind; per diem. Authorizes per diem for legislative members serving on the Advisory Commission on the Virginia Schools for the Deaf and the Blind.

Patron - Hanger

P SB675

Virginia Schools for the Deaf and the Blind. Changes the name of the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind at Hampton to the Virginia School for the Deaf, Blind and Multi-Disabled at Hampton to reflect more accurately its mission. Currently, the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind at Hampton and the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind at Staunton are referenced in the Code together as the Virginia Schools for the Deaf and the Blind. The operational control of the schools is the responsibility of the Board of Education, which establishes the rules and regulations for the governance of the schools. The schools' activities and educational programs are administered, supervised, and directed by the Superintendent of Public Instruction. This bill alters the name of the school at Hampton and does not affect the powers and duties of the Board of Education and the Superintendent of Public Instruction relative to the control, administration, supervision, and direction of the schools.

Patron - Hanger

P SB682

Indoor air quality task force. Adds a school administrator to the indoor air quality task force.

Patron - Forbes

P SB691

Records of founded complaints of child abuse and neglect. Requires the Department of Social Services to respond to requests by local school boards for any record of founded complaints of child abuse and neglect in cases where there is no match within the central registry regarding applicants for employment within 10 business days of receipt of such requests. In cases where there is a match within the central registry, the Department is to respond to requests made by local school boards within 30 business days of receipt of such requests. The response may be by first-class mail or facsimile transmission. This bill is identical to HB 865.

Patron - Schrock

P SB706

Advanced mathematics and technology diploma. Directs the Board of Education, in the exercise of its authority to recognize exemplary academic performance by providing for diploma seals, to establish by July 1, 2000, criteria for awarding a diploma seal for advanced mathematics and technology for the standard and advanced studies diplomas. The Board shall consider including criteria for (i) technology courses; (ii) technical writing, reading, and oral communication skills; (iii) technology-related practical arts training; and (iv) industry, professional, and trade association national certifications.

Patron - Couric

P SB737

Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program. Changes the Diversity in Teaching Program to the Diversity in Teaching Initiative Awards and makes it a component of the Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program. The Program focuses on at-risk and disadvantaged students. Currently, the Program specifies only at-risk students. The Board of Education is required to establish criteria in regulations for determining critical teacher shortage disciplines and high-poverty areas in the Commonwealth and to consult with the State Council of Higher Education in developing and implementing the Program. The criteria must reflect research findings concerning the characteristics of at-risk and disadvantaged students and the impact of socioeconomic deprivations on learning and the educational outcomes for such students. The bill provides that a paraprofessional is eligible to receive scholarships and awards to complete the undergraduate program to become a fully licensed teacher, or a program of study designed to increase his level of education or strengthen his classroom skills. Also, the bill sets criteria for the recipients of the awards. Students must repay the loans by teaching in a critical teacher shortage discipline, or in a high-poverty area, or in a school division with high concentrations of at-risk or disadvantaged students, or at grade levels or in a geographical region of the Commonwealth in where teachers who have been at-risk or disadvantaged students are under-represented. The Board of Education is required to promulgate emergency regulations, regardless of whether additional funds are appropriated for this program to implement the Program within 280 days of the enactment of this measure. This measure is identical to HB 1404, HB 1408, SB 630, and SB 652.

Patron - Couric

F Failed

F HB114

Colonial Heights school board salary. Adds the Town of Colonial Heights to the list of local school boards for which the maximum annual salary of school board members has been established. This bill also provides that the salary of members of the Colonial Heights school board shall be as provided in § 22.1-32, rather than as currently conferred on the Town of Colonial Heights by charter. This measure was incorporated in HB 20.

Patron - Cox

F HB131

Standards of Quality; pupil-teacher ratios in certain courses. Amends the Standards of Quality to require local school boards to assign licensed instructional personnel in a manner that produces divisionwide ratios of students in average daily membership to full-time equivalent teaching positions, excluding special education teachers, principals, assistant principals, counselors, and librarians, that are not greater than 24 to one in mathematics classes in grades six through 12. This ratio is currently required for English classes in grades six through 12.

Patron - Councill

F HB217

School day and year; apportionment of costs. Provides that, upon approval by the local governing body, the local school board may increase the length of the school day or year, and that any resulting increases in salaries or other costs for maintaining a program meeting the Standards of Quality are to be borne by the locality. Any increased costs resulting from lengthening of the school day or year by the action of the Commonwealth would be shared by the Commonwealth and localities.

Patron - Phillips

F HB231

Funding for instructional positions. Amends the Standards of Quality (SOQ) to provide that the state's share of funding for instructional positions in public schools shall be based on the statewide prevailing ratio of actual instructional personnel employed by school boards as reported to the Department of Education in the year upon which the biennial SOQ expenditures were based as provided in the appropriation act. Class size and divisionwide pupil-teacher ratios remain unchanged for purposes of school operations and organization. Currently, state funding for instructional positions is calculated based on the divisionwide ratios and class size limits set forth in the SOQ. A second enactment clause makes this measure effective July 1, 2002.

Patron - Plum

F HB248

Expulsion of students for firearms possession. Amends the section requiring automatic expulsion of students who posses firearms by eliminating the exception for firearms used as part of the curriculum or as part of other programs sponsored by the school or an organization permitted by the school to use its premises.

Patron - Dillard

F HB267

Technology resource assistants in public schools. Amends the Standards of Quality (SOQ) to direct the Board of Education to require, in the minimum staffing levels set forth in the Standards of Accreditation (SOA), one technology resource assistant in each elementary, middle, high or combined school. In addition, corresponding amendments are made in the statutory provision authorizing grants for technology resource assistants; grants would be applied for hiring these personnel at all grade levels, in addition to those required by the SOQ and SOA. Currently, the grants are limited to the provide a technology resource assistant "to serve every elementary school...." Matching funds, calculated based on the composite index of local ability to pay, are required.

Patron - Rhodes

F HB291

Public school-based access to information infrastructure. Requires public schools providing student access to the Internet and other aspects of the electronic information infrastructure to employ computer technology, or execute an agreement with a network service provider, inhibiting student access to materials harmful to juveniles, obscene materials and child pornography beginning in the 2000-2001 school year. Local school boards are to report their compliance with this requirement annually to the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Patron - Black

F HB304

Pupil-teacher ratios and class sizes in kindergarten through grade four. Lowers the pupil-teacher ratios and class sizes set forth in the Standards of Quality as follows: (i) in kindergarten, from a pupil-teacher ratio of 24:1 with no class being larger than 29 students (with full-time teacher's aide in classes whose average daily membership (ADM) exceeds 24) to 20:1 with no class being larger than 25 students (full-time teacher's aide required for classes whose ADM exceeds 25 students); (ii) in grades one, two and three from 24:1 to 20:1, with maximum class size reduced from 30 to 25; and (iii) in grade four, from 25:1 to 23:1, with a maximum class size of 36 reduced to 28.

Patron - Armstrong

F HB342

School division technology plans. Amends Standard 6 of the Standards of Quality to provide that support for the implementation of each school division technology plan required within the each six-year divisionwide improvement plan shall be funded from basic school aid on the basis of prevailing statewide costs, as provided in the appropriation act. Standard 6 currently directs school boards to revise and adopt biennially a divisionwide six-year improvement plan. Included in these plans are a variety of components, such as a technology plan consistent with the six-year technology plan adopted for the state by the Board of Education. This measure was incorporated in HB 520.

Patron - Rhodes

F HB405

Reporting of student offenses to law-enforcement authorities. Requires school principal to report immediately to law-enforcement authorities on all incidents involving (i) the assault, assault and battery, sexual assault, death, shooting, stabbing, cutting or wounding of any person on a school bus, on school property, or at a school-sponsored activity; (ii) any conduct involving alcohol, marijuana, a controlled substance, an imitation controlled substance, or an anabolic steroid on a school bus, on school property or at a school-sponsored activity; (iii) any threats against school personnel while on a school bus, on school property or at a school-sponsored activity; or (iv) the illegal carrying of any dangerous weapon onto school property.

Patron - Phillips

F HB406

Reporting of student offenses to school and law-enforcement authorities. Adds bomb threats to the list of offenses required to be reported to school and law-enforcement authorities when the threat is made against school personnel, school property, or a school bus. This measure was incorporated in HB 254.

Patron - Phillips

F HB426

Opening of the school year. Repeals the law requiring local school boards to set the school calendar so that the first day students are required to attend school is after Labor Day, thus reverting the discretion to establish the school calendar to local school boards.

Patron - Ware

F HB431

School board salaries. Increases the maximum annual salary for school board members for the County of Culpeper from $3,500 to $12,000. Under current law, no school board can request the General Assembly's consideration of an increase in its annual salary limit unless the school board has taken an affirmative vote on the requested increase. Further, no school board whose membership is elected in whole or in part can be awarded a salary increase, unless a specific salary increase is approved by affirmative vote by that school board. No salary increase may become effective during an incumbent member's term of office; however, this restriction will not apply if the school board members are elected or appointed for staggered terms. This measure was incorporated in HB 20.

Patron - Broman

F HB448

Criminal records checks for school board employees. Requires all school boards to (i) require, as a condition of employment, fingerprinting for applicants who are offered or who accept school board employment, whether on a temporary, permanent, or part- or full-time basis, and (ii) submit these fingerprints and descriptive information through the Central Criminal Records Exchange to the Federal Bureau of Investigation to obtain the applicant's national criminal records history. The records are searched for all felonies and any misdemeanors involving drugs, abuse or neglect of children, moral turpitude, obscenity offenses, and sexual assault. In addition, school boards will also receive reports of arrests within Virginia for these crimes for current employees, who must then submit to fingerprinting and a national criminal records check. The costs of the fingerprinting and records checks are to be borne by the Commonwealth from such funds as may be appropriated. If state funding is insufficient, the school board is to pay for all or a portion of these costs, or may pass on all or a portion of the costs to the employee. Under current law the named school boards may require applicants and employees to pay for the fingerprinting and records checks or may pay for these services from such funds as may be available for that purpose. The statute directs 56 jurisdictions, (32 counties and 24 cities) to require fingerprinting and conduct national criminal records checks.

Patron - Shuler

F HB519

Speech-language pathologists in public schools. Amends the Standards of Quality to require, within the staffing levels set forth in the Standards of Accreditation, that speech-language pathologists be employed in elementary, middle, high and combined schools at levels to ensure one full-time for every 65 students identified as requiring such services.

Patron - Dillard

F HB520

School division technology plans. Amends Standard 6 of the Standards of Quality to provide that support for the implementation of each school division technology plan required within each six-year divisionwide improvement plan shall be funded from basic school aid on the basis of prevailing statewide costs, as provided in the appropriation act. Standard 6 currently directs school boards to revise and adopt biennially a divisionwide six-year improvement plan. Included in these plans are a variety of components, such as a technology plan consistent with the six-year technology plan adopted for the state by the Board of Education. This measure incorporated HB 342.

Patron - Dillard

F HB558

Teacher licensure. Provides that the Board of Education's teacher licensure requirements permit candidates for initial licensure who have graduated from any institution of higher education, regardless of its accreditation status or whether its teacher education program has been approved by the Board, to take any professional teacher's examination prescribed by the Board for licensure. The measure also deletes language requiring persons graduating from Virginia institutions of higher education to be licensed as instructional personnel on and after July 1, 2002, by the Board of Education only if the endorsement areas offered at such institutions have been assessed by a national accrediting agency or by a state approval process, with final accreditation by the Board of Education. Current Board regulations require candidates for initial licensure to have a baccalaureate degree from an institution accredited by a regional accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education; in addition, the institution's teacher education program must be approved by the Board of Education.

Patron - Cantor

F HB619

Opening of school year; waivers for good cause. Adds to the three "good cause" scenarios for which the Board of Education grants waivers of the post-Labor Day school opening requirement, that "good cause" also exists when the Board of Education has determined, upon petition by a local school, that a waiver is in the best educational interests of the students of the school division. The Board is to consider the effect of any differences in opening days between contiguous school divisions. Amendments adopted in 1998 (SB 425) delineated the three "good cause" situations that may justify a waiver: the applicant school division must (i) have been closed an average of eight days per year during any five of the last 10 years because of severe weather conditions or certain other emergency situations; (ii) be providing an instructional program or programs in one or more of its elementary, middle or high schools, excluding the electronic classroom, which are dependent on and provided in one or more elementary, middle or high schools of another school division that qualifies for such waiver (waiver applicable only to the opening date for those schools where the dependent programs are provided); or (iii) be providing an experimental or innovative program approved by the Department of Education pursuant to the Standards of Accreditation (waiver only applicable to the opening date for schools where the experimental or innovative programs are offered generally to the student body).

Patron - McClure

F HB683

School calendar. Makes local school boards responsible for setting the school calendar and determining the opening of the school year, and eliminates the post-Labor Day opening requirement and the "good cause" scenarios for which the Board of Education might grant waivers of this requirement. Amendments adopted in 1998 (SB 425) delineated the three "good cause" situations that may justify a waiver: the applicant school division must (i) have been closed an average of eight days per year during any five of the last 10 years because of severe weather conditions or certain other emergency situations; (ii) be providing an instructional program or programs in one or more of its elementary, middle or high schools, excluding the electronic classroom, which are dependent on and provided in one or more elementary, middle or high schools of another school division that qualifies for such waiver (waiver applicable only to the opening date for those schools where the dependent programs are provided); or (iii) be providing an experimental or innovative program approved by the Department of Education pursuant to the Standards of Accreditation (waiver only applicable to the opening date for schools where the experimental or innovative programs are offered generally to the student body).

Patron - Parrish

F HB685

School board salaries. Increases the maximum annual salary for school board members for Prince William County from $8,000 to $12,000 and for the City of Manassas from $2,400 to $4,800. Under current law, no school board can request the General Assembly's consideration of an increase in its annual salary limit unless the school board has taken an affirmative vote on the requested increase. Further, no school board whose membership is elected in whole or in part can be awarded a salary increase, unless a specific salary increase is approved by affirmative vote by that school board. No salary increase may become effective during an incumbent member's term of office; however, this restriction will not apply if the school board members are elected or appointed for staggered terms. This measure was incorporated in HB 20.

Patron - Parrish

F HB761

Part-time admission and enrollment of nonpublic school students. Directs local school boards to develop policies, consistent with their constitutional and statutory responsibilities for providing public education, for the part-time admission and enrollment of students who are either enrolled in a nonpublic school or receiving home instruction. The policies must address attendance zones, evidence of residence, equitable student selection, and compliance by such students with all relevant public school policies during attendance time. In addition, the policies shall require that the parent to apply for the desired class or classes to the division superintendent or to the principal of the school to be attended, and shall require the parent to obtain permission for such part-time enrollment from the chief administrator of the relevant nonpublic school in which the student is enrolled on a full-time basis. Approval for part-time admission and enrollment shall only be granted if the school has space in the desired class or classes after accommodating the pupils who are regularly enrolled in the school and the school division. Approval is limited to admission and enrollment in no more than two classes. Pursuant to Standard 1 of the Standards of Quality, students enrolled in a public school on a less than full-time basis are counted in average daily membership in the relevant school division. Students who are either enrolled in a nonpublic school or receiving home instruction and who are enrolled in public school on a less than full-time basis in any mathematics, science, English, history, social science, vocational education, fine arts, foreign language, health education or physical education course shall be counted in the average daily membership in the relevant school division on a pro rata basis as provided in the appropriation act. No such student will be counted as more than one-half of a student. The 1998-2000 Appropriation Act supports this requirement.

Patron - Wagner

F HB801

Standards of Learning assessments; administration in private schools. Authorizes the Board of Education to enter into agreements for the administration of the Standards of Learning (SOL) assessments in private schools at the request of a Virginia private school. Any such agreements must provide that the administration be provided at a cost equal to the direct and indirect costs to the Commonwealth of such administration. These costs must be paid entirely by the relevant private school to ensure that no state or local funds are expended for any such assessment administration, scoring, analysis, or other related services. Under current law, the Board may accredit private nursery schools at their request. In addition, the Board may provide for the accreditation of private elementary, middle, and high schools "in accordance with standards prescribed by it, taking reasonably into account the special circumstances and factors affecting such private schools."

Patron - Ruff

F HB873

Standards of Learning assessments. Directs the Board of Education to maintain sufficient Standards of Learning assessment questions to provide for the release of such assessments, upon request, to parents of students to whom the particular assessments have been administered.

Patron - McEachin

F HB893

School board salaries. Increases the maximum annual salary for school board members for the City of Suffolk from $3,500 to $5,000. Under current law, no school board can request the General Assembly's consideration of an increase in its annual salary limit unless the school board has taken an affirmative vote on the requested increase. Further, no school board whose membership is elected in whole or in part can be awarded a salary increase, unless a specific salary increase is approved by affirmative vote by that school board. No salary increase may become effective during an incumbent member's term of office; however, this restriction will not apply if the school board members are elected or appointed for staggered terms. This measure was incorporated in HB 20.

Patron - Spruill

F HB946

Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program. Expands the Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program to provide awards for any year of undergraduate study and makes these scholarships available to full- and part-time students. The measure also includes some clarifying amendments. Designed to increase the number and diversity of students pursuing teaching, to assist paraprofessionals in becoming fully licensed teachers, and to increase the diversity of persons pursuing careers in teaching, the Program shall consist of three components: (i) awards to students pursuing teaching degrees in critical teacher shortage areas (including subject matter areas and various underserved geographic regions); (ii) awards to assist paraprofessionals in becoming fully licensed teachers; and (iii) awards to at-risk students. This measure was incorporated in HB 1404 and HB 1408.

Patron - Jackson

F HB963

Educational Excellence Trust Fund Program. Establishes the Educational Excellence Trust Fund Program in place of the Virginia Public School Construction Grants Program and revises the Literary Fund loan provisions, the Virginia Public School Authority ("VPSA"), and the lottery to provide a mechanism for funding and distributing funds to local school boards for the construction of public school buildings. For fiscal years beginning on and after July 1, 2001, the bill requires deposit of 100 percent of state lottery revenues into the Educational Excellence Trust Fund ("Fund") with $200,000 to be distributed annually to each school division, and all remaining amounts to be distributed pro rata to each school division according to average daily student membership adjusted by the locality's composite index of ability to pay. The funds shall be used by the school divisions for school construction, additions, infrastructure, site acquisition for public school buildings and facilities, renovations, technology, and other expenditures related to modernizing classroom equipment. The bill broadens VPSA's responsibilities to include administrative, financial, and bonding authority for the Fund. The bill authorizes the Board of Education to issue Literary Fund loans to fund part or all of the costs for constructing, renovating, retrofitting, enlarging, or modernizing school buildings.

Patron - Jackson

F HB970

Board of Education. Requires members of the Board of Education, upon initial appointment, to take the eighth grade Standards of Learning assessments in English, mathematics, science, and social sciences. The results of such assessments shall be publicly reported.

Patron - Day

F HB1032

Pupil-teacher ratios in certain grades. Amends the Standards of Quality (SOQ) to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio in grade six from 25-to-one (with no class being larger than 35 students) to 24-to-one (with no class being larger than 29 students), and establishes a 24-to-one pupil-teacher ratio in grades seven and eight (with no class being larger than 29 students). Currently, the SOQ provides a 24-to-one ratio in English classes in grades six through 12.

Patron - Jackson

F HB1040

Public school technology resource assistants. Requires funding for technology resource assistants in all public schools receiving school division grants for expanded access to educational technology. Current law requires funding for such assistants only in elementary schools.

Patron - Amundson

F HB1041

Teacher licensure. Directs the Board of Education to provide, within its regulations governing teacher licensure, that persons possessing national certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) will not be required to accrue professional development points for purposes of license renewal. The measure also includes technical amendments.

Patron - Amundson

F HB1064

Health Services Program for Underserved High School Students. Creates the Health Services Program for Underserved High School Students, consisting of five pilot projects and administered by the Department of Education, to increase the delivery of health and medical services to underserved high school students in the Commonwealth and to address health conditions that may affect the academic performance of those students. The Department of Education and the State Health Department are directed to promulgate joint regulations for the implementation of the Program and to establish criteria for the selection, administration, and evaluation of the five pilot projects. Health and medical services must be delivered upon the request of the student and with parental consent. The services shall include dental health care, screenings for sight and hearing, immunizations, routine health care, treatment of chronic health conditions such as diabetes and asthma, follow-up care of health problems diagnosed by licensed physicians, physical and athletic examinations, and appropriate medical referrals. By July 1, 2000, five pilot project sites must be located in one high school each in Northern Virginia, Richmond, Norfolk/Hampton Roads, Southside/Southwest, and the Shenandoah Valley. Each high school must have a full-time school nurse and other health-related professionals assigned, as needed, to the site. Each project must install a telephone with a dedicated line for health services personnel and telemedicine equipment and must establish an agreement with a local hospital for the delivery of emergency medical information via telemedicine. The Program expires on July 1, 2002.

Patron - McClure

F HB1201

Expulsion of students under certain circumstances. Provides a technical amendment to clarify the definition of "destructive device" and to conform this definition with the action taken last year through a House Bill relating to expulsion of students for possession of guns on school property.

Patron - Tata

F HB1227

Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program. Changes the Diversity in Teaching Program to the Diversity in Teaching Initiative Awards and makes it a component of the Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program. The Program focuses on at-risk and disadvantaged students and the need for special educators. Currently, the Program specifies only at-risk students. The Board of Education is required to establish criteria in regulations for determining critical teacher shortage disciplines and high-poverty areas in the Commonwealth and to consult with the State Council of Higher Education in developing and implementing the Program. The criteria must reflect research findings concerning the characteristics of at-risk and disadvantaged students and the impact of socioeconomic deprivations on learning and the educational outcomes for such students. The bill provides that paraprofessionals are eligible to receive scholarships and awards to complete undergraduate programs to become fully licensed teachers. Also, the bill sets criteria for the recipients of the awards. Students must repay the loans by teaching in a critical teacher shortage discipline, such as in special education, in a high-poverty area, in a school division with high concentrations of at-risk or disadvantaged students, or at grade levels or in a geographical region of the Commonwealth in which teachers who have been at-risk or disadvantaged students are under-represented. The Board of Education is required to promulgate emergency regulations to implement the Program within 280 days of its enactment. This bill is a recommendation of the Joint Subcommittee Studying the Overrepresentation of African-American Students in Special Education. This measure was incorporated in HB 1404 and HB 1408.

Patron - McEachin

F HB1234

Extended School Year Incentive Program. Creates the Extended School Year Incentive Program and Fund, from such funds as may be appropriated, to be administered by the Board of Education, for incentive grants for public school divisions for the operation of schools beyond the 180-day school year required by the Standards of Accreditation. The Board is to establish procedures for calculating amounts for incentive grants to school divisions. Such calculations shall reflect the number of (i) additional days of actual school operation; (ii) students served; and (iii) the number of schools per division operating on such extended basis and shall incorporate consideration of local ability to pay. The grants shall not be awarded to support summer school initiatives. The Board is to develop a reporting mechanism whereby recipient school divisions shall account for the application of grant moneys awarded from the Fund. The Board may issue guidelines governing the Program as it deems necessary and appropriate.

Patron - Scott

F HB1263

Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program. Revises the provisions of the Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program (i) to allow support through gifts, donations, grants, bequests, and other funds that may be obtained by the Department of Education; (ii) to clarify that the program consists of scholarships to support four components, i.e., critical teacher shortage disciplines, high-poverty areas, paraprofessional development, and incentives to promote the pursuing of teaching careers by at-risk students; and (iii) to expand eligibility to part-time students and freshmen and sophomores. This bill also designates the present trust fund to cover the umbrella program (the Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program) instead of solely for the Diversity in Teaching Program; requires Diversity in Teaching Program funds to be accounted for separately within the fund and distributed solely for scholarships awarded pursuant to the Diversity in Teaching Program; and provides for a tax deduction, beginning on and after January 1, 2001, for the total amount an individual actually contributed in funds to the Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Fund. The Board of Education is required to promulgate emergency regulations, regardless of whether additional funds are appropriated for this program. This measure was incorporated in HB 1404 and HB 1408.

Patron - Moss

F HB1264

Creation of special tax district in counties containing a town school division. Allows Westmoreland County (described by population) to establish a special tax district to pay all or any portion of the county's expenditures for operating the county school division. The boundaries of the tax district shall be the same as the geographical area of the county school division and shall exclude the area of the Town of Colonial Beach, which operates a separate school division. The board of supervisors shall have no obligation to pay to the town any portion of the property taxes levied in the special tax district. The town shall pay for its share of expenditures to operate the town school division from town property taxes and other local, state, and federal revenues received by the town. The county and the town shall identify the sources of all revenues appropriated to their respective school divisions. The bill also addresses several other technical issues related to the creation of such a tax district and provides that, in the event of a dispute, either the county or the town may initiate an arbitration proceeding.

Patron - Pollard

F HB1318

Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program. Expands the Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program to provide awards for any year of undergraduate study and alters the repayment term of teaching service in a critical shortage area from one year of service for each year of scholarship benefit to a term to be prescribed by Board of Education regulations. In addition, these scholarships will be available to full- and part-time students. The measure also includes some clarifying amendments. Designed to increase the number and diversity of students pursuing teaching, to assist paraprofessionals in becoming fully licensed teachers, and to increase the diversity of persons pursuing careers in teaching, the Program shall consist of three components: (i) awards to students pursuing teaching degrees in critical teacher shortage areas (including subject matter areas, as well as various underserved geographic regions and high-poverty areas); (ii) awards to assist paraprofessionals in becoming fully licensed teachers; and (iii) awards to at-risk students. This measure was incorporated in HB 1404 and HB 1408.

Patron - Ruff

F HB1330

Student representatives to school boards. Authorizes local school boards to adopt procedures for the appointment of student representatives from among the students enrolled in the public schools in the division. The student representative would serve with limited voting powers and would be deemed to be a participatory member of local school boards for all matters except those concerning the budget, disciplinary and personnel actions, and other issues as may be identified by the school board. Currently, school boards may appoint student representatives to serve in nonvoting, advisory capacities.

Patron - Almand

F HB1335

Recitations of the Preamble of the Declaration of Independence; moral and ethical readings. Permits local school boards to institute weekly recitation of a portion of the Preamble of the Declaration of Independence during school morning hours. Also, school boards are authorized to permit students to present certain moral and ethical readings during such morning hours.

Patron - Marshall

F HB1357

State Lottery Fund; distribution for local education. Establishes, in statute, the distribution of the lottery proceeds to local school divisions that is currently only set forth in the 1998-2000 biennium budget. This provision requires that any lottery revenues remaining after lottery funds are specified, together with such other general funds as may be appropriated for the Standards of Quality, be used to fund the state's share of Basic Aid Payments in any budget item or budget subprogram relating to appropriation, apportionment, and distribution of lottery proceeds to localities. The payments must be appropriated, apportioned, and distributed upon the following conditions: (i) the funds must be used for nonrecurring costs; (ii) the funds must be matched by local governments, based on the composite index of local ability-to-pay; (iii) in order to receive the money, the locality must appropriate the funds solely for educational purposes and must not use the funds to reduce total local operating expenditures for public education below the amount expended by the locality for such purposes in the year upon which the relevant biennial Standards of Quality expenditure data were based; (iv) no locality will be required to maintain a per-pupil expenditure that is greater than the per-pupil amount expended by the locality for such purposes in the year upon which the relevant biennial Standards of Quality expenditure data were based; and (v) nonrecurring costs include school construction, additions, infrastructure, site acquisition, renovations, technology, and other expenditures related to modernizing classroom equipment, and debt service payments on school projects completed during the last 10 years. This is a recommendation of the Commission on the Condition and Future of Virginia's Cities.

Patron - Van Yahres

F HB1358

Education; funding for the state Standards of Quality. Provides that notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Commonwealth shall fund at least 55 percent of the total actual costs of public education. The Standards of Quality and the formulas used by the Commonwealth to distribute funds to localities to meet the Standards of Quality shall be reviewed and revised biennially to meet such requirement. Beginning with the budget for fiscal year 2002, the Governor shall include in his budget recommendations adequate funds to meet the requirements of this bill. This is a recommendation of the Commission on the Condition and Future of Virginia's Cities.

Patron - Moss

F HB1373

School calendar. Makes local school boards responsible for setting the school calendar and determining the opening of the school year, and eliminates the post-Labor Day opening requirement and the "good cause" scenarios for which the Board of Education might grant waivers of this requirement. Amendments adopted in 1998 (SB 425) delineated the three "good cause" situations that may justify a waiver: the applicant school division must (i) have been closed an average of eight days per year during any five of the last 10 years because of severe weather conditions or certain other emergency situations; (ii) be providing an instructional program or programs in one or more of its elementary, middle or high schools, excluding the electronic classroom, which are dependent on and provided in one or more elementary, middle or high schools of another school division that qualifies for such waiver (waiver applicable only to the opening date for those schools where the dependent programs are provided); or (iii) be providing an experimental or innovative program approved by the Department of Education pursuant to the Standards of Accreditation (waiver only applicable to the opening date for schools where the experimental or innovative programs are offered generally to the student body).

Patron - Armstrong

F HB1412

Quality instruction in public schools. Allows local school boards to adopt procedures for the establishment of a continuing contract employment process that requires teachers to submit an application to their building principal for continuing contract status. After review by and with a recommendation from the principal, the continuing contract application will be forwarded to the superintendent, or designee, for consideration and recommendation to the school board. Applications for such continuing contract status may be made upon completion of the initial three-year probationary term of service. Local school boards may determine the number of times an applicant may submit an application. Such procedures shall apply to teachers who are hired as probationary teachers in an academic year after July 1, 2000. This option shall be available to teachers licensed through either traditional or alternative licensure routes. Local school board procedures are to include, but need not be limited to, (i) application materials that shall include evidence of pupil academic performance and may also include other data and materials to assist the local superintendent, or designee, in the application review process and the school board in making an employment determination, e.g., professional credentials, employment evaluations, classroom observations, lesson plans and examinations and the applicant's demonstrated mastery of the relevant Standards of Learning; and (ii) procedures for applicants to obtain assistance from other education professionals in the preparation of application materials. The measure also amends the National Teacher Certification Incentive Reward Program to provide for incentive grants to public school teachers who obtain national certification from a nationally recognized certification program approved by the Board of Education. Currently, the Program specifies national certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. In addition, the measure directs school boards to include, within the criteria for performance evaluation of principals and supervisors, the effective evaluation of teacher performance that incorporates consideration of student academic progress and the skills and knowledge of instructional personnel, including, but not limited to, instructional methodology, classroom management, and subject matter knowledge.

Patron - Katzen

F HB1413

Driver education programs. Requires the Board of Education to approve parent-instructed courses for the classroom and behind-the-wheel components of driver education. The requirement to approve correspondence courses is removed, and the Board is prohibited from requiring additional automobile equipment for parent-instructed behind-the-wheel training. Also removed are provisions that authorize public schools to provide behind-the-wheel driver training for a fee if space is available, and which clarify that public schools are not required to provide behind-the-wheel driving to nonpublic school students.

Patron - Katzen

F HB1431

School calendar; year-round schedule. Exempts from the post-Labor Day opening requirement and waiver process those schools operating on a year-round calendar basis. The "year-round calendar" is defined to include those school-year calendars that provide for no less than 180 regular teaching days, at least 28 of which are scheduled to occur between June 15 and August 31. Such year-round schedules may incorporate intersession or enrichment courses but shall not include any regular or remedial summer school programs.

Patron - O'Brien

F HB1432

Mandatory student drug testing. Permits local school boards to require, as a condition for reenrollment or continued enrollment in public school, that students who have been convicted or adjudicated delinquent of drug-related offenses to submit to drug testing. Board of Education regulations will govern such initiatives that may be adopted by local school boards. These regulations must address the constitutional rights and restrictions relating to mandatory testing for controlled substance and marijuana use by students in the public schools and are to include, but shall not be limited to, provisions which address the following: (i) criteria for developing school board policies that govern mandatory testing programs; (ii) identification of those students, such as those for whom an adjudication or conviction of drug-related offenses has been reported, to be required to be tested; (iii) requirements for student or parental consent; (iv) funding sources for such programs; (v) standards for ensuring the confidentiality of test results; (vi) standards for the evidence of drug testing to be submitted by such students' parents, including requirements for two additional tests of such students at two 60-day intervals within 120 days of such reenrollment; (vii) use of test results in any disciplinary actions, including requiring participation in substance abuse treatment programs; (viii) provisions for alternative education opportunities for students who have failed to provide satisfactory test results; (ix) any notice and due process procedures required to protect individual rights; and (x) provisions of relevant state and federal laws. This measure was incorporated in HB 588.

Patron - O'Brien

F HB1453

Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program. Changes the Diversity in Teaching Program to the Diversity in Teaching Initiative Awards and makes the award program a component of the Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program. The Program focuses on at-risk and disadvantaged students, paraprofessionals, and students transferring from the community colleges and private two-year institutions to approved teacher education programs. Currently, the Program specifies only at-risk students. The Board of Education is required to establish criteria in regulations for determining critical teacher shortage disciplines and high-poverty areas in the Commonwealth and to consult with the State Council of Higher Education in developing and implementing the Program. The criteria must reflect research findings concerning the characteristics of at-risk and disadvantaged students and the impact of socioeconomic deprivations on learning and the educational outcomes for such students. The bill provides that a paraprofessional is eligible to receive scholarships and awards to complete the undergraduate program to become a fully licensed teacher. Also, the bill sets criteria for the recipients of the awards. Students must repay the loans by teaching in a critical teacher shortage discipline; in a high-poverty area; in a school division with high concentrations of at-risk or disadvantaged students; or at grade levels or in a geographical region of the Commonwealth where teachers who have been at-risk or disadvantaged students are under-represented. The Board of Education is required to promulgate emergency regulations to implement the Program within 280 days of its enactment.

Patron - Jones, D.C.

F HB1462

Waivers of certain Board of Education regulations. Provides that the Board of Education may waive compliance with certain regulations for schools and school boards. These waivers are not available for those regulations or provisions of regulations that (i) implement the Standards of Quality (SOQ); (ii) address student achievement requirements for school accreditation, student achievement expectations and graduation requirements prescribed in the Standards of Accreditation; (iii) are identified by the Board as necessary to meet federal statutory and regulatory requirements; or (iv) are identified by the Board as necessary to protect the health and safety of public school students and personnel. The waivers may be made for "good cause and subject to reasonable procedures and criteria" established pursuant to the Administrative Process Act. The waivers may be issued upon the Board's initiative; at the request of a school board; or at the request of an individual school, upon local school board approval of the request. Pursuant to the Standards of Accreditation (SOA), with the approval of the local school board, schools seeking to implement experimental or innovative programs that are not consistent with the SOA or other Board regulations may submit a waiver request to the Board for evaluation and approval prior to implementation. The request must include the purpose and objectives of the experimental/ innovative program; mechanisms for measuring goals, objectives, and student academic achievement; and other specified information. The SOA provide that the waiver may not apply any regulations promulgated that are not mandated by state law or federal law or designed to promote health or safety. The Board may grant all or a portion of the request. Specifically excluded from waivers within the SOA are those that would violate the SOQ and those regulations addressing accreditation, student achievement expectations, graduation requirements, and learning objectives in the schools. The SOA (8 VAC 20-131-330) specifically allow the Board to waive some SOA requirements "based on submission of a request from the division superintendent and chairman of the local school board. The request shall include documentation of the need for the waiver. In no event will waivers be granted to the requirements of Part III-Student Achievement."

Patron - Bolvin

F HB1521

Computation of pupil-teacher ratios for certain classes in the public schools. Provides a weighted formula for calculating pupil-teacher ratios for students identified as having certain disabilities when such students are in special education and when such students are included in the regular classroom for 60 percent of the time. This weighted formula would count such students as more than one student for purposes of the divisionwide ratios required in subsection G of Standard 1 of the Standards of Quality.

Patron - Dillard

F SB80

Expulsion of students for firearms possession. Amends the section requiring automatic expulsion of students who posses firearms by eliminating the exception for firearms used as part of the curriculum or as part of other programs sponsored by the school or an organization permitted by the school to use its premises. However, ROTC programs currently allowing the use of firearms are excepted, if the firearms are securely stored and maintained when not in use.

Patron - Howell

F SB138

Colonial Heights school board salary. Adds the City of Colonial Heights to the list of local school boards for which the maximum annual salary of school board members has been established. This bill also provides that the salary of members of the Colonial Heights school board shall be as provided in § 22.1-32, rather than as currently conferred on the City of Colonial Heights by charter.

Patron - Martin

F SB164

Standards of Quality; elementary school guidance counselors. Amends the Standards of Quality to require, within the Standards of Accreditation, guidance counselors in elementary schools at the following staffing levels: one hour per day per 100 students, one full-time at 500 students, one hour per day additional time per 100 students or major fraction thereof.

Patron - Edwards

F SB232

Alternative continuing contract teacher employment process. Allows local school boards to adopt procedures for the establishment of a continuing contract employment process that requires teachers to submit an application to their building principal for continuing contract status. After review by and with a recommendation from the principal, the continuing contract application will be forwarded to the superintendent, or designee, for consideration and recommendation to the school board. Applications for such continuing contract status may be made upon completion of the initial three-year probationary term of service. Local school boards may determine the number of times an applicant may submit an application. Such procedures shall apply to teachers who are hired as probationary teachers in an academic year after July 1, 2000. This option shall be available to teachers licensed through either traditional or alternative licensure routes. Local school board procedures are to include, but need not be limited to, (i) application materials that shall include evidence of pupil academic performance and may also include other data and materials to assist the local superintendent, or designee, in the application review process and the school board in making an employment determination, e.g., professional credentials, employment evaluations, classroom observations, lesson plans and examinations and the applicant's demonstrated mastery of the relevant Standards of Learning; and (ii) procedures for applicants to obtain assistance from other education professionals in the preparation of application materials. The measure also amends the National Teacher Certification Incentive Reward Program to provide for incentive grants to public school teachers who obtain national certification from a nationally recognized certification program approved by the Board of Education. Currently, the Program specifies national certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. In addition, the measure directs school boards to include, within the criteria for performance evaluation of principals and supervisors, the effective evaluation of teacher performance that incorporates consideration of student academic progress and the skills and knowledge of instructional personnel, including, but not limited to, instructional methodology, classroom management, and subject matter knowledge. This measure is identical to SB 549 and HB 1412.

Patron - Couric

F SB486

Home instruction requirements. Provides that a licensed teacher engaged by a parent authorized to home school his child or children may determine that a program of study or curriculum meets the requirements established by the Commonwealth for home instruction. The bill also provides that in addition to the battery of achievement tests approved by the Board of Education for evaluating the home schooled student's academic progress, the parent may offer the results of a battery of achievement tests approved by the Superintendent of Public Instruction or a licensed teacher engaged by the parent.

Patron - Houck

F SB500

Salary of members of the Falls Church City School Board. Adds the Falls Church City School Board to the list of school boards for which a maximum annual salary limit for school board members is authorized.

Patron - Whipple

F SB547

Revocation of teaching license; violations of test security. Authorizes the Board of Education to suspend or revoke the teaching or administrative license of any person who knowingly and willfully commits specified acts regarding secure mandatory tests administered to students required by the Code of Virginia or by the Board of Education, such as the Standards of Learning assessments. Among the enumerated prohibited acts are giving unauthorized access to secure test questions; copying all or any portion of any secure test booklet; making available test answer keys, and providing a false certificaiton on any test security form required by the Department of Education. The bill defines a "secure test" as an item, question, or test that has not been made publicly available by the Department of Education. This provision must not be construed as restricting the actions of the Board, the Department, or the Superintendent of Public Instruction in test development or selection, test form construction, standard setting, test scoring and reporting, and other related activities. Current Board of Education regulations provide for the suspension, revocation, denial, and cancellation of teacher and administrator licenses. Grounds for suspension (8 VAC 20-21-680) include physical, mental, or emotional incapacity; incompetence or neglect of duty; and "other good and just cause of a similar nature." Among the grounds for revocation (8 VAC 20-21-660) are felony convictions, falsification of school records or reports, and conduct "detrimental to the health, welfare, discipline, or morale of students or to the best interest of the public schools...." The regulations also include various investigation and hearing procedures. SB 547 and HB 867 were initially identical. This measure was incorporated in SB 548.

Patron - Newman

F SB549

Alternative continuing contract teacher employment process. Allows local school boards to adopt procedures for the establishment of a continuing contract employment process that requires teachers to submit an application to their building principal for continuing contract status. After review by and with a recommendation from the principal, the continuing contract application will be forwarded to the superintendent, or designee, for consideration and recommendation to the school board. Applications for such continuing contract status may be made upon completion of the initial three-year probationary term of service. Local school boards may determine the number of times an applicant may submit an application. Such procedures shall apply to teachers who are hired as probationary teachers in an academic year after July 1, 2000. This option shall be available to teachers licensed through either traditional or alternative licensure routes. Local school board procedures are to include, but need not be limited to, (i) application materials that shall include evidence of pupil academic performance and may also include other data and materials to assist the local superintendent, or designee, in the application review process and the school board in making an employment determination, e.g., professional credentials, employment evaluations, classroom observations, lesson plans and examinations and the applicant's demonstrated mastery of the relevant Standards of Learning; and (ii) procedures for applicants to obtain assistance from other education professionals in the preparation of application materials. The measure also amends the National Teacher Certification Incentive Reward Program to provide for incentive grants to public school teachers who obtain national certification from a nationally recognized certification program approved by the Board of Education. Currently, the Program specifies national certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. In addition, the measure directs school boards to include, within the criteria for performance evaluation of principals and supervisors, the effective evaluation of teacher performance that incorporates consideration of student academic progress and the skills and knowledge of instructional personnel, including, but not limited to, instructional methodology, classroom management, and subject matter knowledge. This measure is identical to SB 232 and HB 1412.

Patron - Bolling

F SB571

Waivers of certain Board of Education regulations. Provides that the Board of Education may waive compliance with certain regulations for schools and school boards. These waivers are not available for those regulations or provisions of regulations that (i) implement the Standards of Quality (SOQ); (ii) address student achievement requirements for school accreditation, student achievement expectations and graduation requirements prescribed in the Standards of Accreditation; (iii) are identified by the Board as necessary to meet federal statutory and regulatory requirements; or (iv) are identified by the Board as necessary to protect the health and safety of public school students and personnel. The waivers may be made for "good cause and subject to reasonable procedures and criteria" established pursuant to the Administrative Process Act. The waivers may be issued upon the Board's initiative; at the request of a school board; or at the request of an individual school, upon local school board approval of the request. Pursuant to the Standards of Accreditation (SOA), with the approval of the local school board, schools seeking to implement experimental or innovative programs that are not consistent with the SOA or other Board regulations may submit a waiver request to the Board for evaluation and approval prior to implementation. The request must include the purpose and objectives of the experimental/ innovative program; mechanisms for measuring goals, objectives, and student academic achievement; and other specified information. The SOA provide that the waiver may not apply any regulations promulgated that are not mandated by state law or federal law or designed to promote health or safety. The Board may grant all or a portion of the request. Specifically excluded from waivers within the SOA are those that would violate the SOQ and those regulations addressing accreditation, student achievement expectations, graduation requirements, and learning objectives in the schools. The SOA (8 VAC 20-131-330) specifically allow the Board to waive some SOA requirements "based on submission of a request from the division superintendent and chairman of the local school board. The request shall include documentation of the need for the waiver. In no event will waivers be granted to the requirements of Part III-Student Achievement."

Patron - Rerras

F SB622

Virginia Lottery Proceeds Trust Fund. Creates the Virginia Lottery Proceeds Trust Fund as a special nonreverting fund to be managed by the State Treasurer and consisting of the net revenues of any lottery conducted by the Commonwealth. The lottery proceeds must be appropriated from the Fund to the Commonwealth's counties, cities and towns, and the school divisions to be expended for public education. Localities must continue to fund their share of the costs of the Standards of Quality, without the use of distributions from the Fund. This bill also provides localities with the authority to establish escrow accounts for any lottery funds designated for school infrastructure, i.e., construction, additions, renovations, including retrofitting and enlarging public school buildings, technology infrastructure, site acquisition and debt service payments. This provision directs the lottery revenues to be dedicated to the Virginia Lottery Proceeds Trust Fund.

Patron - Edwards

F SB623

School accreditation and pupil performance; multiple criteria. Provides that the results of any Standards of Learning (SOL) assessments cannot be the sole or primary basis for the promotion or retention of students or for the awarding of diplomas. In addition, the Board of Education is to provide, in the Standards of Accreditation (SOA) for the use of multiple criteria in determining school accreditation status. Included among these criteria for school accreditation are consideration of access to high quality curricula and instruction designed to meet diverse needs, abilities, and interests; attendance, dropout, and graduation rates; student reading levels; school safety audits; postsecondary education and employment rates; school and divisionwide demographic factors; school and community resources; and parental involvement levels. In establishing accreditation standards and determining requirements for graduation and student achievement, the Board shall seek the assistance and input of teacher education faculty at the Commonwealth's public institutions of higher education, professional educators, parents, and community members. The current Standards of Accreditation (SOA) provide that, for grades in which the SOL tests are given, achievement of a passing score on the SOL tests "shall be considered in promotion/retention policies adopted by the local school board" (8 VAC 20-131-30). The proposed revisions to the SOA delete this statement. The proposed revisions provide instead that results of SOL assessments in grades K-8 are to be "part of a set of multiple criteria for determining the promotion or retention of students." The proposed regulations are silent as to promotion/retention policies for grades 9-12, grades in which verified units of credit (earned by passing SOL assessments and successfully completing courses) are required for a diploma. However, the proposed SOA direct division superintendents to "certify to the Department of Education that the division's promotion/retention policy does not exclude students from membership in a grade or participation in a course in which SOL tests are to be administered." Currently, the SOA provide that "[n]o promotion/retention policy shall be written in a manner as to systematically exclude students from membership in a grade or participation in a course in which SOL tests are to be administered" (8 VAC 20-131-30). The SOA do not specifically make the awarding of diplomas contingent upon the passage of SOL tests; however, beginning with the 9th grade class of 2000, students must earn six verified units of credit and nine verified units of credit for the standard and advanced studies diplomas, respectively. Verified units are earned upon passage of the relevant SOL test; the proposed SOA revisions add that the student must pass the course as well.

Patron - Edwards

F SB746

Study of the contributions to society of diverse people. Amends the Standards of Quality to require that the Board of Education supplement the Standards of Learning for Social Studies to ensure the study of contributions to society of diverse people. This bill is a recommendation of the Joint Subcommittee Studying the Status and Needs of African-American Males in Virginia. This measure was incorporated in SB 487.

Patron - Maxwell

C Carried Over

C HB347

Diploma warranty. Directs each local school board, beginning in school year 2000-2001, to provide a two-year warranty for students receiving a standard or advanced studies diploma from a high school in the school division. The warranty will guarantee minimum competencies in reading, writing, and mathematics and shall provide that students graduating with a standard or advanced studies diploma who are identified by an employer in the Commonwealth as deficient in one or more of these minimum competencies are entitled to receive retraining in such competencies from the relevant school division free of charge. Board of Education regulations will govern the initiative and will specify academic skills and competencies guaranteed, address criteria for determining the need for retraining in these particular competencies, and provide procedures for the identification of students entitled to retraining.

Patron - Marshall

C HB380

Programs designed to promote educational opportunities. Revises the requirements for the at-risk four-year-old preschool program when delivered by the public schools to increase the eligible population by (i) including three-year-olds as well as five-year-olds who are not eligible to attend kindergarten; (ii) increasing the percentage of children to be served from 60 percent to 80 percent of the eligible children; (iii) increasing the required pupil/teacher ratio by two children to 10/1 and the maximum class size to 20; and (iv) redefining "at-risk student" to cover children in families at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. Currently, the Department of Education's guidelines require a pupil/teacher ratio of 8/1 and a maximum class size of 18 and define eligible children to be from families having incomes at or below 100 percent of the federal poverty level. Pursuant to this provision, the Department may differentiate its service criteria according to the various service providers in order to comply with any relevant federal or state requirements, e.g., Head Start requires a 9/1 ratio and limits the maximum class size to 19 students.

Patron - Darner

C HB409

Standards of Learning assessments; use of multiple criteria for graduation, promotion, and accreditation. Provides that the results of any Standards of Learning (SOL) assessments cannot be the sole basis for the promotion or retention of students in grades three, five, and eight or for the awarding of diplomas. In addition, the Board of Education is to provide, in the Standards of Accreditation (SOA) for the use of multiple criteria in determining school accreditation status; in no event can the results of SOL tests be the sole basis for school accreditation. The current Standards of Accreditation (SOA) provide that, for grades in which the SOL tests are given, achievement of a passing score on the SOL tests "shall be considered in promotion/retention policies adopted by the local school board" (8 VAC 20-131-30). The proposed revisions to the SOA delete this statement. The proposed revisions provide instead that results of SOL assessments in grades K-8 are to be "part of a set of multiple criteria for determining the promotion or retention of students." The proposed regulations are silent as to promotion/retention policies for grades 9-12, grades in which verified units of credit (earned by passing SOL assessments and successfully completing courses) are required for a diploma. However, the proposed SOA direct division superintendents to "certify to the Department of Education that the division's promotion/retention policy does not exclude students from membership in a grade or participation in a course in which SOL tests are to be administered." Currently, the SOA provide that "[n]o promotion/retention policy shall be written in a manner as to systematically exclude students from membership in a grade or participation in a course in which SOL tests are to be administered" (8 VAC 20-131-30). The SOA do not specifically make the awarding of diplomas contingent upon the passage of SOL tests; however, beginning with the ninth grade class of 2000, students must earn six verified units of credit and nine verified units of credit for the standard and advanced studies diplomas, respectively. Verified units are earned upon passage of the relevant SOL test; the proposed SOA revisions add that the student must pass of the course as well.

Patron - Phillips

C HB471

Advanced External Diploma Grants Program. Establishes the Advanced External Diploma Grants Program and Fund, from such funds as may be appropriated or received, to be administered by the Board of Education, to provide grants to public high schools graduating students earning eligible advanced external diplomas, such as the International Baccalaureate and other advanced external diplomas approved by the Board. The Board is to establish procedures for determining amounts for grants to public high schools. The grants are to be calculated on a per-student basis and may be used for professional development and training, textbooks and supplies for such advanced external diplomas, any relevant testing fees, or other related educational initiatives or expenses approved by the Board. The per-student amount of any grant awarded from the Fund in any year may not exceed $300. Under current law the Board of Education, in recognizing educational performance in school divisions, is to consider special school division accomplishments, such as numbers of dual enrollments and students in Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses, and participation in academic year Governor's Schools. This bill is identical to SB 436.

Patron - Amundson

C HB512

Computer Proficiency Enhancement Project. Creates the Computer Proficiency Enhancement Project ("Project") to be administered by the Virginia Department of Education ("Department"). The bill requires the Department to designate six schools (two elementary schools, two middle schools, and two high schools) located in economically disadvantaged areas of the Commonwealth as Project schools. The Department is to provide portable computers to these schools. The portable computers may be used in classroom settings and shall be available to students to take home. The Project will last three academic years, at the end of which the Department will report to the Governor and the General Assembly regarding the successes and shortcomings of the Project, along with the Department's recommendation regarding the Project. The Department is also required to provide interim reports to the Joint Commission on Technology and Science at the end of each academic year of the Project. The bill contains a sunset date of July 1, 2004. This bill is a recommendation of the Joint Commission on Technology and Science.

Patron - Plum

C HB631

Student assessments. Revises Standard 3 of the Standards of Quality to provide that assessments developed by the Board of Education that may be used by classroom teachers are to supplement local assessments. The assessments are to be administered on a comprehensive or statistically valid sampling basis. The measure also directs local school boards, in assessing the educational progress of students as individuals and as groups, to use assessment instruments designed to facilitate authentic and direct gauges of student performance, such as consideration of work samples, projects and portfolios, teacher-made tests, external reviews of student achievement, and other assessments.

Patron - Darner

C HB632

School accreditation and pupil performance; multiple criteria. Provides that the results of any Standards of Learning (SOL) assessments cannot be the sole or primary basis for the promotion or retention of students or for the awarding of diplomas. In addition, the Board of Education is to provide, in the Standards of Accreditation (SOA), for the use of multiple criteria in determining school accreditation status. Included among these criteria for school accreditation are consideration of access to high quality curricula and instruction designed to meet diverse needs, abilities, and interests; attendance, dropout and graduation rates; postsecondary education and employment rates; school and divisionwide demographic factors; school and community resources; and parental involvement levels. The current Standards of Accreditation (SOA) provide that, for grades in which the SOL tests are given, achievement of a passing score on the SOL tests "shall be considered in promotion/retention policies adopted by the local school board" (8 VAC 20-131-30). The proposed revisions to the SOA delete this statement. The proposed revisions provide instead that results of SOL assessments in grades K-8 are to be "part of a set of multiple criteria for determining the promotion or retention of students." The proposed regulations are silent as to promotion/retention policies for grades 9-12, grades in which verified units of credit (earned by passing SOL assessments and successfully completing courses) are required for a diploma. However, the proposed SOA direct division superintendents to "certify to the Department of Education that the division's promotion/retention policy does not exclude students from membership in a grade or participation in a course in which SOL tests are to be administered." Currently, the SOA provide that "[n]o promotion/retention policy shall be written in a manner as to systematically exclude students from membership in a grade or participation in a course in which SOL tests are to be administered" (8 VAC 20-131-30). The SOA do not specifically make the awarding of diplomas contingent upon the passage of SOL tests; however, beginning with the ninth grade class of 2000, students must earn six verified units of credit and nine verified units of credit for the standard and advanced studies diplomas, respectively. Verified units are earned upon passage of the relevant SOL test; the proposed SOA revisions add that the student must pass of the course as well.

Patron - Darner

C HB637

School board salaries. Eliminates the school board member salary limits specified for each school division, and provides instead that salaries for school board members representing counties, cities and towns must be consistent with salary procedures and limits set by statute or by charter for the relevant local governing body. The salary limits for members of the consolidated school divisions of Williamsburg/James City County, Greensville County/Emporia, and Alleghany County/Clifton Forge must be consistent with the salary limits established for the relevant county. Title 15.2 sets specific salary caps for city councils and boards of supervisors by population brackets; town councils may set their own salary levels. This bill also provides that the annual amount a school board, whether elected or appointed, may pay its chairman will be increased from $1,100 to $2,000 and retains the restriction that no school board can be awarded a salary increase, unless a specific salary increase is approved by affirmative vote of that school board. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2001.

Patron - Dillard

C HB767

Standards of Learning assessments. Directs the Board of Education to establish procedures by which the Standards of Learning assessments may be scored or graded by local school boards.

Patron - Day

C HB770

Standards of Learning assessments. Directs the Board of Education to schedule the administration of any Standards of Learning (SOL) assessments to occur following the completion of required curriculum course work and instruction required by the Standards of Learning for the relevant course.

Patron - Day

C HB956

Standards of Learning assessments. Directs the Board of Education to schedule the administration of any Standards of Learning (SOL) assessments to occur following the completion of required curriculum course work and instruction required by the Standards of Learning for the relevant course.

Patron - Jackson

C HB1001

Regulations governing special education. Prohibits the Board of Education from promulgating regulations for special education programs that require any local school board to exceed the requirements of state law or federal law or regulations, unless, in the case of federal law or regulations, state law directs the Board to exceed federal requirements.

Patron - Rollison

C HB1043

Remediation. Adds to those students for whom attendance in a program of prevention, intervention or remediation is required, those pupils who are determined by their teachers to need these programs based on multiple measures of student achievement, consisting primarily of a variety of locally-developed classroom assessments of student work, and other relevant data, and supplemented by scores on standardized assessments, including the Standards of Learning (SOL) assessments. Currently, the Standards of Quality mandates attendance in these programs for students who are educationally at risk including, but not limited to, those whose scores are in the bottom national quartile on Virginia State Assessment Program Tests, who do not pass the literacy tests or who fail to achieve a passing score on any SOL assessment in grades three, five and eight.

Patron - Darner

C HB1179

School board disciplinary procedures. Revises certain provisions relating to due process and expulsions, suspensions, and exclusions of students by school board. This bill provides (i) definitions of "expulsion," "long-term suspension," "short-term suspension," and "alternative education"; (ii) delineated steps and alternatives for due process procedures relating to suspension, expulsion and exclusion of students; (iii) a requirement that disciplinary committees of school boards be odd-numbered committees of at least three members; (iv) clarification of the responsibilities for the zero-tolerance law (Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994); and (v) clarification and simplification of the provisions authorizing disciplinary actions such as alternative education placements and exclusion. This bill authorizes school boards to establish, in their regulations, the responsibilities of hearing officers and board committees for long-term suspensions and expulsions.

Patron - Reid

C HB1226

Publication of procedure for changing special education placements. Requires the Board of Education to publicize and disseminate widely, information regarding the rights of parents to (i) reject or contest the special education placement committee's recommendation that a child be placed in a special education program, and (ii) withdraw a child from such program whether or not the three-year period for evaluating student placements has elapsed, and whenever the parent determines that the placement was unwarranted and continuation of the placement cannot be justified. The Board of Education is required also to establish procedures in the regulations that protect parents from undue pressure and influence to reverse their position. The Board must promulgate emergency regulations to implement the provisions of the law and the Superintendent of Public Instruction must advise local school divisions of the provisions of the law within 30 days of its passage. This bill is a recommendation of the Joint Subcommittee Studying the Overrepresentation of African-American Students in Special Education Programs.

Patron - McEachin

C HB1241

Inclusion of certain end-of-course grades in scholastic record. Prohibits school divisions from expunging from the scholastic record of any middle school student an end-of-course grade received in an advanced, honors, or high school level course taken during middle school enrollment. Some middle school students may enroll in upper level or advanced courses, such as Algebra I or Geometry, rather than take these courses at the high school level. This measure would prevent students from dropping a less-than-satisfactory grade from their middle school record and replacing it with a subsequent end-of-course grade upon re-taking the class in high school.

Patron - Tata

C HB1351

Tuition assistance grants for students in nonsectarian private schools. Establishes a program of tuition assistance grants, to be administered by the Board of Education, for full-time, Virginia-resident students in grades six through 12 attending nonsectarian, private, accredited, nonprofit schools in the Commonwealth whose primary purpose is to provide elementary or secondary education and not to provide religious training or theological education. Board regulations will govern the administration of the program. The amount of any tuition assistance grant cannot exceed the annual state average per-pupil cost for public elementary and secondary education in Virginia for the previous year. Tuition grants can be used only for grades six through 12 in educational programs other than those providing religious training or theological education of an indoctrinating nature. The grants cannot be reduced by the student's receipt of other financial aid; however, no student can receive a grant which, when added to any other financial aid, would enable the student to receive total assistance in excess of the estimated cost of attending the qualified private school. Determinations of residency, defined by cross-reference to the Code provision defining residency for higher education purposes, are to be made by the enrolling qualified private school. To ensure consistency and fairness, the Board is to (i) require all participating qualified private schools to file student specific data; (ii) monitor the domiciliary status decisions of these schools; and (iii) make final decisions on any disputes between the schools and the grant recipients. Article VIII, § 10 of the Virginia Constitution generally prohibits appropriations of public funds to any school or institution "not owned or exclusively controlled by the State or some political subdivision thereof"; however, the section also authorizes the General Assembly to "appropriate funds for educational purposes which may be expended in furtherance of elementary, secondary, collegiate, or graduate education of Virginia students in public and nonsectarian private schools...." The Supreme Court of Virginia, in Harrison v. Day (200 Va. 439 at 450, 106 S.E.2d 636 (1959)), has also construed this section to provide the General Assembly permissive authority to appropriate state funds for the education of Virginia students in nonsectarian private schools. In addition, a 1994 opinion of the Attorney General of Virginia echoes this interpretation of § 10 (1994 Op. Va. Att. Gen. 1).

Patron - Drake

C HB1402

Standards of Learning assessments. Provides that the results of Standards of Learning (SOL) assessments shall not constitute the primary basis for student promotion or retention, the awarding of diplomas, or school accreditation. Currently, the Standards of Accreditation (SOAs) state that "the SOL assessments shall constitute the primary evaluation of student academic achievement" (8 VAC 20-131-40), and achievement of a passing score on the SOL tests shall be considered in promotion/retention policies adopted by the local school board." In addition, schools are to "use the SOL test results as part of a multiple set of criteria for determining advancing or retaining students in grades three, five, and eight. No promotion/retention policy shall be written in a manner as to systematically exclude students from membership in a grade or participation in a course in which SOL tests are to be administered" (8 VAC 20-131-30). Further, the SOAs clearly state that schools shall be accredited "primarily" based on pupil achievement, as evidenced by scores on the SOL tests and other assessments. In the elementary grades, accreditation will be based on the percentage of eligible students in grades three and five achieving passing scores on the SOL tests in the four core subject areas. In middle schools, SOL tests in the four core subjects for eighth graders and end-of-course tests "where applicable" will determine accreditation. End-of-course SOL test scores will support secondary school accreditation (8 VAC 20-131-280 D; 8 VAC 20-131-300). Pursuant to Standard 1 of the Standards of Quality, students who fail to pass all of the SOL tests in grades three, five and eight are now required to attend summer school or participate in another form of remediation. Students who fail any of the SOL tests in these grades are also the target of prevention and intervention programs in Standard 1. This bill is a recommendation of the Joint Subcommittee Studying the Educational Needs of Certain Underserved Gifted Students.

Patron - Christian

C HB1450

Virginia Banking-at-School Demonstration Program. Creates the Virginia Banking-at-School Demonstration Program to provide practical learning experiences to allow students to apply money management and personal finance skills; to assist them in understanding the American economic system, banking, finance and investments; to explore entrepreneurship; and to explore and apply mathematical concepts used in the world of business and finance in a realistic setting. The provisions of the bill expire on July 1, 2005. This bill is a recommendation of the Joint Subcommittee Studying the Status and Needs of African-American Males in Virginia.

Patron - Jones, D.C.

C HB1483

School accreditation and pupil performance; multiple criteria. Directs the Board of Education, in establishing accreditation standards and determining requirements for graduation and student achievement, to seek the assistance and input of teacher education faculty at the Commonwealth's public institutions of higher education, professional educators, parents, and community members. The Board is to incorporate the use of multiple criteria in determining the accreditation status of public schools. In addition, the measure provides that the results of any Standards of Learning assessments may constitute one of multiple criteria, but shall not be the sole or primary basis, for the awarding any verified units of credit required for a standard or advanced studies diploma.

Patron - Rhodes

C HB1509

Standards for accreditation of public schools. Enacts into statute the Standards of Accreditation (SOA) regulations for accrediting public schools, except those provisions relating to staffing levels, family life education, and the option of employing guidance counselors or reading specialists in elementary schools. The measure incorporates the SOA revisions currently proposed for adoption by the Board of Education. Staffing levels as currently set forth in Standard 3 of the Standards of Quality remain unchanged. Various references to diploma requirements appearing in Standard 3 are moved to the codified SOA sections of the measure, and references to the SOA in the Code of Virginia are adjusted to indicate the new Code sections as appropriate. A second enactment clause provides that references to "literacy tests" and the "Literacy Passport Tests" (LPT) in the codified SOA in this measure are not to be deemed to reinstitute the LPT requirement but shall be construed consistent with the phase-out of such tests effected pursuant to, legislation adopted by the 1998 Session.

Patron - Dillard

C HB1530

Student representative to Board of Education. Directs the Governor to appoint a student representative to serve in an advisory capacity to the Board of Education. The student must be enrolled in a public high school in the Commonwealth. Appointments are for a term of one year each. The student representative may be re-appointed to serve subsequent or consecutive terms. The student representative is not to be construed to be a member of the Board for any purpose, including, but not limited to, establishing a quorum or making any official decision. The Board may exclude the nonvoting student representative from executive sessions or closed meetings pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act. Pursuant to Article VIII, § 4 of the Virginia Constitution, the Board of Education is to consist of nine members appointed by the Governor.

Patron - Day

C SB83

Standards of Quality; educational technology. Revises Standard 1 (Basic skills, selected programs, and instructional personnel), Standard 3 (Accreditation, other standards and evaluation), Standard 5 (Training and professional development), and Standard 6 (Planning and public involvement) to make educational technology, i.e., computer skills and related technology, squarely within the scope of the Standards of Quality. Specifically, this provision requires (i) the Board of Education to include proficiency in the use of computers and related technology in the Standards of Learning; (ii) revises the requirement for local school board K through 12 programs to include "technological proficiency" to specify "proficiency in the use of computers and related technology"; (iii) requires technology resource assistants to serve every school in each school division; (iv) modifies the requirements for the Standards of Accreditation to include "integration of educational technology into instructional programs" and "staff positions for supporting educational technology"; (v) adds to the staffing requirements for public schools "technology resource assistants, one to serve, either part time or full time, in each school" in each school division; (vi) modifies the requirement for the Board of Education to provide technical assistance on professional development to local school boards designed "to seek to ensure" proficiency in the use of technology to stipulate "designed to ensure"; (vii) each local school board's professional development program in educational technology is to be designed to facilitate integration of computer skills and related technology into the curricula; (viii) the Board of Education's six-year technology plan is to be developed "to integrate educational technology into the Standards of Learning and the curricula of the public schools in Virginia"; and (ix) local school division technology plans are to be "designed to integrate educational technology into the instructional programs of the school division." A few technical syntax amendments are also made. This bill is a recommendation of the Joint Commission on Technology and Science.

Patron - Howell

C SB84

Computer Proficiency Enhancement Project. Creates the Computer Proficiency Enhancement Project ("Project") to be administered by the Virginia Department of Education ("Department"). The bill requires the Department to designate six schools (two elementary schools, two middle schools, and two high schools) located in economically disadvantaged areas of the Commonwealth as Project schools. The Department is to provide portable computers to these schools. The portable computers may be used in classroom settings and shall be available to students to take home. The Project will last three academic years, at the end of which the Department will report to the Governor and the General Assembly regarding the successes and shortcomings of the Project, along with the Department's recommendation regarding the Project. The Department is also required to provide interim reports to the Joint Commission on Technology and Science at the end of each academic year of the Project. The bill contains a sunset date of July 1, 2004, and its provisions will not become effective unless an appropriation is included in the 2000 appropriation act, passed by the General Assembly and signed into law by the Governor. This bill is a recommendation of the Joint Commission on Technology and Science.

Patron - Howell

C SB146

Virginia Retirement System; retirees hired as teachers. Provides that retired persons who are members of the Virginia Retirement System may be hired as teachers without interrupting their retirement benefits. This bill applies to licensed instructional personnel who have been (i) retired for at least one year from employment with a Virginia local school board before returning to the classroom on a full-time basis; (ii) licensed to teach in the Commonwealth; and (iii) hired on an annual contract basis and ineligible for continuing contract status.

Patron - Couric

C SB412

Suspension of certain students' driver's licenses. Authorizes school boards to establish regulations requiring the division superintendent to provide written notification to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) of any student who has 15 or more unexcused absences, as defined by the local school board, and has failed to comply with efforts of the school division to ensure his regular school attendance. This regulation must provide for notice to the parents and students of the potential for suspension of the student's driver's license, notice to the parents when the student has been determined to have acquired 15 or more unexcused absences, and an opportunity to appeal the school board's determination of the 15 or more unexcused absences to the division superintendent. The division superintendent's decision will be final. If the division superintendent notifies the DMV of the 15 or more unexcused absences, the student's license will be suspended until the division superintendent notifies the DMV, in writing, that the student is in regular school attendance.

Patron - Colgan

C SB436

Advanced External Diploma Grants Program. Establishes the Advanced External Diploma Grants Program and Fund, from such funds as may be appropriated or received, to be administered by the Board of Education, to provide grants to public high schools graduating students earning eligible advanced external diplomas, such as the International Baccalaureate and other advanced external diplomas approved by the Board. The Board is to establish procedures for determining amounts for grants to public high schools. The grants are to be calculated on a per-student basis and may be used for professional development and training, textbooks and supplies for such advanced external diplomas, any relevant testing fees, or other related educational initiatives or expenses approved by the Board. The per-student amount of any grant awarded from the Fund in any year may not exceed $300. Under current law, the Board of Education, in recognizing educational performance in school divisions, is to consider special school division accomplishments, such as numbers of dual enrollments and students in Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses, and participation in academic year Governor's Schools. This bill is identical to HB 471.

Patron - Puller

C SB640

School calendar. Makes local school boards responsible for setting the school calendar and determining the opening of the school year, and eliminates the post-Labor Day opening requirement and the "good cause" scenarios for which the Board of Education might grant waivers of this requirement. Amendments adopted in 1998 (SB 425) delineated the three "good cause" situations that may justify a waiver: the applicant school division must (i) have been closed an average of eight days per year during any five of the last 10 years because of severe weather conditions or certain other emergency situations; (ii) be providing an instructional program or programs in one or more of its elementary, middle or high schools, excluding the electronic classroom, which are dependent on and provided in one or more elementary, middle or high schools of another school division that qualifies for such waiver (waiver applicable only to the opening date for those schools where the dependent programs are provided); or (iii) be providing an experimental or innovative program approved by the Department of Education pursuant to the Standards of Accreditation (waiver only applicable to the opening date for schools where the experimental or innovative programs are offered generally to the student body).

Patron - Hawkins

C SB700

Early Childhood Education Scholarship Loan. Establishes the Early Childhood Education Scholarship Loan Program, administered by the Board of Education, to increase the number of students pursuing careers in pre-elementary, early childhood or kindergarten education. The Program will consist of scholarship loans awarded annually to undergraduate students attending nonprofit two or four-year institutions of higher education in the Commonwealth whose primary purpose is to provide collegiate or graduate education and not to provide religious training or theological education, who: (i) are enrolled full time in an approved bachelor or associate degree program of pre-elementary, early childhood or kindergarten education and (ii) have and maintain a cumulative grade point average of at least 2.5 on a 4.0 scale or its equivalent. Recipients must agree to repay the scholarship loan obligation through teaching (bachelor degree recipients) or employment (associate degree recipients) in the Commonwealth in pre-elementary, early childhood or kindergarten education. The provisions of this act will not become effective unless an appropriation effectuating the purposes of this act is included in the 2000 appropriation act, passed during the 2000 Session of the General Assembly, and signed into law by the Governor.

Patron - Ticer

C SB744

Advocacy in public education. Provides that the advisory school committees established by local school boards shall also advise the school board on matters pertaining to funding, school facilities, educational programs, teacher recruitment and retention, equity, and parental involvement. This bill is a recommendation of the Joint Subcommittee Studying the Status and Needs of African-American Males in Virginia.

Patron - Maxwell

C SB749

Standard 1 (Basic skills, selected programs, and instructional personnel) of the Standards of Quality. Modifies the requirement for the Board to develop and approve objectives for mathematics, at the middle and high school levels, for personal living and finances, i.e., money management skills for individuals and families. This bill requires the Board to supplement the Standards of Learning for mathematics with personal living and finances objectives and materials.

Patron - Maxwell