The Latest from VEA

This evening, the House of Delegates moved HB 2305, sponsored by Roslyn C. Tyler, to its third reading.  House Bill 2305, sponsored by Roslyn C. Tyler, requires the state board of education to provide guidance to focus on the importance of increasing access to Governor’s Schools for historically underserved students and to include best practices on (i) conducting information sessions about the school and the availability of gifted, advanced, and specialty education program opportunities for feeder public middle schools; (ii) strengthening the student pipeline in feeder public middle schools, prioritizing the most underserved and underrepresented students and public middle schools; and (iii) conducting programs related to and evaluations of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The bill requires the Board of Education, in developing such guidance, to collaborate with relevant stakeholders, including local school boards, Regional Governor’s School boards, and Governor’s School directors.  The VEA supports HB2305.

Earlier in the day, the House Education SOQ and SOL subcommittee took action on two of VEA’s signature bills, HB 2094, to reduce high-stakes end-of-year SOL assessments to the minimum required under federal law.  The committee voted in a 4-4 tie not to move the bill. (Vote: YEAS–Guzman, Robinson, Davis, Wiley–4. NAYS–VanValkenburg, Bulova, Subramanyam, Simonds–4.) HB2094, sponsored by Delegate O’Quinn, is a companion bill to SB 1401, sponsored by Todd Pillion.  SB1401, sponsored by Senator Todd Pillion, was reported from the Senate Education Committee by a vote of 10-5.  SB1401 would pivot away from statewide high-stakes summative assessments; Just like HB2094, SB1401 reduces the total number and type of required Standards of Learning assessments to only the minimum requirements established by the federal ESEA Act of 1965, as amended. SB1401 now moves to the full Senate for debate.  Click here to contact your Senator and urge them to support SB1401.

In other news, the House Education SOQ and SOL subcommittee failed to report HB1947 by a vote of 3-5.  HB1947, sponsored by Delegate Glen Davis, would have provided the substitution of computer science course credit for any foreign language course credit required to graduate with a standard or advanced diploma for children with disabilities, as defined in § 22.1-213.  The VEA Legislative Committee took a position to support HB1947, citing that this option, provided by HB1947, would allow students to substitute a computer science course and provide a path to college and career readiness and further enable these students to reach their true potential.

SB 1445, a bill COVID-19 emergency bill to facilitate vaccine administration, passed the House of Delegates today by a vote of 94-0.  The bill requires the Department of Health (the Department) to establish a process whereby any health care provider in the Commonwealth who is qualified and available to administer the COVID-19 vaccine may volunteer to administer the vaccine to citizens of the Commonwealth and sets out which health care providers are eligible to volunteer. The bill also requires the Department to establish a process on its website whereby medical care facilities, hospitals, hospital systems, corporations, businesses, pharmacies, public and private institutions of higher education, and any other professional or community entities operating in the Commonwealth may register such entity’s facilities as sites that the Commissioner of Health and the Department may jointly approve as sites where administration of the COVID-19 vaccine may occur. The bill also provides civil and criminal immunity to individuals and professional entities acting according to the bill.

Update on the status of VEA Priority Bills: