Virginia Law Officers' Retirement System; retirement age. Changes the age through which a retired law-enforcement officer covered under the Virginia Law Officers' Retirement System is entitled to receive an additional retirement allowance from the law-enforcement officer's sixty-fifth birthday to retirement age as defined by the Social Security Act. This change aligns the additional allowance with that currently provided under the State Police Officers' Retirement System.
Consumer Data Protection Act; social media platforms; addictive feed prohibited for minors. Prohibits a person that operates a social media platform that has knowledge that a user of the social media platform is a child under the age of 18 from using an addictive feed, defined in the bill, unless the operator of such social media platform obtains verifiable parental consent.
Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services; community services boards; Regional Older Adults Facility Team; central and eastern Virginia. Directs community services boards located in Central and Eastern Virginia to establish a Regional Older Adults Facility Team to provide services to older adults with mental illness and dementia in each region modeled after the Regional Older Adults Facility Team program conducted by the Northern Virginia Regional Projects Office.
Tangible personal property tax; classification for rate purposes; boats and watercraft powered by green technology; registration and titling. Authorizes localities to classify for tangible personal property tax rate purposes boats or watercraft weighing less than five tons and any accompanying trailers, not used solely for business purposes and powered exclusively by green technology, defined in the bill. Localities would have the option to assign a rate of tax or rate of assessment to this class different from the rate applicable to the general class of tangible personal property. The bill also exempts such boats or watercraft and any accompanying trailers powered exclusively by green technology from titling and registration requirements, including fees, required under current law.
Photo speed monitoring devices; location. Allows a locality to provide by ordinance for the placement and operation of a photo speed monitoring device by the law-enforcement agency of such locality for the purposes of recording vehicle speed violations on any highway in such locality (i) that is located in a high-injury network as designated by the Department of Transportation or (ii) where such placement is supported by Department of Transportation speed or vehicle incident data as determined by such governing body. The bill requires the placement of at least two conspicuous signs within 1,000 feet of any location other than a school crossing zone, highway work zone, or high-risk intersection segment at which a photo speed monitoring device is used, indicating the use of the device. Under current law, one conspicuous sign within 1,000 feet is required at a school crossing zone, highway work zone, or high-risk intersection segment at which such device is used.
Admission of evidence; evidentiary hearing; excluded persons. Exempts one person whose presence, in the judgment of the court, would be supportive of the complaining witness and would not impair the conduct of a fair hearing or pose a substantial risk of influencing or affecting the content of the testimony from being excluded from evidentiary hearings for certain prosecutions. The bill provides that if such support person is exempted, the judge shall admonish such support person to not prompt, communicate with, or influence the complaining witness in any way. Lastly, the bill provides that a court may exercise its discretion to remove the support person from the courtroom if it believes such support person is prompting, communicating with, or influencing the complaining witness.
Advanced Emergency Training and First Aid Equipment Grant Fund and Program established. Establishes the Advanced Emergency Training and First Aid Equipment Grant Fund and Program for the purpose of awarding grants from the Fund on a merit-based, competitive basis to school divisions to cover the cost of advanced emergency training of school board employees whose positions involve regular interaction with students and to purchase emergency first aid equipment for schools in the school division.
Department of Education; statewide mobile application for student reporting of suspicious activity. Requires the Department of Education, with such funds as may be appropriated for such purpose pursuant to the general appropriation act or provided from any other source, and alone or in partnership with another state agency or a nonprofit organization, or a combination thereof, to develop or procure a multiplatform compatible mobile application that is made available at no cost to each public elementary and secondary school student and that permits each such student to report suspicious activity, including by attaching screenshots, other photographs, and videos, to the appropriate school and local law-enforcement officials for analysis and potential response. The bill requires the Department to assist each school board to coordinate student awareness of and access to such mobile application but provides that no school board shall bear any cost or additional administrative burden relating to such mobile application.
Public institutions of higher education; admissions and enrollment; certain Virginia student yields required. Requires, beginning with the incoming freshman class in the fall semester of the 2026-2027 academic year and for each admissions and enrollment period thereafter, each public institution of higher education to establish and implement admissions practices that yield total Virginia student enrollment of at least 78.5 percent at the institution.
Tax increment financing; use of other local taxes. Authorizes the governing body of a county, city, or town to apply tax revenues from sources other than real estate taxes for use in tax increment financing of development projects. Under current law, only real estate taxes are specifically authorized to be used for such projects. The governing body may choose any or all of such taxes to be applied in such manner. The amount of revenues to be so used shall be the amount of the increase of such taxes collected in the development project area in a given year compared with the base amount of revenues prior to the establishment of such area. The local taxes that may be so applied include local sales and use taxes, merchants' capital taxes, license taxes, admissions taxes, transient occupancy taxes, meals taxes, and other local taxes and fees for utilities and transportation purposes.
Damage or trespass to public services or utilities; penalty. Provides that any person who intentionally destroys or damages any facility, fixtures, equipment, or information technology system used to provide, process, transmit, furnish, or maintain public services, utilities, or other critical infrastructure is guilty of a Class 3 felony. Under current law, any person convicted of intentionally destroying or damaging public services or utilities is guilty of a Class 4 felony. If the destruction or damage to such public services, utilities, or other critical infrastructure can be repaired for less than $1,000, such act is a Class 1 misdemeanor. Current law provides that repairable damage is a Class 3 misdemeanor. The bill also makes it a Class 3 felony if such destruction or damage might threaten the release of increased radioactive materials or ionizing radiation. If exposure to such increased release of radioactive materials or ionizing radiation causes injury to another person, the person causing the damage or destruction is guilty of a Class 2 felony; however, it is a Class 1 felony if such damage or destruction causes the death of another person.
Discretionary sentencing guideline midpoints; violent felony offenses. Adds to and removes certain felony offenses from the list of violent felony offenses for discretionary sentencing guideline midpoints. Offenders with prior convictions for violent felony offenses receive "enhancements" on the guidelines that increase the recommended sentences for those offenders. The bill contains technical amendments.
