Study; continuing the Joint Subcommittee onRecurrent Flooding; report. Continues the Joint Subcommitteeon Recurrent Flooding for two additional years, through the 2025interim.
Virginia Teacher Residency Training Corps established.Establishes the Virginia Teacher Residency Training Corps for thepurposes of attracting and retaining public elementary and secondaryschool teachers in school divisions in the Commonwealth by awardingscholarships to students seeking to obtain teaching degrees and certificationsat participating institutions and requiring such students upon completionof their degree or certificate to fill teaching positions for oneyear for each year of scholarship receipt at a high-need school,as defined pursuant to federal law. The bill also creates the Virginia Teacher Residency Training Corps Scholarship Fund and Program forthe purpose of funding such scholarships at the participating institutionsof Longwood University, Norfolk State University, Radford University,and Virginia Commonwealth University. Finally, the bill establishes the 12-member Virginia Teacher Residency Training Corps Commissionto administer the Program and directs the Commission to begin meetingon or after September 1, 2024, and to establish the parameters forthe Program and award the first scholarships prior to the beginningof the 2025-2026 academic year.
Display of sexually explicit visual materialto a child unlawful; penalty. Makes it a Class 6 felony to display sexually explicit visual material, as defined in relevant law, toa child under 13 years of age with the intent to entice, solicit,or encourage the child to engage in the fondling of the sexual orgenital parts of another or the fondling of his sexual or genitalparts by another, sexual intercourse, cunnilingus, fellatio, anilingus,anal intercourse, or object sexual penetration. Current law prohibitsthe display of child pornography, as defined in relevant law, to suchchild under 13 years of age.
Virginia Tourism Authority; Governor's MajorEntertainment Opportunity Fund. Renames the Governor's MotionPicture Opportunity Fund under the Virginia Tourism Authority asthe Governor's Major Entertainment Opportunity Fund and changes itspurpose from supporting the film and video industries in Virginiato supporting major entertainment events not regularly scheduled inVirginia by providing the means for attracting entertainment operationsand projects with spectators or participants in the Commonwealthusing Virginia employees, goods, and services.
Conveyance of easement. Authorizes the Departmentof Conservation and Recreation to grant and convey a temporary constructionand ingress and egress easement over Neabsco Road at LeesylvaniaState Park to the Newport Estates Homeowners Association, Inc. Theeasement will allow ingress and egress for the repairs and restorationto a slope failure due to poor soils on the neighborhood open spaceproperty by the Newport Estates Homeowners Association.
Child abuse; mandatory reporters. Adds tothe list of persons who are required to report suspected child abuseor neglect employees of the Department of Labor and Industry whoseduties include ensuring compliance with child labor laws.
Celeste's Law; school boards; bathroom checkpolicy required. Requires each school board to develop and adopta policy that requires an employee in each public elementary andsecondary school, including any school resource officer or any schoolsecurity officer employed in such school, to check no less frequentlythan once every 30 minutes during normal school hours each restroomfacility in each such building to ensure the safety of each studentpresent in such facility.
Central State Hospital; psychiatric bed allocation. Directs Central State Hospital to designate additional beds as forensicand psychiatric beds.
Department of Education; school boards; studentonline activity; data collection, monitoring, and restrictions.Requires the Department of Education to establish, and each schoolboard to adhere to, (i) requirements relating to the collection ofdata on student online activity and the monitoring of student onlineactivity by school boards and school board employees, including requirementsto disclose to the parents of enrolled students what student onlineactivity is tracked and monitored on school or personal devices onschool property and what data on student online activity is beingcollected on school or personal devices and (ii) a requirement toset the most restrictive age-appropriate limits on student accessto social media platforms, YouTube and other video platforms, andsearch engines and other search features on school devices and permitthe parents of each enrolled student to waive such limits for theirchild by submitting a written request to the school division. Thebill also requires the Department to establish and distribute toeach school board a template that each such school board is requiredto use to (a) make certain disclosures to the parents of enrolled students relating to student online activity tracking or monitoringand the collection of data on such activity and (b) permit the parentsof each enrolled student to opt their child out of any such tracking,monitoring, or collection.
Misdemeanor; maximum term of confinement.Reduces from 12 months to 364 days the maximum term of confinementin jail for a Class 1 misdemeanor. The bill contains technical amendments.
Threats of death or bodily injury to personson school property; penalty. Makes it a Class 1 misdemeanorfor any person to orally make a threat to kill or do serious bodily injury to any person, regarding that person, while that person is(i) on the grounds or premises of any elementary, middle, or secondaryschool property; (ii) at any elementary, middle, or secondary school-sponsoredevent; or (iii) on a school bus, when the threat places the personwho is the object of the threat in reasonable apprehension of deathor serious bodily injury to himself.
Virginia Health Workforce Development Authority;purpose; Board of Directors; powers and duties. Adds managingprimary care graduate medical education programs and managing the Health Workforce Innovation Fund to the duties of the Virginia HealthWorkforce Development Authority. The bill adds language noting thatthe Commonwealth will make an effort to match federal grants for federalArea Health Education Centers. The bill increases from 15 to 19 themembership of the Authority's Board of Directors by adding four additional ex officio members. The bill also specifies additional recipientsof the Board's biennial report and authorizes the Authority to seekdata and partner with other agencies and institutions to manage healthworkforce data.
