Board of Education; school boards; dress or grooming codes.Requires the Board of Education to include in its guidelines and model policiesfor codes of student conduct (i) standards for reducing bias and harassment inthe enforcement of any code of student conduct and (ii) standards for dress orgrooming codes, which the bill defines as any practice, policy, or portion of acode of student conduct adopted by a school board that governs or restricts theattire of any enrolled student. The bill permits any school board to include inits code of student conduct a dress or grooming code. The bill prohibits anyschool board that does not include in its code of student a dress or groomingcode from subjecting a student to discipline for reasons typically assigned toa dress or grooming code. The bill requires any dress or grooming code includedin a school board's code of student conduct or otherwise adopted by a schoolboard to (a) permit any student to wear any religiously, ethnically, orculturally specific or significant head covering or hairstyle, includinghijabs, yarmulkes, headwraps, braids, locs, and cornrows; (b) maintain genderneutrality by subjecting any student to the same set of rules and standardsregardless of gender; (c) not have a disparate impact on students of aparticular gender; (d) be clear, specific, and objective and avoid anysubjective term or standard such as "distracting,""provocative," or "inappropriate"; (e) prohibit any schoolboard employee from enforcing the dress or grooming code by direct physicalcontact with a student or a student's attire; and (f) prohibit any school boardemployee from requiring a student to undress in front of any other individual,including the enforcing school board employee, to comply with the dress orgrooming code.
Worker cooperatives. Establishes worker cooperatives as a category of cooperative associations. A worker cooperative is a stock corporation that has elected to be governed by provisions established by this measure, which include (i) conducting its business primarily for the mutual benefit of its members, (ii) allowing only current and retired employees to be members, (iii) limiting voting rights to current employees, (iv) providing that each employee is entitled to one vote, (v) prohibiting any person from owning more than one membership share, (vi) requiring at least two-thirds of employees to own membership shares, and (vii) requiring that net earnings be paid or credited to members in accordance with the ratio that each member's amount of work performed during a period bears to the total amount of work performed by all members during that period.
Alcoholic beverage control; limited distiller'slicense; allowable gallonage. Removes the provision that limitslimited distiller licensees to manufacturing a maximum of 36,000gallons of spirits per year.
Secretary of Technology; transfer of duties to the Secretaries of Administration and Commerce and Trade. Transfers operational responsibilities of the Office of the Secretary of Technology to the Secretary of Administration and responsibilities of the Office of the Secretary of Technology related to commercialization and entrepreneurial support to the Secretary of Commerce and Trade. The bill contains technical amendments.
Community solar development pilot program; low-income communities. Requires each incumbent electric utility to select for dedication to its community solar development pilot program one or more eligible generating facilities that are located within a low-income community as a condition for the utility's selection for dedication to its program any eligible generating facility that is located outside a low-income community. The bill requires the costs of the selected facilities in low-income communities to equal or exceed the costs of the eligible generating facility that is located outside a low-income community. These requirements apply to facilities selected on or after July 1, 2020. The bill defines a low-income community as a census tract that is designated in 2019 or thereafter as a qualified census tract for purposes of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. Such census tracts are required to have 50 percent of households with incomes below 60 percent of the area median gross income or have a poverty rate of 25 percent or more.
Multi-jurisdiction grand jury; hate crimes. Adds the following to the list of crimes that a multi-jurisdiction grand jury may investigate: (i) simple assault or assault and battery where the victim was intentionally selected because of his race, religious conviction, gender, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, color, or national origin; (ii) entering the property of another for purposes of damaging such property or its contents or interfering with the rights of the owner, user, or occupant where such property was intentionally selected because of the race, religious conviction, gender, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, color, or national origin of the owner, user, or occupant; and (iii) various offenses that tend to cause violence.
Industrial hemp extract; approval as food or ingredient; regulations; fund; emergency. Provides that an industrial hemp extract, as defined in the bill, is a food and is subject to applicable laws and regulations. The bill establishes (i) requirements for the production of an industrial hemp extract or a food containing an extract and (ii) conditions under which a manufacturer of such extract or food shall be considered an approved source. The bill authorizes the Board of Agriculture and Consumer Services to adopt regulations establishing contaminant tolerances, labeling requirements, and batch testing requirements, and it provides that moneys collected under the chapter shall be deposited in the Virginia Industrial Hemp Fund, created by the bill. The bill directs the Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry to report by November 1, 2020, a plan for the long-term sustainability of funding for the industrial hemp program. The bill contains an emergency clause and is contingent on funding in a general appropriation act.
Juvenile and domestic relations district court; intake. Makes various changes to the intake procedures for the domestic relations district court, including (i) providing that, if a juvenile is alleged to be a truant, the intake officer may defer filing a petition in order to develop and allow the juvenile to complete a truancy plan or program; (ii) changing the notice requirement for circumstances under which informal action has been taken on a complaint alleging that a juvenile is in need of services, in need of supervision, or delinquent so that the intake officer advises the juvenile and his parents that any subsequent complaint may result in the filing of a petition with the court; and (iii) adding possession of alcohol to the existing offense of possession of marijuana for which, if charged by summons, a juvenile is entitled to have the charge referred to intake for consideration of informal proceedings.
Department of Education; Department of Health;guidelines for use of digital devices in public schools. Requiresthe Department of Education, in collaboration with the Departmentof Health and medical professional societies, to develop and implementhealth and safety best practice guidelines for the use of digitaldevices in public schools no later than the 2021 - 2022 school year.
Services for survivors of sexual assault. Requires every hospital in the Commonwealth to provide treatment or transfer services, as defined in the bill, to survivors of sexual assault pursuant to a plan approved by the Department of Health; establishes specific requirements for providers of services to pediatric survivors of sexual assault; requires the Criminal Injuries Compensation Fund to pay the costs of services provided to survivors of sexual assault; establishes the Task Force on Services for Survivors of Sexual Assault to facilitate the development of services for survivors of sexual assault; and establishes the Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner Program to increase the number of qualified sexual assault forensic services providers available in the Commonwealth.
Hate crimes; gender, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation; penalty. Adds gender, disability, gender identity, and sexual orientation to the categories of victims whose intentional selection for a hate crime involving assault, assault and battery, or trespass for the purpose of damaging another's property results in a higher criminal penalty for the offense. The bill also adds gender, disability, gender identity, and sexual orientation to the categories of hate crimes that are to be reported to the central repository of information regarding hate crimes maintained by the Virginia State Police. The bill provides that a person who is subjected to acts of intimidation or harassment, violence directed against his person, or vandalism to his real or personal property, where such acts are motivated by gender, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation, may bring a civil action to recover his damages. The bill also provides that no provider or user of an interactive computer service on the Internet shall be liable for any action voluntarily taken by it in good faith to restrict access to material that the provider or user considers to be intended to incite hatred on the basis of gender, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation. The bill also eliminates the mandatory minimum terms of confinement for such hate crimes. The provisions of the bill are contingent on funding in a general appropriation act. This bill incorporates HB 488.
Virginia Residential Property Disclosure Act; Real Estate Board; disclosure statement. Requires the residential property disclosure statement form developed by the Real Estate Board and maintained on its website to include a statement signed by the parties acknowledging that the purchaser has been provided a copy of the residential property disclosure statement. Currently, such form only requires an acknowledgment that the purchaser has been advised to review the residential property disclosure statement. The bill also provides that the owner shall provide any disclosures required by the Virginia Residential Property Disclosure Act separate from other disclosures.
