Establishing a resilience hub pilot program to assist vulnerable communities during emergency situations. Directs the Department of Emergency Management to establish a two-year resilience hub pilot program to assist vulnerable communities during emergency situations. The bill defines a "resilience hub" as a simple combination of solar panels and batteries that ensures continuous power to a publicly accessible building when severe weather events or other grid disruptions cause an electrical outage.
Department of Medical Assistance Services; Family Access to Medical Insurance Security Plan; literacy pilot program. Directs the Department of Medical Assistance Services to seek the necessary permissions from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to authorize and fund a pilot program promoting early literacy and parental bonding as part of routine pediatric primary care visits in select underserved localities through a partnership with Reach Out and Read.
Certain data from water users; water use consumption of data centers. Requires any water user that provides water to a data center, as defined in the bill, and is required to register certain water withdrawal and use data with the State Water Control Board to report to the Board, on a monthly basis or as frequent a basis as practicable, the total volume of water, including the portion that is reclaimed water, provided to such data center during the reporting period.
Nationally Certified School Psychologist Program established; incorporation into National Teacher Certification Incentive Reward Program and Fund. Establishes the Nationally Certified School Psychologist Program and incorporates such program into the existing National Teacher Certification Incentive Reward Program. The bill also renames the National Teacher Certification Incentive Reward Program Fund as the National Teacher Certification Incentive Reward Program and Nationally Certified School Psychologist Program Fund (the Fund) and expands the purpose for which disbursements may be made from the Fund to include the award of incentive grants to school psychologists obtaining national certification from the National Association of School Psychologists consisting of an initial state-funded award of $5,000 and a subsequent award of $2,500 each year for the life of the certificate.
Western Virginia Public Education Consortium; governance; funding; duties. Makes several changes relating to the Western Virginia Public Education Consortium, including (i) clarifying that the establishment and maintenance of the Consortium is subject to the appropriation of funds by the General Assembly and providing that if the Western Virginia Public Education Consortium is not funded by a separate appropriation in the general appropriation act for fiscal year 2027, it shall expire on January 1, 2027; (ii) adjusting the membership of the governing board of the Consortium to accurately reflect changes in House and Senatorial Districts and school division consolidation that occurred after the Consortium's initial establishment; and (iii) removing the requirement for the governing board of the Consortium to develop and maintain linkages with schools and school divisions in Northern Virginia to promote enhanced usage of educational technology.
State pharmacy benefits manager; contractual provisions; report. Requires the Department of Medical Assistance Services' contract with the state pharmacy benefits manager to (i) require that that ingredient-cost reimbursement is based on the national average drug acquisition cost, or if unavailable, the wholesale acquisition cost minus a discount set by the Department, plus a professional dispensing fee, determined by the Department; (ii) require real-time or near real-time transparency in drug costs, rebates collected and paid, dispensing fees paid, administrative fees, and all other charges, fees, costs, and holdbacks, claim denials appeals, and network participation; (iii) prohibit the state pharmacy benefits manager from steering Medicaid recipients to affiliated pharmacies through differential cost-sharing, restrictive network design, or the mandatory use of a mail order pharmacy provider; (iv) require the state pharmacy benefits manager to (a) meet network adequacy standards established by the Department; (b) allow any willing pharmacy to participate in the pharmacy network; (c) verify that all contracted pharmacies are actively accepting Medicaid recipients; (d) submit annual reports containing certain information; (e) disclose to the Department pricing and maximum acquisition cost methodologies; and (f) allow invoice-based or national average drug acquisition cost-based appeals and require an adjustment of rates network-wide when an appeal is upheld; and (v) include enforcement mechanisms and monetary penalties for noncompliance. Additionally, the bill requires Department to annually calculate the savings generated by the use of the state pharmacy benefits manager and to annually increase its dispensing fee by the amount of such savings. The bill requires the Department to annually (1) publish and make available on its website its annual and total savings achieved, the annual and total amount applied to dispensing fees increases, and the updated dispensing fees and (2) report to the General Assembly on the state pharmacy benefits manager's compliance, national average drug acquisition cost compliance, pharmacy reimbursement trends, network adequacy compliance, and dispensing fee sufficiency.
Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy; protocol; information; training. Requires the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to take certain actions upon the finding that an individual died from Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP), defined in the bill. The bill directs the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to publish information on SUDEP and a SUDEP death investigation form on its website. Additionally, the bill requires the Chief Medical Examiner and local medical examiners to complete training in the investigation of SUDEP on a triennial basis.
Residential Well Water Testing and Treatment Program and Fund. Directs the State Board of Health to adopt regulations to utilize point-of-use or point-of-entry drinking water treatment or filtration systems to remove or significantly reduce concentrations of perfluorooctanoic acid, perfluorooctane sulfonate, and other established and emerging contaminants of concern that meet or exceed maximum contaminant levels or health advisory levels for the same contaminant adopted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or, in the in the absence of an EPA health advisory for such contaminant, a contaminant level determined by the Department of Health's Office of Drinking Water. The bill also establishes the Residential Well Water Testing and Treatment Program and Program Fund to allow the Department to test and treat contaminated drinking water through grants for the use of eligible treatment or filtration systems in private residential wells. This bill is a recommendation of the State Water Commission.
Certain school divisions; cost-savings agreements; requirements. Removes the limitation on any school board that enters into certain cost-savings agreements with a school board that governs a contiguous school division for the consolidation or sharing of educational, administrative, or support services and thus qualifies for adjustment of state share of basic aid computed annually on the basis of the composite index of local ability-to-pay of such contiguous school division that caps such adjusted basic aid payment at an amount equal to the basic aid payment appropriated to such locality by the 2007 Session of the General Assembly. The bill also permits, notwithstanding the requirement set forth in relevant law that a school division have 65 percent or more of its local taxes coming from real estate taxes in order for the school board that governs such school division to be eligible to enter into such cost-savings agreements with a contiguous school division, the Bath County School Board to enter into such cost-savings agreements with the Augusta County School Board, provided that all other conditions and limitations set forth in relevant law apply to any such agreement.
Income tax; credit for surviving spouse's real property taxes. Provides, for taxable years 2026 through 2030, a nonrefundable income tax credit in an amount equal to a surviving spouse's qualifying portion of real property taxes, defined in the bill, for any qualifying residence, also defined in the bill. The bill defines "eligible veteran" as a veteran who had been determined by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to have a 100 percent service-connected, permanent, and total disability. The bill defines "surviving spouse" as the surviving spouse (i) of an eligible veteran; (ii) that would have been eligible for a real property tax exemption but for the eligible veteran's death having occurred prior to January 1, 2011; and (iii) who paid real property taxes on a qualifying residence during the taxable year for which the credit is claimed. The aggregate amount of credits allowable under the provisions of the bill shall not exceed $5 million per taxable year and shall be allocated by the Department of Taxation on a first-come, first-served basis.
Emergency custody, involuntary temporary detention, and commitment hearings; special justice and judge fees. Increases from $120 to $150 the fee that any special justice, any retired judge sitting by designation, or any district court substitute judge who presides over hearings relating to emergency custody, involuntary temporary detention, and commitment is to receive for each such hearing.
Conveyance of certain property from the Department of Corrections to Brunswick County; Brunswick Correctional Center. Provides for the transfer of certain property in Brunswick County from the Department of Corrections to Brunswick County.
