Prohibits localities from including areas designated as Resource Protection Areas in accordance with the State Water Control Board in a cluster zoning density calculation and provides that nothing in the statute shall require a locality to allow a greater overall density for a clustered development than would be required on a non-clustered development.
Failed to pass in Senate
Establishes the legislative Commission on School Innovation, Modernization, and Competitiveness (the Commission), consisting of 22 members, including 12 legislative members, eight nonlegislative citizen members, and two ex officio members, to develop and oversee the implementation of a goal and strategic plan for (i) promoting and increasing public high school student participation in dual enrollment courses, industry certifications, and state licensure examinations, (ii) modernizing public elementary and secondary school buildings throughout the Commonwealth, (iii) achieving the Commonwealth's teacher compensation goal, and (iv) ensuring high quality at the student and school division levels. The Commission sunsets on July 1, 2022.
Failed to pass in House
Failed to pass in Senate
Prohibits any person from holding a handheld personal communications device while driving a motor vehicle. Current law prohibits only the reading of any email or text message and manually entering letters or text in such a device as a means of communicating. The bill expands the exemptions to include handheld personal communications devices that are being held and used (i) as an amateur radio or a citizens band radio or (ii) for official Department of Transportation or traffic incident management services.
Establishes the Commission on Student Behavioral Health as a legislative branch commission. The purpose of the Commission shall be to (i) assess the efficacy of developing and implementing a statewide behavioral health and suicide prevention hotline that students may use to report threats of violence or receive real-time counseling services; (ii) review the current school counselor-to-student ratio, and whether the realignment of counseling responsibilities proposed by the House Select Committee on School Safety is improving schools' ability to provide counseling services to students; (iii) review the current roles and responsibilities of school nurses, psychologists, and social workers in schools and determine whether a realignment of responsibilities could improve or streamline behavioral health services offered to students; (iv) evaluate the efficacy and costs of providing enhanced behavioral health services in schools delivered through partnerships established between school divisions and local departments of social services and community services boards; (v) assess the effectiveness of de-escalation and other alternative disciplinary policies when interacting with students suffering from behavioral health challenges; (vi) examine the value of additional teacher training requirements on student behavioral health, such as mental health first aid; and (vii) examine other topics related to student behavioral health identified by the Commission. The Commission shall consist of 12 members as follows: seven members of the House of Delegates, of whom two shall be members of the House Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions, two shall be members of the House Committee on Education, two shall be members of the House Committee on Appropriations, and one shall be a member at-large, to be appointed by the Speaker of the House of Delegates; and five members of the Senate, of whom two shall be members of the Senate Committee on Education and Health, two shall be members of the Senate Committee on Finance, and one shall be a member at-large, to be appointed by the Senate Committee on Rules. The Commission may appoint, employ, and remove an executive director and such other persons as it deems necessary and determine their duties and fix their salaries or compensation within the amounts appropriated therefor. The Commission may also employ experts who have special knowledge of the issues before it. All agencies of the Commonwealth shall provide assistance to the Commission, upon request. The bill has an expiration date of July 1, 2021.
Increases from a Class 3 felony to a Class 2 felony and imposes a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of 25 years for the following crimes if minors under 15 years of age are involved: (i) pandering; (ii) receiving money for procuring a person for the purpose of prostitution, forced labor, or child pornography; (iii) receiving money from the earnings of a person engaged in prostitution; and (iv) commercial sex trafficking.
Creates the Commonwealth of Virginia Research Consortium Authority (the Consortium) to oversee and support research and commercialization in the Commonwealth. The Consortium will be advised by an Investment Advisory Committee and a Research and Technology Advisory Committee. Existing grant, loan, and investment funds currently administered by the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Investment Authority and the Virginia Research Investment Committee would be consolidated under the Consortium, and the Consortium would be responsible for the Commonwealth Research and Technology Strategic Roadmap. The Consortium would also be responsible for allocating research-related funds to the Virginia Biosciences Health Research Consortium and the Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing. The bill repeals the existing Virginia Research Investment Committee and the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Investment Authority. The Center for Innovative Technology would move under the authority of the Consortium. A stakeholder group would be appointed to oversee the transition to the Consortium, and the Governor would be authorized to appoint an interim chief executive officer of the Consortium based upon the recommendations of the stakeholder group.
Failed to pass in House
Failed to pass in House
Provides that, while considering the best interests of a child for the purposes of determining custody or visitation arrangements, the court shall, when appropriate, assure frequent and continuing contact with each parent.
