Del. Ian Lovejoy

Virginia Retirement System; return to work for law-enforcement officers. Allows a retired law-enforcement officer to return to work full time as a law-enforcement officer and continue to receive his pension under the Virginia Retirement System. Such person shall be required to have a break in service of at least six calendar months before reemployment. The bill has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2025.

Celebrating the life of Karen Harrison Jones.

Commending Friends Uniting Nokesville.

Human trafficking investigators; licensing bythe Department of Criminal Justice Services. Authorizes the Departmentof Criminal Justice Services to register and issue licenses for humantrafficking investigators. The bill provides that a human traffickinginvestigator is a private investigator who is GSA compliant and engagesin the business of, or accepts employment to make, investigationsto obtain information on sex trafficking or severe forms of traffickingas defined in the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000and in the federal Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015.

High school graduation requirements; satisfaction of certain course credits with workforce credentials; development and maintenance of list of accepted credentials. Requires the Board of Education, in collaboration with the Virginia Community College System, to develop and maintain a current, comprehensive, and uniform list of industry-recognized workforce credentials that students may take as a substitute for certain units of credit required for graduation, including such credentials that are accepted as substitutes for (i) laboratory science credits or (ii) electives credits. The bill provides that such list uniformly applies across each local school division and that each school board is required to accept as a substitute for a required credit any credential listed as an accepted substitute for such required credit. The bill also requires any College and Career Access Pathways Partnership entered into between a school board and a comprehensive community college to specify, consistent with the list, industry-recognized credentials that are accepted as substitutes for certain credits required for high school graduation. Finally, the bill requires the Board, in establishing graduation requirements, to permit any student to substitute (a) three standard units of credit and one verified credit in laboratory science or (b) credits for electives for completion of any industry-approved workforce credential that is included on the list as an accepted substitute for such credits. This bill was incorporated into HB 1345.

Department of Education; model policy on studentcell phone use during instructional time; local adoption. Requiresthe Department of Education to develop, adopt, and distribute to each school board a model policy whereby public elementary and secondaryschool students are prohibited from possessing or using personalcell phones or other personal handheld communication devices duringinstructional time at school. The bill requires the Department, indeveloping and adopting such model policy, to seek to balance theinterests of students' academic achievement, cognitive development,safety, and general well-being and permits the Department to include appropriate exceptions in extraordinary circumstances such as emergency situations or situations involving the need to contact the student'sparents. The bill requires each school board to develop and adopta policy that is consistent with such model policy adopted by theDepartment.

Commending the Culpeper County Volunteer FireDepartment.

Celebrating the life of Pablo Teodoro III.

Commending Travis G. Hill.

Celebrating the life of Leri Melissa Thomas.