Del. R. Steven Landes

Requires the Board of Education to develop a model policy for the provision of counseling services in public schools that includes provisions for parental consent, written parental notification, parental involvement, as appropriate, confidentiality, procedures by which a parent may limit or prohibit his child's participation, appropriate exceptions such as imminent need, health, or safety or maintaining order in the school, and other necessary provisions as determined by the Board. The bill requires the Board of Education, in developing such model policy, to seek to balance the needs of students with the rights of parents.

Directs the Department of Housing and Community Development to convene stakeholders representing entities that enforce the Uniform Statewide Building Code and the Statewide Fire Prevention Code and other law-enforcement organizations to develop proposals for changes to each such code for submission to the Board of Housing and Community Development. Such proposals shall have the goal of assisting in the provision of safety and security measures for the Commonwealth's public or private elementary and secondary schools and public or private institutions of higher education for active shooter or hostile threats. The review conducted by the stakeholders shall include the examination of (i) locking devices, (ii) barricade devices, and (iii) other safety measures that may be utilized in an active shooter or hostile threat situation that occurs in any classroom or other area where students are located for a finite period of time.

Requires the Board of Education to establish a statewide unified public-private system for early childhood care and education in the Commonwealth to be administered by the Board of Education, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the Department of Education. The bill transfers the authority to license and regulate child day programs and other early child care agencies from the Board of Social Services and Department of Social Services to the Board of Education and the Department of Education. The bill maintains current licensure, background check, and other requirements of such programs. The bill establishes the Early Childhood Innovation Fund for the purpose of facilitating regional public-private collaboration and to field test innovative strategies and evidence-based practices that support a robust system of comprehensive early childhood care and education services to deliver measurable school readiness outcomes and meet regional workforce support needs. Such provisions of the bill have a delayed effective date of July 1, 2021.

Creates the Major Headquarters Workforce Grant Fund. A qualified e-commerce company that makes a capital investment of at least $2 billion in a major headquarters facility in Arlington County and that creates at least 25,000 new full-time jobs with an average annual wage of $150,000 will be eligible for up to $550 million in grants from the Fund. A qualified company may also be eligible for an additional $200 million in grants for creating an additional 12,850 new full-time jobs. This bill is identical to

Expands the Education Improvement Scholarships tax credits program by including, as eligible scholarship recipients, children enrolled in, eligible to attend, or attending nonpublic pre-kindergarten programs. The maximum annual scholarship that a child will receive is the lesser of the child's actual educational expenses or the state share of the grant per child under the Virginia Preschool Initiative for the locality in which the child resides.