Del. Kathleen Murphy

Requires each legislative branch agency to adopt and implement the Commonwealth Workplace Harassment Policy (CWHP) established by the Department of Human Resource Management (DHRM). CWHP will apply to legislative branch employees, including General Assembly members and members-elect, when undertaking meetings with other state employees, contract employees, applicants for employment, customers, vendors, members of the media, members of the public, volunteers, or lobbyists or conducting or performing reelection activities in the scope of official duties.

Requires the Board of Education (the Board) to consider for inclusion in the student outcome measures included in the Standards of Accreditation the number of industry certification credentials, as defined by the Board, obtained by high school students. The bill requires the Board to report its conclusion to the Chairmen of the House Committee on Education and the Senate Committee on Education and Health by November 1, 2017. The bill prohibits the Board from including the number of such credentials in the student outcome measures included in the Standards of Accreditation prior to the 2018 Session of the General Assembly.

Sets out the rights and responsibilities under the Virginia Fair Housing Law (§ 36-96.1 et seq.) with respect to maintaining an assistance animal in a dwelling. The bill establishes a process through which a person with a disability may submit a request for a reasonable accommodation to maintain an assistance animal in a dwelling, including any supporting documentation verifying the disability and disability-related need for an accommodation. Under the bill, a request for reasonable accommodation to maintain an assistance animal may be denied for any one of the following reasons: (i) the requester does not have a disability; (ii) the requester does not have a disability-related need for an assistance animal; (iii) the accommodation imposes an undue financial and administrative burden on the person receiving the request; or (iv) the accommodation would fundamentally alter the nature of the operations of the person receiving the request. The bill provides that whenever a request for a reasonable accommodation to maintain an assistance animal in a dwelling is denied for reasons other than that the requester does not have a disability or a disability-related need for an assistance animal, an interactive process shall be initiated to determine if there is an alternative accommodation that would effectively address the disability-related need. The bill also defines "assistance animal," "major life activities," "therapeutic relationship," and "physical or mental impairment." The bill provides that if any provision of its provisions is determined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to be not substantially equivalent or otherwise inconsistent with the federal Fair Housing Act of 1968, 42 U.S.C. § 3601 et seq., as amended, such provision shall not be enforceable. As introduced, this bill was a recommendation of the Virginia Housing Commission. This bill is identical to