Department of Juvenile Justice; inquiry and report of immigration status; juvenile or adult adjudicated delinquent or convicted of violent juvenile felony. Requires the Director of the Department of Juvenile Justice or other person in charge of a secure facility where a juvenile or adult has been committed upon an adjudication of delinquency or a finding of guilt for a violent juvenile felony to ascertain whether such juvenile or adult is in the United States illegally and, if such juvenile or adult is found to be in the United States illegally, to communicate such information to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Under current law, such immigration inquiries are required of jail officers or correctional officers in charge of state, local, or regional correctional facilities.
Del. Wren Williams
Sponsored bills
Funding for deputy sheriffs. Provides that the minimum number of deputies funded by the Compensation Board shall be one deputy per 1,500 persons or one deputy for every 25 square miles, whichever is greater. Under current law, the funding is fixed at one deputy per 1,500 persons only. The provisions of the bill apply to counties and cities without a police force.
Sex offenses prohibiting proximity to children; state parks; penalty. Provides that every adult who is convicted of an offense prohibiting proximity to children, when the offense occurred on or after July 1, 2025, shall as part of his sentence be forever prohibited from going, for the purpose of having any contact whatsoever with children who are not in his custody, within 100 feet of the premises of any area of a state park that he knows or has reason to know is a playground, athletic field or facility, or gymnasium. A violation is a Class 6 felony.
Manufacturing, selling, distributing, or possessing flavored nitrous oxide; penalties. Provides that any person who knowingly manufactures, sells, distributes, or possesses with the intent to manufacture, sell, give, or distribute flavored nitrous oxide, when intended for human consumption, is guilty of a Class 5 felony. Under the bill, any person who knowingly possesses flavored nitrous oxide, when intended for human consumption, is guilty of a Class 6 felony. The bill specifies that such prohibition does not apply to nitrous oxide that has been denatured or otherwise rendered unfit for human consumption or to (i) any person or establishment that is licensed to sell, serve, or offer for sale food or drink for human consumption; (ii) any person engaged in the business of selling or distributing catering supplies only or food processing equipment only, or of selling or distributing compressed gases for industrial or medical use that sells or otherwise distributes nitrous oxide in the course of that business; or (iii) any health care professional while engaged in the performance of his official duties.
Assault and battery; serious bodily injury; penalty. Creates a Class 6 felony for any person who commits an assault and battery that results in serious bodily injury, as defined in relevant law, and adds such new offense to the list of violent felony offenses for the purposes of the discretionary sentencing guidelines. The bill contains technical amendments.
Centralized local government reporting system; unfunded mandates on localities. Requires the Department of Planning and Budget to establish a centralized electronic reporting system for all locality reporting requirements, including those required by state agencies. The bill also creates the Unfunded Mandate Review Task Force (the Task Force) consisting of four members of the General Assembly and five members appointed by the Governor. The bill states that localities may submit proposals to the Task Force for alternative approaches to implementing any unfunded mandate, defined in the bill, and provides that the Task Force shall: (i) meet quarterly to review proposals from localities regarding alternative approaches to implementing unfunded mandates; (ii) establish criteria for evaluating local proposals, including cost-effectiveness, achievement of mandate objectives, impact on public health and safety, and administrative feasibility; (iii) approve or deny local proposals within 90 days of submission; (iv) monitor implementation of approved alternatives; (v) maintain records of all decisions and the rationale behind such decisions; and (vi) submit annual reports to the General Assembly by November 1 of each year detailing its activities, decisions, and recommendations.The bill further provides that any bill that includes an unfunded mandate approved by the General Assembly shall have an implementation delay beginning at the end of the session in which the mandate was passed and ending at the adjournment of the following session; however, a bill containing an unfunded mandate that includes an emergency declaration shall not be subject to these requirements and shall be implemented immediately or on the date of implementation described in the bill containing the emergency mandate.
Protection of memorials for war veterans. Provides that it is unlawful for localities or individuals to disturb or interfere with certain monuments, markers, and memorials for war veterans or to prevent citizens from taking proper measures and exercising proper means for the protection, preservation, and care of the monuments, markers, or memorials. The bill describes \"disturb or interfere with\" to include removing, damaging, or defacing monuments, markers, or memorials or, in the case of the Civil War, placing Union markings or monuments on previously designated Confederate memorials or placing Confederate markings or monuments on previously designated Union memorials. The bill also deletes current provisions that allow localities to remove, relocate, contextualize, or cover such monuments or memorials. The bill changes an existing advisory referendum provision by limiting its applicability to those monuments, markers, and memorials that were erected at least 40 years ago and by requiring a two-thirds majority vote, both by voters and by the governing body, before any monument can be removed, relocated, or covered. The bill also establishes a process whereby any person with an interest can initiate an action against a person or locality that damages or defaces a publicly owned monument if a locality or its officers have failed to take such action within 60 days of the damage or defacement.
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.
Public elementary and secondary schools; student discipline; reports of certain acts to law enforcement and parents; failure to make required reports prohibited; penalty. Makes (i) the failure of any principal to report, in accordance with applicable law, incidents involving certain school-based offenses to (a) law enforcement or (b) the parent of any minor student who is the specific object of such an incident a Class 3 misdemeanor and (ii) any subsequent conviction under the provisions of the bill or any conviction for a substantially similar offense under the law of any political subdivision of the Commonwealth, any state or territory of the United States or any political subdivision thereof, the District of Columbia, or the United States a Class 2 misdemeanor.
Virginia taxable income; standard deduction; sunset. Removes the sunset on elevated standard deduction amounts for single individuals and married persons that is scheduled to expire for taxable years beginning on and after January 1, 2026.