Del. Rod Willett

Equity in public school funding and staffing; special education students; at-risk students; annual report. Establishes in Standard of Quality 2 the At-Risk Program and a state-supported add-on for special education students and requires corresponding formulas for the funding of such initiatives to be established in the general appropriation act. The bill also requires the Department of Education to report annually to the House Committees on Education and Appropriations and the Senate Committees on Finance and Appropriations and on Education and Health the total and per pupil annual operating expenditures from local, state, and federal sources in each school division and the change in expenditures from each such source over the immediately preceding two-year, three-year, and five-year timeframes, expressed in both dollar amounts and percentages.

Admission to bail; fixing terms of bail; mental health considerations. Requires the judicial officer, prior to conducting any hearing on the issue of bail, release, or detention, to obtain the person's criminal history and any emergency custody or temporary detention order or involuntary admission issued for such person. The bill also requires the judicial officer to consider any emergency custody or temporary detention order or involuntary admission issued for the person when determining admission to bail. Lastly, the bill requires the judicial officer to take into account the following factors in fixing the terms of bail if such person is admitted to bail: (i) whether the person is likely to obstruct or attempt to obstruct justice, or threaten, injure, or intimidate, or attempt to threaten, injure, or intimidate a family or household member as defined in relevant law; (ii) the history of the accused or juvenile, including medical, mental health, including any emergency custody or temporary detention order or involuntary admission issued pursuant to relevant law, or substance abuse treatment; (iii) any evidence the person provided indicating that such person (a) is currently pregnant, (b) has recently given birth, or (c) is currently nursing a child; and (iv) whether such person will be an unreasonable danger to himself, family or household members as defined in relevant law, or the public.

Public schools; indoor air quality; industry-recognized uniform inspection and evaluation. Adds several items that are required to be included in the industry-recognized uniform inspection and evaluation of the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system that is required at least every four years for each public elementary and secondary school building, including measurement of radon levels in the air and testing for moisture incursion. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2027.

Elections; districts, precincts, and polling places; super precincts; pilot program. Authorizes the State Board of Elections to conduct a pilot program under which one or more counties or cities with a population of more than 350,000 and less than 400,000 in the most recent United States census whose proposal for participation in such pilot program is unanimously approved by the State Board would be permitted to use super precincts in elections. The bill requires the governing body of a county or city applying to participate in the pilot program to submit a plan for participation that includes (i) the number of super precincts to be established in the county or city and the boundaries of each such super precinct, (ii) the number of vote centers to be established in each super precinct and the location of each such vote center, (iii) the elections during which such super precincts and vote centers are to be used, and (iv) a description of the process for operating such vote centers on election day, including how voters will be checked in, how ballots will be provided, how votes will be counted, and any additional voting systems that will be used to ensure the integrity of the election. The bill defines "super precinct" as the territory established by a county or city and approved by the State Board pursuant to the pilot program, to be served by one or more vote centers, and "vote center" as the structure that contains a place provided for a super precinct at which the qualified voters who are residents of the super precinct may vote in an election. The bill contains minimum criteria for any proposal for participation in the pilot program. The bill requires the State Board report on the implementation and effectiveness of the pilot program by December 1 of any year in which one or more localities participate in the pilot program. The bill has an expiration date of July 1, 2030.

Legal holidays; Indigenous Peoples' Day. Replaces Columbus Day, the second Monday in October, with Indigenous Peoples' Day as a state holiday.

Board of Pharmacy; compounding pharmacies; use of bulk drug substances; recordkeeping. Establishes additional requirements for when pharmacists may use bulk drug substances in compounding and specifies prohibitions on pharmacist use of (i) bulk drug substances that were withdrawn or removed from the market for reasons of safety and effectiveness or were covered by an investigational new drug application and not approved and (ii) compounded drug products that are essentially a copy of commercially available drug products. The bill permits the Board of Pharmacy to request records of all compounded drug products and requires pharmacists to furnish such records within 48 hours of such request or within a reasonable time as determined by the Board. The bill also permits the Board of Pharmacy to submit any information related to investigations, disciplinary proceedings, or inspection of a licensee to the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy.

Specialty civil court dockets; business and complex litigation dockets established; criteria for eligible actions. Establishes a specialty docket, known as the business and complex litigation docket, to assist circuit courts with certain civil actions that involve specialized legal issues, complex contexts, intricate transactions, multiple parties, or other complicating factors. The bill provides that for an action to be eligible to be considered for a business and complex litigation docket, the action shall (i) present special complexity, including specialized issues or acute litigation management needs, and (ii) fall into one or more of several enumerated categories of civil actions. The bill also requires that such eligible action has a minimum amount in controversy of $100,000. The bill also enumerates several types of civil actions that are ineligible for such specialty docket but creates an exception for any such action that demonstrates extraordinary circumstances that would require specialized docket management. The bill creates a process by which counsel for any party or the circuit court judge initially assigned to an eligible action may request that the matter be transferred to the specialty docket and directs the Office of the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court of Virginia, in collaboration with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia and the Specialty Docket Advisory Committee studying business and complex litigation dockets, to establish any rules or procedures as necessary for the transfer of such eligible actions.

State Corporation Commission; Phase I Utility; 2026 biennial rate review; report. Directs the State Corporation Commission to consider certain requirements in the 2026 review of the rates, terms, and conditions for the provision of generation and distribution services by Appalachian Power. The bill directs the Commission to review the decision by Appalachian Power to satisfy its capacity obligations with the regional transmission entity through a fixed resource requirement alternative. The bill also directs the Commission to conduct a review of Appalachian Power's efforts to improve system efficiency, resilience, and reliability to address rising costs of responding to severe weather events. The bill requires the Commission to submit a report summarizing its review and providing recommendations by September 1, 2027, or to include such report as part of an existing annual report.

Surplus real property; prioritization of disposition for affordable and middle-income housing. Requires the Department of General Services to determine whether, following an offer of surplus property to the chief administrative officer of the locality within which the surplus property is located, as well as to any economic development entity for such locality, such surplus property is suitable for the development of affordable housing, as defined by the bill. If the Department so determines, the bill provides that such property shall be offered for at least 90 days exclusively to eligible organizations, as defined by the bill, for the purpose of developing affordable housing, provided that the terms of the disposition include a recorded covenant to provide affordable housing for at least 30 years. The bill also requires the chief administrative officer of each locality to prepare and maintain an inventory of all real property within its jurisdiction to which the locality holds fee simple title and that the locality has determined to be feasible for the development of affordable and middle-income housing. If the governing body of a locality chooses to dispose of such a property, such property shall be offered for at least 90 days exclusively to public or private entities, for the purpose of developing affordable and middle-income housing, through purchase, lease, exchange, or donation in return for a recorded covenant to provide affordable housing for at least 30 years.

Traffic regulation; bicycles, electric personal assistive mobility devices, electric power-assisted bicycles, and motorized skateboards or scooters. Authorizes any person operating a bicycle, electric personal assistive mobility device, electric power-assisted bicycle, or motorized skateboard or scooter to yield instead of stop at an intersection controlled by a stop sign if certain conditions are met. The bill also authorizes such a person to proceed through the intersection on a steady red light if the pedestrian control signal corresponding to the person's direction of travel and to the parallel crosswalk indicates "Walk" and if certain other conditions are met. The bill requires any such persons riding two abreast on roadways with only one travel lane in the direction of such persons and a posted speed limit of 35 miles per hour or more to not impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic. Under current law, such persons riding two abreast are required to not impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic and are required to move into a single-file formation when being overtaken from the rear by a faster moving vehicle, regardless of the type of road and posted speed limit.