Voting Rights for Women Month. DesignatesNovember, in 2021 and in each succeeding year, as Voting Rights forWomen Month in Virginia.
Constitutional amendment (first reference);right of parents. Adds to the Constitution of Virginia the fundamentalright of parents to direct the upbringing, education, and care oftheir children. The amendment prohibits the Commonwealth from infringingthese rights without demonstrating that the governmental interestas applied to the person is of the highest order and not otherwiseserved. This section shall not be construed to apply to a parentalaction or decision that would physically harm or end the life ofthe child.
Group Violence Intervention Board; Divisionof Group Violence Intervention; Project Ceasefire Grant Fund; ProjectExit Grant Fund. Establishes the Group Violence Intervention Boardto coordinate and assist federal, state, and local group violenceintervention efforts. The bill also establishes within the Departmentof Criminal Justice Services (the Department) the Division of Group Violence Intervention (the Division), to be headed by an executivedirector appointed by the Director of the Department. The bill providesthat the Division is responsible for (i) coordinating the effortsof members of state and local law enforcement, community members,and social services providers to combat group violence; (ii) servingas a clearinghouse for research, best practices, and strategies thatmay be utilized in the implementation, execution, and evaluationof group violence interventions; and (iii) implementing and administeringvarious federal, state, and local grant funds that aid group violence intervention efforts. Finally, the bill creates the Project CeasefireGrant Fund, which provides money to organizations that are involvedin group violence intervention efforts, and creates the Project Exit Grant Fund, which provides money to organizations that assist formergang members or individuals attempting to leave gangs.
Celebrating the life of the Honorable BernardS. Cohen.
Children's Services Act; eligibility for state pool of funds; pilot program related to educational placement transition for certain students with disabilities. Expands eligibility for use of the state pool of funds under the Children's Services Act to services that are provided in a public school setting and requires that private day schools be approved and licensed by the Department of Education or an equivalent out-of-state licensing agency to be eligible for the state pool of funds. The bill requires the Department of Education and relevant local school boards to develop and implement a pilot program for up to four years in two to eight local school divisions in the Commonwealth. In developing the pilot, the Department is required to partner with the appropriate school board employees in each such local school division to (i) identify the resources, services, and supports required by each student who resides in each such local school division and who is educated in a private school setting pursuant to his Individualized Education Program; (ii) study the feasibility of transitioning each such student from his private school setting to an appropriate public school setting in the local school division and providing the identified resources, services, and supports in such public school setting; and (iii) recommend a process for redirecting federal, state, and local funds, including funds provided pursuant to the Children's Services Act, provided for the education of each such student to the local school division for the purpose of providing the identified resources, services, and supports in the appropriate public school setting. The bill requires the Department of Education to make a report to the Governor, the Senate Committees on Education and Health and Finance and Appropriations, and the House Committees on Education and Appropriations on the findings of each pilot program after two and four years.
Celebrating the life of David Anthony Rice.
Celebrating the life of Dr. John E. Thomasson.
Powers of State Health Commissioner in epidemic;vaccine; religious tenets or practices. Allows a parent or guardianto object to the vaccination or immunization of a child on the groundsthat the administration of immunizing agents conflicts with his religioustenets or practices, even if an emergency or epidemic of diseasehas been declared by the State Board of Health, which is not allowedunder current law. The bill also provides that nothing shall precludethe State Health Commissioner from requiring immediate immunizationof all persons in the case of an epidemic of any disease of publichealth importance for which a vaccine exists other than a person,including a parent or guardian on behalf of a child, who objectson the grounds that the administration of the vaccine conflicts withhis religious tenets or practices. Under current law, the only exceptionto the Commissioner's power to require immediate immunization of all persons in case of an epidemic of any disease of public health importancefor which a vaccine exists is for a person to whose health the administrationof a vaccine would be detrimental as certified in writing by a physicianlicensed to practice medicine in the Commonwealth.
Celebrating the life of the Honorable MamyeE. BaCote.
Facilitate the administration of the COVID-19vaccine; emergency.
