Rep. Mark Earley

Celebrating the life of Karen Harrison Jones.

Commending Olive Chamblin Brown.

Human trafficking investigators; licensing bythe Department of Criminal Justice Services. Authorizes the Departmentof Criminal Justice Services to register and issue licenses for humantrafficking investigators. The bill provides that a human traffickinginvestigator is a private investigator who is GSA compliant and engagesin the business of, or accepts employment to make, investigationsto obtain information on sex trafficking or severe forms of traffickingas defined in the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000and in the federal Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015.

Department of Education; model policy on studentcell phone use during instructional time; local adoption. Requiresthe Department of Education to develop, adopt, and distribute to each school board a model policy whereby public elementary and secondaryschool students are prohibited from possessing or using personalcell phones or other personal handheld communication devices duringinstructional time at school. The bill requires the Department, indeveloping and adopting such model policy, to seek to balance theinterests of students' academic achievement, cognitive development,safety, and general well-being and permits the Department to include appropriate exceptions in extraordinary circumstances such as emergency situations or situations involving the need to contact the student'sparents. The bill requires each school board to develop and adopta policy that is consistent with such model policy adopted by theDepartment.

Commending Peter A. Blake.

Commending Scott McGeary.

Department of Education; development and distribution of fentanyl education and awareness informational one-sheet; requirements. Requires the Department of Education to develop, in collaboration with the Department of Health, a fentanyl education and awareness informational one-sheet designed to promote awareness of the dangers associated with and the prevalence of fentanyl and provide essential information on fentanyl overdose prevention and preparedness among high school-age students. The bill requires the Department of Education to make available to each school board and post in a publicly accessible location on its website such informational one-sheet and to annually review and update such informational one-sheet in collaboration with the Department of Health to ensure its currency and accuracy. The bill requires each public high school or secondary school that includes grades nine through 12 to annually distribute such informational one-sheet to each student in grades nine through 12 within the first two weeks of the school year. This bill was incorporated into HB 1473.

Best interests of the child; assuring frequentand continuing contact with both parents. Provides that, in determiningthe best interests of a child for purposes of custody and parentingtime arrangements, upon request of either party, the court shallassure a minor child of frequent and continuing contact with bothparents so as to maximize the amount of time the minor child spendswith each parent.

Standards of Learning; programs of instruction;civics education; instruction on local government. Requires theBoard of Education to include in the Standards of Learning for Virginiaand United States Government for grade 12 and requires each schoolboard to provide as a part of any Virginia and U.S. Government courseor civic education course offered to students in grade 12 instructionon local government, including instruction on the types of localitiesin the Commonwealth and the structure and functions of local governmentsin the Commonwealth. The bill also requires the Board to considerin its criteria for awarding a diploma seal for excellence in civicseducation and understanding of the state and federal constitutionsand the democratic model of government the successful completionof government or civics courses that include instruction on the structuresand functions of local government.

Elections; voting equipment and systems; StateBoard approval process; printed receipt for cast ballot. Requiresvoting systems approved by the State Board of Elections to producea printed receipt for each voter who has cast a ballot that showsthe date and time the voter's ballot was cast, the voter's numbercorresponding to the order in which ballots were cast, and a listof all the voter's selections on the ballot as recorded by the votingsystem.