Del. Destiny LeVere Bolling

Dental hygienist licensure; dentists eligible to practice in a foreign country or jurisdiction. Permits the Board of Dentistry to grant a license to practice dental hygiene to persons who are eligible to practice dentistry in a country or jurisdiction outside of the United States and who are graduates of a dental school or college, or the dental department of an institution of higher education, located outside of the United States that the Board determines is acceptable. This bill is identical to SB 282.

Public utilities; water and sewerage companies; discounted rates for low-income customers. Provides that a public utility engaged in the business of furnishing water or sewerage facilities may propose and the State Corporation Commission may approve rates and tariff provisions that provide discounted service to customers with an annual household income equal to or less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level. The bill permits the utility to recover the costs of providing such discounted service through its rates for commercial and industrial customers. The bill has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2027, and is identical to SB 650.

Small renewable energy projects; agrivoltaics definition. Provides a definition of "agrivoltaics" for the purposes of small renewable energy projects. This bill incorporates HB 899 and is identical to SB 340.

Department of Education; policies relating to instructional material that contains sexually explicit content; applicability; construction. Amends current law requiring the Department of Education to develop model policies and each school board to adopt policies consistent with the Department's model policies for ensuring parental notification of any instructional material that includes sexually explicit content by (i) defining "instructional material" as any material, regardless of its format, assigned and provided to a student by a public school teacher directly for the completion of an assignment or curricular objective and clarifying that "instructional material" does not include any book or audiovisual material available in a public school library unless specifically required or assigned by a public school teacher directly for completion of an assignment or curricular objective and (ii) providing that nothing in the applicable law or any model policy or amendments thereto adopted by the Department or any policy or amendments thereto adopted by a school board pursuant to the applicable law shall be (a) construed to permit the censoring of books in any public elementary or secondary school or (b) utilized as a rationale or basis for the removal of books from any public elementary or secondary school. This bill is identical to SB 19.

Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Adult and Dislocated Worker funds; minimum allocation requirement waived. Authorizes the Department of Workforce Development and Advancement to waive the 40 percent allocation requirement of certain funding under the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014 for a local workforce development board that submits a request for a waiver and demonstrates that the board is unable to meet the requirement due to (i) a lack of available training providers in the local workforce development area, (ii) a lack of demand for training services among eligible participants, or (iii) other extraordinary circumstances. The bill requires the Department to develop and publish a process for the application and approval of such waivers.

Certain transit entities; funding and administration. Changes the purposes and geographic applicability of the Transit Ridership Incentive Program, removes various other requirements related to the program's administration and use of funds, and specifies a November 1 deadline for the annual report on the program. The bill removes the requirement for the Secretary of Transportation to coordinate with certain other entities for the purpose of revising the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Compact of 1966 and implementing other reforms necessary to ensure the near-term and long-term viability of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. The bill also extends from July 1, 2027, to July 1, 2028, the sunset on provisions delegating to local building officials the enforcement of the Uniform Statewide Building Code for bus shelters to be constructed for transit agencies receiving state funds from the Commonwealth Mass Transit Fund.

Special license plates; Sons of Confederate Veterans and Robert E. Lee. Repeals authorization for the issuance of Sons of Confederate Veterans and Robert E. Lee special license plates and provides that such special license plates already in circulation will remain valid until their expiration and shall not be renewed.

Insurance; standards of conduct for public adjusters; unauthorized practice of public adjusting. Prohibits any person who does not hold a valid public adjuster license from soliciting, investigating, negotiating, adjusting, or providing advice to a policyholder, in relation to a first party claim arising under an insurance contract that insures the real or personal property of a policyholder, for the purpose of effecting the settlement of a claim on behalf of the policyholder. The bill prohibits any public adjuster from assisting in a claim where the policyholder has improperly assigned the duties, rights, or benefits under the relevant policy to any contractor or vendor. The bill adds requirements for advertisements by public adjusters, and excludes certain materials from being considered advertisements. The bill also includes specific standards of conduct for public adjusters regarding vulnerable adults, as defined in the bill, and contains technical amendments.

Appointment of youth representative to local governing body. Allows a local governing body to appoint a youth representative to serve as a nonvoting member of the governing body.

Board of Education and Superintendent of Public Instruction; state program to support the improvement of low-performing schools. Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to consistently and effectively implement a state program to support the improvement of low-performing schools based on school accountability standards established by the Board of Education within the standards of accreditation. The bill requires the Superintendent to ensure that the Department of Education is appropriately organized and employs qualified staff to effectively provide this support to such low-performing schools. The bill requires the Board to ensure that the Superintendent and the Department administer an effective school improvement program to support such low-performing schools. The bill is a recommendation of the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission.