Del. Jeion Ward
Sponsored bills
Requires each legislative branch agency to adopt and implement the Commonwealth Workplace Harassment Policy (CWHP) established by the Department of Human Resource Management (DHRM). CWHP will apply to legislative branch employees, including General Assembly members and members-elect, when undertaking meetings with other state employees, contract employees, applicants for employment, customers, vendors, members of the media, members of the public, volunteers, or lobbyists or conducting or performing reelection activities in the scope of official duties.
Requires any health benefit plan that is amended, renewed, or delivered on or after January 1, 2018, that provides coverage for hormonal contraceptives to cover up to a 12-month supply of hormonal contraceptives when dispensed or furnished at one time for a covered person or at a location licensed or otherwise authorized to dispense drugs or supplies. Such a plan is prohibited, in the absence of clinical contraindications, from imposing utilization controls or other forms of medical management limiting the supply of hormonal contraceptives that may be dispensed or furnished by a provider or pharmacy, or at a location licensed or otherwise authorized to dispense drugs or supplies, to an amount that is less than a 12-month supply. The measure does not require a provider to prescribe, furnish, or dispense 12 months of self-administered hormonal contraceptives at one time. The measure also provides that it shall not be construed to exclude coverage for hormonal contraceptives as prescribed by a provider for reasons other than contraceptive purposes, such as decreasing the risk of ovarian cancer or eliminating symptoms of menopause, or for contraception that is necessary to preserve the life or health of an enrollee.
Directs the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities to identify the history of formerly enslaved African Americans in Virginia and determine ways to preserve the history for educational and cultural purposes. Among other things, the Foundation would promote the identification, preservation, and conservation of historic sites significant to the history, presence, and contributions of formerly enslaved African Americans in Virginia; identify the contributions of African Americans to Virginia, the nation, and the world; identify historical sites significant to African American history in Virginia; and recommend ways to increase tourism and revenues associated with such sites. The bill creates a task force consisting of legislative and nonlegislative members to assist the Foundation in its work.
Provides that the Virginia Historical Society shall plan and lead the commemoration of the centennial anniversary of women's right to vote in 2020. The bill creates a 12-member task force to assist the Virginia Historical Society, in collaboration with the Library of Virginia, the Department of Education, the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy, the VCU Libraries Special Collections and Archives, and interested civic and community organizations, in planning, developing, and performing programs and activities appropriate to commemorate the 100th anniversary of women's right to vote and the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The provisions of the bill expire on January 1, 2021.
Directs the distribution of funds appropriated for such purpose to qualifying charitable organizations that preserve historical African American cemeteries established before 1900. The funding formula is $5, or the average actual cost of routine maintenance, multiplied by the number of graves, monuments, and markers of African Americans who lived at any time between 1800 and 1900 and are interred in the cemetery. The bill lists two cemeteries, East End Cemetery in Henrico County and Evergreen Cemetery in the City of Richmond, that are to receive any funds appropriated for a total of 6,975 gravesites.
Requires each driver education program in the public school system to include instruction concerning traffic stops, including law-enforcement procedures for traffic stops, appropriate actions to be taken by drivers during traffic stops, and appropriate interactions with law-enforcement officers who initiate traffic stops. The bill requires the Board of Education to collaborate with the Department of State Police in implementing the changes to its driver education program.
Prohibits health insurance policies and plans from holding proton radiation therapy to a higher standard of clinical evidence for benefit coverage decisions than is applied for other types of radiation therapy treatment. The measure applies to policies and plans that provide coverage for cancer therapy. The bill contains an emergency clause.
Defines, for the purpose of the stated goal of the Commonwealth for teacher compensation that its public school teachers be compensated at a rate that is competitive, the term "competitive" as, at a minimum, at or above the national average teacher compensation.
Prohibits students in preschool through grade three from being suspended for more than five school days or expelled except for drug offenses, firearm offenses, or certain criminal acts.