Rep. Alex Askew

Commending Dr. Willis L. Lonzer III.

Virginia Retirement System; enhanced retirementbenefits for 911 dispatchers. Allows local governments to provideenhanced retirement benefits for hazardous duty service to full-time salaried 911 dispatchers. The bill provides that such enhanced retirementbenefits apply only to service earned as a full-time salaried 911dispatcher on or after July 1, 2025, but allows an employer, as thatterm is defined in relevant law, to provide such enhanced retirement benefits for service earned as a full-time salaried 911 dispatcherbefore July 1, 2025, in addition to service earned on or after thatdate. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2025.

Celebrating the life of Janet Marie Brooking.

Commending Peter A. Blake.

Commending Scott McGeary.

Assistance for certain voters outside of thepolling place; definition of disability. Expands the definitionof disability for purposes of providing assistance outside of a pollingplace to voters with disabilities to include any permanent or temporary disability. Under current law, the disability is limited to a permanentor temporary physical disability.

Commissioner of Health; work group to studythe occurrence of microplastics in the Commonwealth's public drinkingwater; report. Directs the Commissioner of Health to convene awork group to study the occurrence of microplastics in the Commonwealth'spublic drinking water and develop recommendations for the reduction of microplastics in the Commonwealth's public drinking water. Thebill requires the work group to report its findings and recommendationsto the Governor and the Chairmen of the House Committees on Agriculture,Chesapeake and Natural Resources and Health, Welfare and Institutionsand the Senate Committees on Agriculture, Conservation and NaturalResources and Education and Health by December 1, 2024.

Study; joint committee of the House Committee on Education and the Senate Committee on Education and Health; challenges faced by and effective strategies for ensuring the sustainable, long-term success of the five historically black colleges and universities in the Commonwealth; report. Establishes a joint committee consisting of five members of the House Committee on Education and three members of the Senate Committee on Education and Health to study the challenges faced by and effective strategies for ensuring the sustainable, long-term success of the five historically black colleges and universities in the Commonwealth–Hampton University, Norfolk State University, Virginia State University, Virginia Union University, and Virginia University of Lynchburg–by discussing, adopting, and recommending to the Governor and the General Assembly for formal recognition and endorsement a comprehensive statewide HBCU Support Plan.

Board of Education; procedure for adjustinggrievances; definition of "classified instructional support staff."Requires the Board of Education, for the purpose of its regulationsthat establish the procedure for adjusting grievances, to define"classified instructional support staff" to mean any nonlicensedteacher, both nonexempt and exempt, who is employed in a local schooldivision and involved in classroom instruction and any other full-time or part-time employee who works more than 90 days total in a 200-dayschool year and to include teaching assistants, long-term substitutes,site-based substitutes, temporary teachers, and other nonlicensedinstructors who substitute in the place of licensed teachers.

Public schools; classified instructional supportstaff; competitive compensation; biennial review. Declares thatit is a goal of the Commonwealth that its classified instructional support staff, defined in the bill as any individual who works morethan 90 days total in a 200-day school year as a substitute for alicensed teacher, be compensated at a rate that is competitive inorder to provide a quality education in the absence of a licensedteacher. The bill requires the Department of Education to conducta biennial review of the compensation for classified instructionalsupport staff and to consider the Commonwealth's compensation forclassified instructional support staff relative to the national averageteacher salary and report the results of such review to the Governor,the General Assembly, and the Board of Education by June 1 of eachodd-numbered year.