Sen. John McGuire

Creates the Kinship Guardianship Assistance program (the program) to facilitate child placements with relatives and ensure permanency for children for whom adoption or being returned home are not appropriate permanency options. The bill sets forth eligibility criteria for the program, payment allowances to kinship guardians, and requirements for kinship guardianship assistance agreements. The bill also requires the Board of Social Services to promulgate regulations for the program.

Allows any fire department, pursuant to a local ordinance adopted in accordance with § 19.2-389, to require applicants for employment to submit to fingerprinting and to provide personal descriptive information to be forwarded through the Central Criminal Records Exchange and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the purpose of obtaining criminal history record information regarding such applicant. Under current law, the submission of such information is mandatory, not discretionary, and applies only to applicants for employment with the Arlington County Fire Department.

Provides that the Department of Health shall be responsible for stroke care quality improvement initiatives in the Commonwealth. Such initiatives shall include (i) establishing systems to collect data and information about stroke care in the Commonwealth, (ii) facilitating information and data sharing and collaboration among hospitals and health care providers to improve the quality of stroke care in the Commonwealth, (iii) requiring the application of evidence-based treatment guidelines for transitioning patients to community-based follow-up care following acute treatment for stroke, and (iv) establishing a process for continuous quality improvement for the delivery of stroke care by the statewide system for stroke response and treatment. The bill also directs the Department of Health to convene a group of stakeholders, which shall include representatives of (a) hospital systems, including at least one hospital system with at least six or more stroke centers in the Commonwealth, recommended by the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association; (b) the Virginia Stroke Systems Task Force; and (c) the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, to advise on the implementation of stroke care quality improvement initiatives. The provisions of the bill making the Department of Health responsible for stroke care quality improvement initiatives in the Commonwealth have a delayed effective date of January 1, 2019. This bill is identical to

Adds Caroline County to the list of localities that are not required to establish a library board. This bill is identical to

Requires local school boards to provide (i) a minimum of 680 hours of instructional time to students in elementary, except for students in half-day kindergarten, in the four academic disciplines of English, mathematics, science, and history and social science and (ii) a minimum of 375 hours of instructional time to students in half-day kindergarten in the four academic disciplines of English, mathematics, science, and history and social science. The bill authorizes local school boards to include and requires the Board of Education to accept, elementary school, unstructured recreational time that is intended to develop teamwork, social skills, and overall physical fitness in any calculation of total instructional time or teaching hours.

Adds to the duties of the Workers' Compensation Commission (the Commission) in its role as administrator of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Fund (Fund) the obligation to (i) identify and locate victims for whom restitution owed to such victims has been deposited into the Fund and (ii) collect and disburse such unclaimed restitution to such victims. The bill directs the Commission to include in its annual report information on all unclaimed restitution that it disburses. The bill provides that clerks shall deposit into the Fund by November 1 of each year restitution collected for victims who can no longer be identified or located, or state that there is no such restitution to be deposited. The bill requires that clerks record the receipt of restitution payments in the automated information system operated by the Supreme Court or a system established and maintained by a circuit court. The bill also provides that the restitution form used by the court shall include the victim's contact information, including address, telephone number, and email address.