Sen. Ghazala Hashmi

Innovative Internship Program; Office of Education and Labor Market Alignment. Directs the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia to partner with the Office of Education and Labor Market Alignment to collect and utilize data that includes the gaps that are most significant in hindering the Commonwealth from achieving its goals that its funds are intended to accomplish under the Innovative Internship Program and provides other directives to the Council and the Office to collaborate on and accomplish for the Innovative Internship Program.

Department of Education; heat-related illness;guidelines. Directs the Department of Education, in conjunctionwith stakeholders, to develop guidelines on policies to inform andeducate coaches and student athletes and their parents or guardiansof the nature and risk of heat-related illness, how to recognizethe signs of heat-related illness, and how to prevent heat-relatedillness to be distributed to local school divisions by August 1, 2022.

Hospitals; financial assistance; payment plans. Requires hospitals to screen every uninsured patient, defined inthe bill, to determine the patient's household income and whetherthe individual is eligible for financial assistance under the hospital'sfinancial assistance plan; provides that no hospital shall requireany uninsured patient who is eligible for financial assistance underthe hospital's financial assistance plan and determined to have ahousehold income that is less than or equal to 200 percent of the federal poverty level to pay any amount for emergency medical care;requires every hospital to make a payment plan available for everyuninsured patient who is determined to be eligible for financialassistance pursuant to the hospital's financial assistance plan andcaps such payment at four percent of the patient's monthly householdincome; prohibits hospitals from engaging in extraordinary collection actions against an uninsured patient who owes a debt for medicalservices or the estate of a deceased person; and requires hospitalsto report data and information regarding charity care, discountedcare, and financial assistance provided under the hospital's financialassistance policy to the nonprofit organization with which the Departmentof Health has entered into a contract for the compilation, storage,analysis, and evaluation of data.

Language development for children who are deaf or hard of hearing; assessment resources for parents and educators; advisory committee; report. Requires the Department of Education, in coordination with the Department for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing and Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, to (i) select, with input from an advisory committee that the bill establishes, language developmental milestones and include such milestones in a resource for use by parents of a child from birth to age five who is identified as deaf or hard of hearing to monitor and track their child's expressive and receptive language acquisition and developmental stages toward English literacy; (ii) disseminate such resource to such parents; (iii) select existing tools or assessments for educators for use in assessing the language and literacy development of children from birth to age five who are deaf or hard of hearing; (iv) disseminate such tools or assessments to local educational agencies and provide materials and training on their use; and (v) annually produce a report that compares the language and literacy development of children from birth to age five who are deaf or hard of hearing with the language and literacy development of their peers who are not deaf or hard of hearing and make such report available to the public on its website. The bill states that the advisory committee function shall terminate effective June 30, 2023. This bill is identical to HB 649.

Virginia Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Historic Preservation Fund established. Establishes the Virginia Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Historic Preservation Fund for the purpose of awarding grants to eligible state-recognized and federally recognized Indian tribes, private nonprofit organizations, and localities for the eligible costs of acquiring land or permanent protective interest therein, and of undertaking preservation activities on such land, that is of cultural or historic significance to Black, indigenous, or people of color communities. The bill provides that land or interests acquired with grant funds shall grant the Board of Historic Resources or other holder a perpetual preservation interest in the property. This bill is identical to HB 141.

Housing and Supportive Services Interagency Leadership Team initiative; housing and services for adults 65 years of age or older. Directs the Department for Housing and Community Development to expand the existing Housing and Supportive Services Interagency Leadership Team (ILT) initiative to include adults 65 years of age or older as a target subpopulation and seek input from appropriate stakeholders to facilitate the development of strategies for increasing the supply of permanent supportive housing for adults 65 years of age or older. This bill is identical to HB 239.

Department of Labor and Industry; seizure firstaid information. Directs the Department of Labor and Industry(the Department) to disseminate information regarding seizure firstaid, defined in the bill, to all employers and employees in the Commonwealthand requires all employers in the Commonwealth to physically postthis information in a prominent location in the workplace. The billincorporates the "Good Samaritan" provision of the Code of Virginiathat shields a person from liability when rendering emergency carein good faith under certain circumstances.

Department of General Services; conveyance of easement and appurtenances thereto to telecommunications companies. Adds telecommunications companies to the list of entities to which a state department, agency, or institution may grant an easement. This bill is identical to HB 1019.

Celebrating the life of Eunice M. Wilder.

Celebrating the life of the Honorable JohnWilliam Warner III.