Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg

Commending the Virginia State Police.

Celebrating the life of Michael Wayne Woods.

School Equity and Staffing Act; Standards of Quality; work-based learning; teacher leaders and mentors; principal mentors; certain personnel positions and initiatives. Makes several changes to the Standards of Quality, including requiring the establishment of units in the Department of Education to oversee work-based learning and principal mentorship statewide in Standard 1 and requiring the Board of Education to establish and oversee the local implementation of teacher leader and teacher mentor programs in Standard 5. The bill also makes several changes relating to school personnel in Standard 2, including (i) establishing schoolwide ratios of students to teachers in certain schools with high concentrations of poverty and granting flexibility to provide compensation adjustments to teachers in such schools; (ii) requiring each school board to assign licensed personnel in a manner that provides an equitable distribution of experienced, effective teachers and other personnel among all schools in the local school division; (iii) requiring each school board to employ teacher leaders and teacher mentors at specified student-to-position ratios; (iv) requiring state funding in addition to basic aid to support at-risk students and granting flexibility in the use of such funds by school boards; (v) lowering the ratio of English language learner students to teachers; (vi) requiring each school board to employ reading specialists and establishing a student-to-position ratio for such specialists; (vii) requiring school boards to employ one full-time principal in each elementary school; (viii) lowering the ratio of students to assistant principals and school counselors in elementary, middle, and high schools; and (ix) requiring each school board to provide at least four specialized student support positions, including school social workers, school psychologists, school nurses, licensed behavior analysts, licensed assistant behavior analysts, and other licensed health and behavioral positions, per 1,000 students.

Religious and charitable matters; charitableor civic organization contracts; report. Requires the Commissionerof Agriculture and Consumer Services to submit an annual writtenreport to the Governor and the General Assembly, by October 1 ofeach year, on (i) the number of charitable or civic organizations,professional fund-raising counsel, and professional solicitors registeredin Virginia; (ii) the number of contracts or agreements between suchregistered professional fund-raising counsel or professional solicitorsand such registered charitable or civic organizations; and (iii) compensation paid, in relation to funds raised and administrativecosts, to any professional fund-raising counsel or professional solicitorregistered in Virginia by a charitable or civic organization registeredin Virginia.

Elections; preclearance of certain covered practices required. Requires the governing body of a covered jurisdiction, prior to enacting or seeking to administer any voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or any standard, practice, or procedure with respect to voting, to either (i) institute an action in the Circuit Court of the City of Richmond for a declaratory judgment that the covered practice neither has the purpose or effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race or color or membership in a language minority group nor will result in the retrogression in the position of members of a racial or ethnic group with respect to their effective exercise of the electoral franchise or (ii) submit such covered practice to the Office of the Attorney General for issuance of a certification of no objection. No covered practice can be given effect until the Circuit Court of the City of Richmond has entered such judgment or the Attorney General has issued such certification. The bill permits certain persons to institute an action to compel the governing body of a covered jurisdiction to institute an action in the Circuit Court of the City of Richmond or to seek issuance of a certification of no objection and provides for appeals by the governing body or certain persons to decisions made by the Attorney General. A covered jurisdiction is defined by the bill as any county or city that is determined by the Attorney General using annual American Community Survey data to have a voting age population that contains two or more racial or ethnic groups, each constituting at least 20 percent of its voting age population, but excludes any county or city that, on or after January 1, 2008, was exempt from the preclearance requirements of § 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended, pursuant to a declaratory jurisdiction issued by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia under § 4 of that Act.

Virginia Public Procurement Act; contract clauserequiring subcontractor reporting of payments to employees and independentcontractors. Requires any contract awarded by a state agency or an agency of local government to require the contractor to includein each of its subcontracts a provision requiring the subcontractorto report to the contractor on a monthly basis (i) payroll recordsfor all of the subcontractor's employees; (ii) records of all paymentsmade by the subcontractor to individuals classified as independentcontractors; and (iii) the total number of individuals on the jobsite,including the number classified as employees and the number classifiedas independent contractors. The bill requires the contractor to compilesuch information and submit it in a monthly report to the Departmentof Labor and Industry.

Commending Clenise and Alex White.

Constitutional amendment (first reference);marriage; repeal of same-sex marriage prohibition; recognition ofsame-sex marriages. Repeals the constitutional provision definingmarriage as only a union between one man and one woman, as well asthe related provisions that are no longer valid as a result of theUnited States Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges,576 U.S. 644 (2015). The amendment provides that the Commonwealthand its political subdivisions and its agents are required to issuemarriage licenses, recognize marriages, and treat all marriages equallyunder the law, regardless of the gender of the two parties to themarriage. The amendment further provides that religious organizationsand clergy acting in their religious capacity have the right to refuseto perform any marriage.

Presidential electors; National Popular VoteCompact. Enters Virginia into an interstate compact known asthe Agreement Among the States to Elect the President by NationalPopular Vote. Article II of the Constitution of the United Statesgives the states exclusive and plenary authority to decide the mannerof awarding their electoral votes. Under the compact, Virginia agreesto award its electoral votes to the presidential ticket that receivesthe most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.The compact goes into effect when states cumulatively possessinga majority of the electoral votes have joined the compact. A statemay withdraw from the compact; however, a withdrawal occurring withinsix months of the end of a President's term shall not become effectiveuntil a President or Vice President has qualified to serve the nextterm.

Celebrating the life of the Honorable AugustusBenton Chafin, Jr.