Sen. Danica Roem

Minimum qualifications for law-enforcement officers; citizenship; waiver. Allows individuals who have been grantedDeferred Action for Childhood Arrivals by U.S. Citizenship and ImmigrationServices to qualify for the positions of chief of police, policeofficer of a locality, deputy sheriff, jail officer, and law-enforcementofficer. Current law allows only citizens of the United States toqualify for the named positions.

Public school staffing and funding; National Teacher Certification Incentive Reward Program and Fund; eligibility; at-risk program.Renames the National Teacher Certification Incentive Reward Program and Fund as the National Board Certification Incentive Reward Program and Fund, expands eligibility for incentive grant awards from such Fund pursuant to such Program from solely teachers who have obtained national certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards to (i) all public school staff who are candidates for initial national certification or maintenance of national certification to cover certain costs of obtaining or maintaining such certification and (ii) all public school staff who have successfully obtained or maintained such certification. The bill also declares as eligible for an annual incentive grant award in the amount of $7,500 all public school staff who have obtained or maintained such certification. Current law declares as eligible for an annual incentive grant award of $5,000 in the first year and $2,500 in each subsequent year all teachers who have obtained or maintained such certification. The bill also establishes the At-Risk Program for the purpose of supporting programs and services for students who are educationally at risk, including prevention, intervention, or remediation activities required pursuant to relevant law, teacher recruitment programs and initiatives, programs for English language learners, the hiring of additional school counselors and other support staff, and other programs relating to increasing the success of disadvantaged students in completing a high school degree and providing opportunities to encourage further education and training. The bill also contains provisions relating to certain funding requirements for the At-Risk Program. Finally, the bill directs the Department of Education to (a) develop and implement a data collection process related to English language learner expenditures and student English proficiency levels to begin to address the recommendations of the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission's 2023 review of Virginia's K-12 Funding Formula and (b) develop, in coordination with the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services or any other relevant stakeholders, a plan for revised special education staffing requirements that addresses the staffing needs of each special education program in each school division. The bill provides for the inclusion of the provisions of the first enactment in the general appropriation act beginning July 1, 2026. This bill incorporates SB 127, SB 128, SB 187, SB 227, SB 228, and SB 609.

Family cemeteries; interment rights; proof of kinship. Allows a family member or descendant, as defined in the bill, of a deceased person buried in a family cemetery, also defined in the bill, that is located on private property to petition the circuit court of the county or city where the property is located for interment rights upon such property. The bill provides that such family member or descendant may prove kinship to the court through official documentation or nonofficial documentation, such as obituaries, family Bibles or other documents with family signatures, journals or letters of the deceased person interred on the private property, family photographs, or other documentation deemed by the court to be reliable.

Virginia Freedom of Information Act; charges for production of public records; report. Prohibits a public body from charging a requester for any costs incurred during the first hour spent accessing, duplicating, supplying, or searching for records requested in conjunction with the requester's first request. The bill provides that for any additional time spent accessing, duplicating, supplying, or searching for such records, or for any additional record requests, the public body shall not charge an hourly rate for accessing, duplicating, supplying, or searching for the records exceeding the lesser of the hourly rate of pay of the lowest-paid individual capable of fulfilling the request or $40 per hour. The bill allows a public body to petition the appropriate court for relief from the $40-per-hour fee cap upon showing by a preponderance of the evidence that there is no qualified individual capable of fulfilling the request for $40 per hour or less and requires such petition to be heard within seven days of when the petition is made, provided that the public body has sent and the requester has received a copy of the petition at least three working days prior to filing. The bill also provides that in certain instances a hearing on any petition shall be given precedence on a circuit court's docket over all cases that are not otherwise given precedence by law and that the time period the public body has to respond to a record request shall be tolled between the requester's receipt of the petition and the final disposition of the court. The bill prohibits a public body from charging a requester for any court costs or fees resulting from a petition. The bill directs the Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council to study whether public bodies should charge requesters pursuant to the bill and report on its findings by December 2024. The provisions of the bill amending the Code of Virginia do not become effective unless reenacted by the 2025 Session of the General Assembly.

Photo speed monitoring devices; high-risk intersectionsegments. Permits a state or local law-enforcement agency toplace and operate a photo speed monitoring device at a high-risk intersection segment, defined in the bill, located within the localityfor the purpose of recording violations resulting from the operationof a vehicle in excess of the speed limit, provided that such law-enforcementagency certifies that a traffic fatality has occurred since January1, 2014, in such segment. The bill provides the same requirements for such devices, information collected from such devices, and anyenforcement actions resulting from information collected from suchdevices as current law applies to the use of such devices in schoolcrossing zones and highway work zones.

Marriage lawful regardless of sex, gender, or race of parties; issuance of marriage license. Provides that no person authorized to issue a marriage license shall deny the issuance of such license to two parties contemplating a lawful marriage on the basis of the sex, gender, or race of the parties. The bill also requires that such lawful marriages be recognized in the Commonwealth regardless of the sex, gender, or race of the parties. The bill provides that religious organizations or members of the clergy acting in their religious capacity shall have the right to refuse to perform any marriage. This bill is identical to HB 174.

Declawing cats; prohibition; civil penalty.Makes unlawful the practice of declawing cats except as necessaryfor a therapeutic purpose, as defined in the bill, and creates acivil penalty of $500 for the first violation, $1,000 for the secondviolation, and $2,500 for the third or any subsequent violation. The bill also entitles any animal control officer, humane investigator,or state or local law-enforcement officer to bring a civil actionfor a violation of this section.

Guardianship and conservatorship; report of guardian ad litem. Adds to the considerations regarding the suitability and propriety of a prospective guardian or conservator that a guardian ad litem is required to address in his report to the court following a petition for guardianship or conservatorship. The bill provides that the guardian ad litem shall consider the prospective guardian's or conservator's work as a professional guardian, including whether the person does so on a full-time basis, the prospective guardian's or conservator's expected capacity as a guardian, and whether the prospective guardian or conservator is named as a perpetrator in any substantiated adult protective services complaint involving the respondent following allegations of abuse or neglect.

Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services;training; powers and duties of guardian; annual reports by guardians;information required. Directs the Department for Aging and RehabilitativeServices to develop and provide training for court-appointed guardiansby July 1, 2025. The bill requires a court-appointed guardian andany skilled professional retained by such guardian to perform guardianshipduties to complete the initial training developed by the Departmentwithin four months after the date of qualification of such guardian.Under the bill, guardians appointed prior to July 1, 2025, must completesuch training by January 1, 2027. The bill further requires a guardianto include in his annual report to the local department of social services a statement as to whether such training has been completed.

School meals; availability at no cost to students. Provides that each school board shall require each public elementary and secondary school in the local school division to participate in the federal National School Lunch Program and the federal School Breakfast Program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture or in the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) as provided in relevant law, if applicable, and to make lunch and breakfast available to any student who requests such a meal at no cost to the student, unless the student's parent has provided written permission to the school board to withhold such a meal from the student. The bill also requires the Department of Education to reimburse each public elementary and secondary school for each school breakfast and lunch served to a student, with a maximum of one breakfast and one lunch per student per school day and provides the formula for determining the state reimbursement rate for such meals. The bill contains provisions directing each school board to adopt policies and procedures aimed at maximizing access to federal funds available for the cost of participating in school breakfast and lunch programs and maximizing determinations of student eligibility for federal free or reduced cost meal reimbursements rates and participation in CEP. The bill also lowers the minimum identified student percentage for a school to be eligible to participate in CEP from 40 to 25 percent in accordance with the updated federal CEP regulations (7 C.F.R. § 245.9(f)(3)(i)). The bill also requires the Secretary of Education, in coordination with the Secretary of Finance, to convene a stakeholder work group to study and make recommendations on ways to avoid or mitigate the impact of offering statewide free school breakfast and lunches on other state-funded programs and to submit a report on such findings and recommendations by January 15, 2025, to the Senate Committee on Education and Health and the House Committee on Education. The bill also repeals provisions of law relating to the federal School Breakfast Program and to school meal debt that are rendered obsolete by the provisions of the bill.