Sen. Suhas Subramanyam

Commending Margaret L. Sanner.

Public school funding; certain calculations; certain support services positions; programs for at-risk students. Places several parameters on Standards of Quality funding calculations performed by the Department of Education, including (i) requiring the Department, when calculating the cost of salaries under the Standards of Quality funding formula, to include facilities staff and transportation staff salaries in the calculation of any cost of competing adjustment to salaries for instructional and support positions that is provided as part of the state share of basic aid pursuant to the general appropriation act; (ii) requiring the Department, when estimating the cost of any compensation supplement for instructional and support positions under the Standards of Quality funding formula, to include and estimate the cost of such a compensation supplement for facilities staff; (iii) prohibiting the Department from applying any cap on inflation rate adjustments to non-personal cost categories during the biennial process of rebenchmarking the direct aid to public education budget; and (iv) requiring the Department to utilize a three-year average of the most recently available data to calculate the composite index of local ability-to-pay for each school division. The bill also amends Standard of Quality 2 by (a) including in the definition of "support services position" any central office clerical position that is not otherwise set forth in such definition, (b) requiring a per-pupil Standards of Quality funding add-on to be provided for English language learner and special education students, (c) requiring, in addition to the positions supported by basic aid, state funding, pursuant to the general appropriation act, to be provided to cover the actual average school division cost to educate children with disabilities, and (d) establishing the At-Risk Program, defined in the bill as any state funding provided for programs of prevention, intervention, or remediation or pursuant to the at-risk add-on for the purpose of supporting programs for students who are educationally at risk. The bill requires (1) the determination of the amount of state funding for which a school division is eligible pursuant to such At-Risk Program to be based on the school division's identified student percentage, defined in the bill as the fraction, expressed as a percentage, that results from dividing the number of identified students enrolled in a school division by the total number of students enrolled in such school division, weighted by the factor of 1.5, and then adjusted by the addition of a percentage that corrects for undercounting English language learner students as identified students and (2) such funding to be distributed as follows: 60 percent on a flat per-student rate and 40 percent on a variable rate set out in the general appropriation act based on the concentration of poverty in the school division. This bill was incorporated into SB 105.

Public school funding; At-Risk Program established. Establishes the At-Risk Program, defined in the bill as any state funding provided for programs of prevention, intervention, or remediation or pursuant to the at-risk add-on for the purpose of supporting programs for students who are educationally at risk. The bill requires (i) the determination of the amount of state funding for which a school division is eligible pursuant to the At-Risk Program to be based on the school division's identified student percentage, defined in the bill as the fraction, expressed as a percentage, that results from dividing the number of identified students enrolled in a school division by the total number of students enrolled in such school division, weighted by the factor of 1.5, and then adjusted by the addition of a percentage that corrects for undercounting English language learner students as identified students and (ii) such funding to be distributed as follows: 60 percent on a flat per-student rate and 40 percent on a variable rate set out in the general appropriation act based on the concentration of poverty in the school division. The bill provides that any school division that would have received more state funds for the at-risk add-on and programs of prevention, intervention, or remediation than it would pursuant to the consolidation of such state funding sources under the At-Risk Program established in the bill shall be held harmless and shall not have its share of such state funding reduced, effective for the 2024–2025 school year through the 2026–2027 school year. This bill was incorporated into SB 105.

Celebrating the life of Charles D. Grant.

Joint Commission on Technology and Science;study; advancements in artificial intelligence; report. Directsthe Joint Commission on Technology and Science to study advancementsin artificial intelligence (AI), including assessing (i) the impacts of deep fakes, data privacy implications, and misinformation; (ii)measures to ensure these technologies do not indirectly or directlylead to discrimination; (iii) strategies to promote equity in AIalgorithms; and (iv) ways in which AI can be utilized to improvegovernment operations and services, and to make recommendations onany appropriate legislation for consideration by the General Assembly.

Family caregiver tax credit. Creates a nonrefundableincome tax credit for taxable years 2024 through 2028 for expensesincurred by an individual in caring for an eligible family member,defined in the bill, who requires assistance with one or more activitiesof daily living, also defined in the bill. The credit equals 50 percentof eligible expenditures incurred by the caregiver up to $1,000. Inorder to qualify for the credit, the family caregiver must (i) notreceive any compensation or reimbursement for the eligible expendituresand (ii) have federal adjusted gross income that is no greater than$100,000 for an individual or $200,000 for married persons.

Pilot program for underground transmission lines; qualifying projects. Increases the maximum capacity of qualifying electrical transmission lines, for purposes of the pilot projectfor underground transmission lines, from 230 kilovolts to 500 kilovolts.The bill provides that the State Corporation Commission shall approveadditional qualifying projects as part of the pilot program thattraverse along highways in developed areas where the route of proposedtransmission lines and towers traverse areas protected by a sceniceasement, view shed easement, areas of registered historic designation,or areas of conservation easements. Under the bill, existing requirementsfor qualifying projects shall continue to apply to such new categoryof qualifying projects.

Electric utilities; data center demand; allocationof costs among customer classes. Directs the State CorporationCommission to ensure that any plan, petition, or proposal from autility to meet demand associated with data centers considers generation,transmission, and distribution system costs so as to meet such demandat the lowest aggregate reasonable cost. The bill also directs theCommission to initiate a proceeding, on or before December 31, 2024,(i) to determine if the current allocation of costs among customersand the different classifications of customers of electric utilitiesresults in customers that are data centers receiving unreasonablesubsidies from other customers or classifications of customers and (ii) if it determines unreasonable subsidies exist, to amend suchallocation of costs.

Commending Sandra Gioia Treadway.

Celebrating the life of Janet Marie Brooking.