Early childhood care and education system;publicly funded providers; funding; Early Childhood Care and Education Fund established.Requires, for the purpose of addressing family demand and preferences for affordable, high-quality early childhood care and education services, state general funds to be provided to support the provision of services to families for early childhood care and education, as specified in the general appropriations act. The bill requires the Department of Education to report each year by November 1 on the projected general funds needed for the upcoming two fiscal years in order to (i) maintain the current number of slots at early childhood care and education programs, (ii) increase the number of slots using a projected growth report, and (iii) increase the number of slots to fully accommodate parent demand and eliminate waitlists. The bill requires such projected general funds to be based on the annual per-child cost, determined as set forth in the bill, for the Virginia Preschool Initiative, the Mixed Delivery Program, and the Child Care Subsidy Program, the current eligibility criteria for such programs, and maximization of certain regularly recurring federal funds. The bill requires each regional entity established by the Board of Education pursuant to applicable law, each local school division, and each locality to annually indicate the number of slots needed, respectively, in the region for the Mixed Delivery Program, the local school division for the Virginia Preschool Initiative, and the locality for the Child Care Subsidy Program. The bill requires the Department of Education to (a) reallocate by July 1 any slots with available funding from the Child Care Subsidy Program and the Mixed Delivery Program, (b) make adjustments based on family preferences following the fall enrollment periods, (c) first expend all current-year state general funds in providing funding for slots, and (c) if waitlists for slots at early childhood care remain, use available funds from the Early Childhood Care and Education Fund established by the bill to address family demand and preferences.
Sponsored bills
Public middle schools and high schools; student organizations; career and technical education organizations permitted.Permits each public middle school and high school to establishcareer and technical education student organizations, regardlessof whether such school offers career and technical education courses.
Use of artificial intelligence by public bodies; prohibitions; Commission on Artificial Intelligence established; report; sunset. Prohibits any public body from implementing any system that employs artificial intelligence, defined in the bill, unless such public body (i) performs an initial impact assessment and ongoing impact assessments of such system to ensure its use will not result in any unlawful discrimination against any individual or group of individuals or have any disparate impact on any individual or group of individuals and (ii) does not implement or ceases to use such system if such effects occur. The bill requires all public bodies that implement such systems to submit an annual report on such assessments and provide an inventory of all such systems used to the appropriate entity designated in the bill. The bill directs the Chief Information Officer of the Commonwealth to develop, publish, and maintain policies and procedures concerning systems that employ artificial intelligence and are used by public bodies. The bill creates the Commission on Artificial Intelligence to advise the General Assembly on issues related to artificial intelligence and make advisory recommendations on its findings. The Commission sunsets on July 1, 2027. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2025. This bill incorporates SB 621.
Public school staffing ratios; teachers; Englishlanguage learner students. Requires state funding to be providedpursuant to the general appropriation act to support divisionwideratios of English language learner students in average daily membershipto full-time equivalent teaching positions as follows: (i) for eachEnglish language learner identified as proficiency level one, oneposition per 25 students; (ii) for each English language learner identified as proficiency level two, one position per 30 students;(iii) for each English language learner identified as proficiencylevel three, one position per 40 students; and (iv) for all otherEnglish language learners, one position per 50 students. Current law requires state funding to be provided pursuant to the general appropriationact to support one such teaching position per 50 English languagelearner students, regardless of the identified English proficiencylevel of such students.
Social Work Licensure Compact. Authorizes Virginia to become a signatory to the Social Work Licensure Compact. The Compact allows social workers who have or are eligible for an active, unencumbered license in the compact member state where they reside to apply for a multistate license. After verifying eligibility, the social worker is granted a multistate license that authorizes practice in all other compact member states. The Compact takes effect when it is enacted by a seventh member state. This bill is identical to HB 326.
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.
Manufacturing, selling, giving, distributing, etc., of fentanyl, heroin, or related controlled substances; Task Force on Fentanyl and Heroin Enforcement established; penalties. Provides that a person is guilty of felony homicide, which constitutes second degree murder and is punishable by confinement of not less than five nor more than 40 years, if the underlying felonious act that resulted in the killing of another involved the manufacture, sale, gift, or distribution of a Schedule I or II controlled substance to another and (i) such other person's death results from his use of the controlled substance and (ii) the controlled substance is the proximate cause of his death. The bill provides that venue for a prosecution of this crime shall lie in the locality where the underlying felony occurred, where the use of the controlled substance occurred, or where death occurred. The bill also provides that if a person gave or distributed a Schedule I or II controlled substance only as an accommodation to another individual who is not an inmate in a community correctional facility, local correctional facility, or state correctional facility, or in the custody of an employee thereof, and not with intent to profit thereby from any consideration received or expected nor to induce the recipient of the controlled substance to use or become addicted to or dependent upon such controlled substance, he is guilty of a Class 5 felony. The bill also requires the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to investigate the cause and manner of a death in any case where the attorney for the Commonwealth or the investigating law-enforcement agency has probable cause to believe that the death resulted from such felony homicide. The bill also adds mandatory minimum fines for manufacturing, selling, giving, distributing, or possessing with the intent to manufacture, sell, give, or distribute a mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of fentanyl, heroin, or carfentanil based on the weight of such mixtures or substances. Additionally, the bill creates the Task Force on Fentanyl and Heroin Enforcement whose purpose is to study ways to enhance the ability of law-enforcement officers throughout the Commonwealth to combat the illegal manufacturing, importation, and distribution of fentanyl, heroin, and other similar controlled substances. The bill requires the Task Force to meet at least annually and to report to the Governor and General Assembly by December 1 of each year regarding its activities and any recommendations.
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.
Maximum number of judges in each judicial district and circuit. Increases by one the maximum number of authorized juvenile and domestic relations district court judges in the Twentieth and Thirty-first Judicial Districts. The bill also increases by one the maximum number of authorized circuit court judges in the First, Ninth, Fifteenth, and Twenty-fifth Judicial Circuits. This bill is a recommendation of the Committee on District Courts and the Judicial Council of Virginia. This bill incorporates SB 686 and is identical to HB 310.
Assistance for certain voters outside of the polling place; definition of "person with a disability"; training. Amends the definition of "person with a disability" for purposes of the Elections title to mean any person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of his major life activities or who has a record of such impairment. The bill provides that any qualified voter who is a person with a disability shall be eligible for assistance outside of the polling place and makes technical amendments for consistency. The bill requires the training required for all officers of election to include specific training on voting outside of a polling place and directs the Department of Elections to incorporate into guidance documents for election officials the processes and procedures for voting outside of the polling place, including best practices for providing assistance for voters with disabilities. This bill is identical to HB 441.