Use of canines in correctional and juvenile correctional facilities; prohibited acts. Makes it unlawful for any correctional officer or other employee of a state correctional facility who is permitted to handle canines to use a patrol or security canine in any state correctional facility unless such correctional officer or other employee (i) reasonably believes that the use of a patrol or security canine is immediately necessary to protect any prisoner or any officer or employee from the threat of serious bodily injury or death or (ii) has the prior approval of the warden or a supervisor to use a patrol or security canine to intervene in an altercation, fight, or other incident between three or more prisoners. The bill also makes it unlawful for any juvenile correctional officer or other employee of a juvenile correctional facility to use a patrol or security canine in any juvenile correctional facility. The bill specifies that such provisions shall not apply to the training or use of detector canines or detector canine handlers.
Sponsored bills
Commending Buta Biberaj.
Commending the Honorable L. Kaye Kory.
Senator Richard L. "Dick" Saslaw; portrait.Establishes a committee to contract for a portrait of SenatorRichard L. "Dick" Saslaw to be painted, framed, and installed inthe Capitol.
Commending the Loudoun County Combined Fireand Rescue System.
Public high schools; research-based hazing prevention instruction. Requires the Board of Education to develop Standards of Learning and curriculum guidelines for research-based hazing prevention instruction to be provided as a part of physical or health education instruction provided to students in grade nine or 10. The bill requires such hazing prevention instruction to include age-appropriate, extensive, and current education about hazing, including (i) examples of hazing; (ii) the dangers of hazing, including the consequences of alcohol intoxication; and (iii) school policies and laws related to hazing, including criminal penalties and bystander intervention. The bill requires such research-based hazing prevention instruction to be offered in-person but requires each school board to provide options for virtual participation for any student who is enrolled in an online or virtual physical or health education program. Finally, the bill requires each school board to provide such research-based hazing prevention instruction beginning with the school year following the Board's adoption of revised Standards of Learning for physical and health education for grades nine and 10 incorporating such research-based hazing prevention instruction and directs the Board to, in the intermediary time, develop and post on its website guidance documents for the purpose of making such research-based hazing prevention instruction available to local school boards. This bill is identical to HB 719.
State Council of Higher Education for Virginia; membership. Requires the membership of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia to include at least one nonlegislative citizen member who has served as a chief executive officer of an accredited nonprofit private institution of higher education whose primary purpose is to provide collegiate, graduate, or professional education and not to provide religious training or theological education. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2026, and is identical to HB 1044.
Virginia Freedom of Information Act; electronic meetings. Amends the number of all-virtual public meetings that public bodies, with certain exceptions, may convene in a calendar year to no more than two times per calendar year or 50 percent of the meetings held per calendar year rounded up to the next whole number, whichever is greater. Current law limits the number of all-virtual public meetings to no more than two times per calendar year or 25 percent of the meetings held per calendar year rounded up to the next whole number, whichever is greater. The bill also provides that with respect to all-virtual public meetings, when audio-visual technology is available, a member of a public body shall, for purposes of a quorum, be considered absent from any portion of the meeting during which visual communication with the member is voluntarily disconnected or otherwise fails or during which audio communication involuntarily fails. This bill is identical to SB 734.
Celebrating the life of the Honorable OnzleeWare.
Celebrating the life of Marvin Joseph Weniger.