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I would like to inform you of the bills I have introduced this session in hopes of improving our great district and Commonwealth. As promised, I am tackling the education issues that are so important to our district with six bills regarding these issues.
In addition, I have introduced legislation to help better preserve our rural lands and legislation to support expecting mothers and fathers to promote life and the well-being of their children. Finally, I have a few bills to fix problems brought to my attention, both in the district and throughout the Commonwealth.
Education, Parental Involvement, and Protecting Women
HB 1218: Codifies the Governor’s Executive order and requires School Districts to notify parents of opioid overdoses or other dangerous activities within 24 hours.
- Ensures parents find out in a timely manner if their children are at risk or in the presence of deathly drugs.
HB 1219: Requires school boards to accept school resource officers if they are made available by law enforcement as well as incorporate them into their annual school safety audit.
- Prevents school boards from turning down school resource officers, as they are important to keep our kids safe.
HB 1260: Establishes a parents’ bill of rights to ensure parental involvement in their children’s education.
- This bill would make sure that school districts allow parents in the classroom and don’t expose children to any graphic content that their parents have not approved.
- Includes the right to review any books, curricula, or other materials available to their child, the right to know of any situation affecting their child’s safety, the right to know about their child receiving counseling, and the right to opt out of sexually explicit content or any surveys/data collection.
HB 1229: Protects women’s sports, bathrooms, and locker rooms.
- This bill requires interscholastic, intercollegiate, intramural, and club sports teams sponsored by public institutions to be expressly designated based on biological sex to one of three categories: males, females, or coed.
- Additionally, it limits access to multiple occupancy bathrooms and changing rooms in all public education institutions to members of one biological sex.
- This bill protects the integrity of women’s sports by ensuring men cannot unfairly compete in them, as well as the safety of women in vulnerable areas such as bathrooms and locker rooms by preventing biological men from entering.
- This bill would not prohibit an additional single-stall bathroom from being created for those who feel it is necessary, it simply protects women in private spaces where they deserve to feel safe.
HB 1231: Allows for homeschooled and private school students to be eligible for JROTC in any public school in their local school division.
- This bill brings Virginia into agreement with Federal regulations, which state that public schools must permit membership in JROTC to qualified homeschooled students.
- At a time where military recruitment is down, this bill is not just fair, but necessary.
HB 1275: Creates a homeschool and private school tax credit of $2,500.
- Helps to ease the burden of parents homeschooling or sending their children to private school, as they pay taxes for schooling services they are not receiving.
- This is similar to the TAG grants that are available to students attending in-state private universities.
Land Preservation, Parks, and Road Improvement
HB 1223: Increases the amount of Land preservation tax credits available from $75 million to $100 million.
- Allows for the preservation of more rural land each year, something very important to our rural residents.
HB 1523: Exempt State Parks from the procurement process for retail sales so that they can sell their own merchandise to raise their own funds.
- National Parks can already do this, and this will help to raise more funds for our State Parks without burdening taxpayers.
HB 1233: Clarifies existing code that improvements to gravel roads can include changes other than paving and directs the Department of Transportation to review and consider other methods of improving gravel roads.
- VDOT currently interprets that their maintenance funds can only be used to pave roads, but this bill will clarify that those funds can be used for other improvements to, and maintenance of, our gravel roads.
Promoting Life and Fighting for the Developmentally Disabled
HB 1232: Directs the Virginia Department of Health to seek all available federal funding for services for expecting mothers and fathers.
- This bill would ensure that Virginia is getting its share of federal funding to help our expecting mothers and fathers without raising our taxes.
- This is important because the more resources we can provide to expecting mothers and fathers in need, the more lives we can save.
HB 1222: Adds developmental disabilities to the list of reasons for curbside voting.
- Currently, individuals with developmental disabilities such as autism are unable to curbside vote in handicap spaces.
- Curbside voting is secure and individuals with developmental disabilities should be afforded the same accommodations as individuals with any other disability.
Fixing Problems
HB 1522: Further prevents the establishment of large group homes (halfway house, rehabilitation facility, etc.) in residential neighborhoods by closing a loophole where they could purchase multiple adjacent properties.
- This bill would prevent the establishment of a group home within one mile of another group home and would address the Newport Academy situation in Loudoun County, where multiple properties were purchased next to one another in order to get around the current occupancy law.
HB 1521: Jurors in all civil cases shall be paid by one or both of the parties at the discretion of the presiding judge.
- Currently, taxpayers foot the bill for jurors in civil cases, so this is intended to save taxpayers money throughout the Commonwealth.
- Even in criminal cases, defendants found guilty pay for juror fees.
HB 1215: Fixes a code section regarding the use of licensing fees for asbestos and lead project permits within the Department of Labor and Industry.
- Due to an error in the code, fees collected for this permitting process are not able to be used for the administration of the permit itself, this bill fixes that.
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