Education Committees in the General Assembly wrapped up their work on each other's bills on March 7. You might think that this finalizes things, but with only a week to go in the session, the legislative process is far from over! The Senate and House of Delegates are currently taking actions on amendments, bills that are incorporated (combined) into each other, and substitute bills that have been negotiated between House and Senate versions. Next, a group of conferees appointed by the House and Senate will meet to negotiate a budget, reconciling differences between the House and Senate versions of the budget. This bill will then be communicated to the Governor, who can propose his own amendments, and then the budget goes back to the legislature one more time for votes on these amendments.
Since many education bills have associated costs, this process of negotiating the budget is important for us to follow. If a bill that we have supported passed the House and Senate but is not funded in the final budget, it can't be implemented. And it's not unheard of for the budget conferees to insert language into the budget which changes the legislation. The reconvened session, when we will see the results of this process, begins on April 27.
Here are just five of the bills of interest to VASCD along with links to their General Assembly progress history and status:
Supported:
HB197 (Passed House and Reported by Senate Committee with Amendment; 3/7).
In its original form, this bill would have allowed school divisions to substitute the MAP growth assessment for VDOE's recently implemented growth assessment in grades 3-8 reading and math. As it progressed through the Committees and various groups provided input, this bill changed substantially. It does not allow substitution of the MAP, but legislators heard our concerns about the state's growth measure and tried to address them in the revised legislation. The substitute that has passed requires the Superintendent to ensure that the states' growth measures "measure up" to MAP's advantages when it comes to ease of use and quality of data. It will be important for VASCD and other groups to monitor and stay involved in this process so that the resulting growth measure is useful.
HB 585 (Passed House and Senate, 3/7).
Though not completely aligned with our suggestions, does mean a step towards including performance assessment in Virginia's assessment system. The bill requires the redesign of Standards of Learning assessments for Virginia Studies, Civics and Economics, Virginia and U.S. history, and biology to include items that require the student to apply knowledge and skills in preparing a response. Such items shall include open-ended questions, long-form writing, and other tasks, with student responses scored by the Department of Education according to statewide scoring rubrics. Implementation of these assessment items will occur no later than the beginning of the 2027–2028 school year.
SB490 (Passed Senate and House Committees, Reported from Appropriations, Passed by House on 3/7).
Standards of Quality; work-based learning; teacher leaders and mentors; principal mentors; certain personnel positions and initiatives.
Opposed:
HB127 (Passed House and Reported by Senate Committee with Substitute; 3/7).
Prohibits any academic year Governor's School or governing board member, director, administrator, or employee thereof from (i) discriminating against or granting preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin; (ii) engaging in proxy discrimination, as defined in the bill, in student admissions; or (iii) seeking information on students' race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin during the application process for admission to such school unless expressly required by federal law, and to the extent it is required by federal law, the bill requires such information to be withheld to the maximum extent practicable from any individual involved in admissions decisions to the end that admissions decisions are blind as to the applicants' race, sex, color, ethnicity, and national origin. The bill permits any academic year Governor's School or governing board member, director, administrator, or employee thereof to use traditional academic success factors, as defined in the bill, in student admissions and provides that such use presumptively does not constitute proxy discrimination. The bill also contains provisions relating to evidentiary burdens of proof in certain causes of action involving such proxy discrimination or traditional academic success factors.
HB787 (Passed House and Passed by Indefinitely by Senate Committee on 3/3).
Declares it an unlawful and discriminatory practice for any local school board or employee or contractor thereof to train or instruct any individual on any divisive concept, as defined in the bill, for the purpose of promoting and encouraging such individual to adopt or believe such concept. The bill requires the Department of Education to establish model policies for the prevention of such unlawful and discriminatory practice and each local school board to adopt policies that are consistent with but may be more comprehensive than the model policies established by the Department.
For a full listing and status of bills, click the links below:
