Summary: Crisis call center; Crisis Call Center Fund established. Provides that the crisis call center, which under current law is administered by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (the Department), shall provide crisis intervention services and crisis care coordination to individuals accessing the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline from any jurisdiction in the Commonwealth 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The bill directs the Department, in its development of the crisis call center, community care teams, and mobile crisis teams, to comply with any applicable requirements of the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act of 2020 and to provide for consistency with federal guidelines promulgated under such law. The bill contains immunity provisions for any originating service provider and its employees and agents acting pursuant to the act.The bill creates a $0.12 surcharge on postpaid wireless charges and a $0.08 surcharge on prepaid wireless charges to be collected by the Department of Taxation and distributed to the Crisis Call Center Fund, established by the bill, to be used for establishing and administering the crisis call center. The bill also increases the wireless E-911 surcharge from $0.75 to $0.82 and the prepaid wireless E-911 charge from $0.50 to $0.55. The increased revenue shall be dedicated to public safety answering points.

Summary: Confirmatory adoption. Expands the stepparent adoption provisions to allow a person who is not the child's stepparent but has a legitimate interest in the child to file a joint petition for adoption with the child's birth parent or parent by adoption.

Summary: State-Funded Kinship Guardianship Assistance program. Creates the State-Funded Kinship Guardianship Assistance program (the program) to facilitate child placements with relatives, including fictive kin, and ensure permanency for children. The bill sets forth eligibility criteria for the program, payment allowances to kinship guardians, and requirements for kinship guardianship assistance agreements.

Summary: Standards of Quality; specialized student support positions. Modifies a school personnel requirement in Standard 2 of the Standards of Quality to require each school board to provide at least three specialized student support positions, including school social workers, school psychologists, school nurses, licensed behavior analysts, licensed assistant behavior analysts, and other licensed health and behavioral positions, per 1,000 students.

Summary: Department of Education and Board of Education; special education. Requires the Department of Education and the Board of Education to develop new policies and procedures and effect numerous modifications to existing policies and procedures to improve the administration and oversight of special education in the Commonwealth. This bill is identical to HB 2299.

Summary: Child care providers; background check portability; subsidy pilot program; report. Exempts prospective employees and volunteers of certain child care providers from statutory background check requirements where the individual completed a background check within the previous five years, provided that (i) such background check was conducted after July 1, 2017; (ii) the results of such background check indicated that the individual had not been convicted of any barrier crime and was not the subject of a founded complaint of child abuse or neglect; and (iii) the individual is an employee or volunteer of a child care provider that is subject to background check requirements or has been separated from such employment or volunteer position for not more than 180 days. The bill requires such child care providers, prior to hiring or allowing to volunteer any individual without the completion of a background check, to obtain written certification that such individual satisfies all such requirements and is eligible to serve as an employee or volunteer. The bill also directs the Department of Education (the Department) to establish a two-year pilot program for the purpose of stabilizing and improving the quality of services provided in the Commonwealth's child care industry. The bill provides that under the pilot program a fixed sum of funds, based on the number of children served and certain other factors, will be disbursed to participating child care providers who agree to meet higher standards of quality and care, as determined by the Department. The bill requires the Department to report to the Governor and the General Assembly no later than December 1 of each year of the pilot program certain information set forth in the bill. The bill also requires the Department, in collaboration with the School Readiness Committee, to (a) identify and analyze financing strategies that can be used to support the systemic costs of high-quality child care services, ensure equitable compensation for child care staff, and better prepare children for kindergarten and (b) analyze the effectiveness of using a cost-of-quality modeling system for the child care subsidy program. The bill requires the Department to report its findings to the Governor and the General Assembly no later than December 1, 2021.

Summary: Standards of Learning assessments; reading and mathematics; grades three through eight; individual student growth. Requires the Board of Education to establish, in lieu of a one-time end-of-year assessment and for the purpose of providing measures of individual student growth over the course of the school year, a through-year growth assessment system, aligned with the Standards of Learning, for the administration of reading and mathematics assessments in grades three through eight. The bill requires such through-year growth assessment system to include at least one beginning-of-year, one mid-year, and one end-of-year assessment in order to provide individual student growth scores over the course of the school year, provided that the total time scheduled for taking all such assessments shall not exceed 150 percent of the time scheduled for taking a single end-of-year proficiency assessment. The bill requires the Department of Education to ensure adequate training for teachers and principals on how to interpret and use student growth data from such assessments to improve reading and mathematics instruction in grades three through eight throughout the school year. The bill provides that with such funds and content as are available for such purpose, such through-year growth assessment system shall provide accurate measurement of a student's performance, through computer adaptive technology, using test items at, below, and above the student's grade level as necessary. The bill requires full implementation of such system no later than the 2022–2023 school year and partial implementation during the 2021–2022 school year consisting of one beginning-of-year assessment and one end-of-year assessment. This bill is identical to HB 2027.

Summary: Virginia housing opportunity tax credit. Establishes, for taxable years 2021 through 2025, a Virginia housing opportunity tax credit, which is equal to the amount of the federal low-income housing tax credit allocated or allowed by the Virginia Housing Development Authority to a low-income building that is eligible for the federal credit. The credit would be nonrefundable and could be carried forward for up to five years. No more than $15 million in credits shall be granted per calendar year.

Summary: Charitable gaming; permit requirement; permissible locations; suspensions and revocations. Modifies the list of organizations that may conduct charitable gaming and requires such organizations, other than organizations conducting raffles that reasonably expect to realize gross receipts from such raffles of $40,000 or less in any 12-month period, to obtain a permit from the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services; however, the bill exempts certain organizations from the permit application and audit fees. The bill specifies the locations at which an organization may conduct bingo, network bingo, instant bingo, pull tabs, or seal cards. The bill prohibits the holding of a permit by a supplier or manufacturer that commits certain violations or offenses after July 1, 2021. The bill prohibits the Charitable Gaming Board from adjusting the percentage of gross receipts that an organization must use for religious, charitable, community, or educational purposes or for certain real property expenses until a study is completed by a joint subcommittee created in the bill. The bill provides that, notwithstanding the provisions of the bill, any organization that conducted bingo, network bingo, instant bingo, pull tabs, or seal cards at a location outside of the county, city, or town in which its principal office, as registered with the State Corporation Commission, is located or an adjoining county, city, or town on or before February 1, 2021, may continue to conduct bingo, network bingo, instant bingo, pull tabs, or seal cards at such locations until June 30, 2022.