Summary: School principals; incident reports. Requires that school principals report to law enforcement certain enumerated acts that may constitute a misdemeanor offense and report to the parents of any minor student who is the specific object of such act that the incident has been reported to law enforcement. Under current law, principals are required to make such reports only for such acts that may constitute a felony offense. The bill provides, as an exception to the requirement to report any written threats against school personnel while on a school bus, on school property, or at a school-sponsored activity, that a principal is not required but may report to the local law-enforcement agency any such incident committed by a student who has an individualized education plan. This bill is identical to SB 36.

Summary: Virginia Diverse Educator Scholarship Fund and Program established. Establishes the Virginia Diverse Educator Scholarship Fund and Program, to be administered by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, for the purpose of annually providing to each Historically Black College or University in the Commonwealth (defined in the bill as Norfolk State University and Virginia State University) such sums as are necessary for each such institution to annually provide renewable last-dollar scholarships on a competitive basis to two students who (i) attended a a public elementary or secondary school in the Commonwealth in which at least 75 percent of the enrolled students qualify for free or reduced price lunch or are members of families whose income is below the federal poverty guidelines established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; (ii) are accepted to or enrolled in such institution's education preparation program; and (iii) are eligible for a federal Pell Grant to attend such institution. The bill provides that each such scholarship would consist of the following sums: (a) the cost of tuition, mandatory fees, room and board, and textbooks at such institution; (b) the recipient's teacher licensure fees; (c) $5,000 toward teacher professional development activities for the recipient, including coursework, seminars, and conferences; and (d) $10,000 toward mentorship of the recipient by a master teacher, defined as an experienced public elementary or secondary school teacher who is deemed by the relevant school board to be highly effective and able to provide high quality mentorship. The bill requires each student who is awarded a scholarship pursuant to the Program to agree in writing to (1) teach in a public elementary or secondary school in the Commonwealth in which at least 75 percent of the enrolled students qualify for free or reduced price lunch or are members of families whose income is below the federal poverty guidelines established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services upon graduation for a period that is at least as long as the period during which the recipient used scholarship funds to attend a Historically Black College or University and (2) be mentored by a master teacher during such period of employment.

Summary: Department of Military Affairs; recruitment. Authorizes the Department of Military Affairs to utilize grant funding to recruit qualified applicants for service in the Virginia National Guard. The bill states that the yearly funding amount for such recruitment shall be at the discretion of the Adjutant General and the Department of Military Affairs and not exceed $50,000 per fiscal year. This bill is identical to SB 256.

Summary: Student Emergency Aid Fund and Program; established. Establishes the Student Emergency Aid Fund and Program for the purposeof distributing emergency funds to students enrolled as full-timeor part-time students at public and nonprofit private institutionsof higher education in the Commonwealth to assist such students withsatisfying non-tuition and non-book emergency financial transactionsand costs required in order for the student to complete his certificationor degree. The bill directs the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia to establish guidelines for the Program and distributethe funds to institutions for disbursement according to the guidelines.

Summary: Victims of human trafficking; eligibility forin-state tuition. Provides that a non-Virginia student who iscurrently present in the Commonwealth as a result of being a victimof human trafficking, defined in the bill, is eligible for in-statetuition. The bill provides that a person may be a victim of humantrafficking regardless of whether any person has been charged withor convicted of any offense and that eligibility for in-state tuitionmay be proved by a certification of such status as a victim of humantrafficking by a federal, state, or local agency or not-for-profitagency, one of whose primary missions is to provide services to victimsof human trafficking. The bill also requires public institutionsof higher education to automatically record such a student as optingout of making any directory or educational information available tothe public unless the student voluntarily and affirmatively choosesto opt in to allowing such directory or educational information tobe made available.

Summary: Public institutions of higher education; criminalhistory. Requires each public institution of higher educationto include a disclosure to each applicant that certain criminal convictionsmay disqualify such applicant from pursuing his intended course ofstudy or living in student housing, if applicable, and that applicantsmay contact the institution of higher education to learn more aboutwhich criminal convictions preclude individuals from pursuing certaincourses of study or living in student housing.

Summary: Public institutions of higher education; Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program; notice to students; SNAP benefits. Requires each public institution of higher education to ensure that all students have access to accurate information about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), including eligibility and how to apply. The bill also directs each institution to advertise the application and process for applying for SNAP prominently on the institution's website and in orientation materials that are distributed to each new student.

Summary: Academic year Governor's Schools; certain practices prohibited and required. Prohibits any academic year Governor's School or governing board member, director, administrator, or employee thereof from discriminating against any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the process of admitting students to such school. The bill requires each local school board that jointly manages and controls a regional academic year Governor's school to collaborate to ensure that each public middle school that is eligible to send students to attend such Governor's school offers coursework, curriculum, and instruction that is comparable in content and in rigor in order to provide each student in each such middle school with the opportunity to gain admission to and excel academically at such Governor's school.

Summary: Board of Education; authority to temporarily extend certain teachers' licenses; emergency. Permits the Board of Education to grant a two-year extension of the license of any individual licensed by the Board of Education pursuant to its statutory authority whose license expires on June 30, 2022, in order to provide the individual with sufficient additional time to complete the requirements for licensure or license renewal. The bill contains an emergency clause. 

Summary: School attendance; 4-H educational programs andactivities. Provides that students who miss a partial or fullday of school while participating in 4-H educational programs andactivities shall not be counted as absent for the purposes of calculatingaverage daily membership and shall receive course credit in the samemanner as they would for a school field trip. The bill directs eachlocal school board to develop policies and procedures for studentsto make up missed work and may determine the maximum number of schooldays per academic year that a student may spend participating in 4-Heducational programs and activities to not be counted absent. Thisbill is identical to SB 596.

Summary: Education improvement scholarship tax credits; eligible students in need of a safer school environment. Declares eligible for a scholarship from a scholarship foundation that receives an education improvement scholarship tax credit, on the same basis as any other eligible student, eligible students in need of a safer school environment, defined in the bill as any student who, while enrolled in a public elementary or secondary school in kindergarten through grade 12, was the victim of assault, battery, bullying, harassment, hazing, kidnapping, or robbery on school property, on a school bus, or at a school-sponsored activity, as substantiated by an investigation and written report by the school principal. The bill provides that (i) eligible students in need of a safer school environment are permitted to use such scholarships to cover the expenses associated with attending another public school within or outside of his school division of residence and (ii) there are no family income restrictions on scholarships for eligible students in need of a safer school environment. The bill clarifies that no public elementary or secondary school or local school division is prohibited or precluded from offering various educational alternatives to an eligible student in need of a safer school environment.

Summary: Certain school board employees; dismissal; grounds; continuing contract study; report. Prohibits school board employeeswho are not required to hold a valid license issued by the Boardof Education and public school teachers from being dismissed basedon a last-hired, first-fired dismissal policy or any other similarpolicy that mandates that, when considering more than one such employeefor dismissal, the seniority of each such employee shall be the soledeterminative factor in the dismissal decision. The bill also requiresthe Board of Education, the House Committee on Education, and theSenate Committee on Education and Health, in consultation with localschool boards, to study and make recommendations to the General Assemblyno later than November 1, 2022, regarding effective, alternativeways in which the performance of teachers may be evaluated for thepurpose of awarding or rescinding continuing contract status.

Summary: Certain Standards of Learning assessments; methodof administration. Requires (i) the reading and mathematics Standardsof Learning assessments in grades three through eight and the scienceassessments administered to students in grade five and after the student receives instruction in the grade six science, life science,and physical science Standards of Learning and before the studentcompletes grade eight to be traditional achievement tests and (ii)the Virginia Studies and Civics and Economics assessments to be performancebased and to measure the test taker's ability to apply the skillsand knowledge learned in the class. The foregoing provisions of thebill have a delayed effective date of July 1, 2023. The bill alsorequires the Department of Education, with such funds as may be appropriatedfor such purpose pursuant to the general appropriation act, to developa task bank for performance-based assessments that is built using vetted tasks that have been developed by practitioners and alignwith the Department's Virginia Quality Criteria Review Tool for PerformanceAssessments.