Summary: Department of Education; uniform system of disciplinefor disruptive student behavior. Requires the Department of Educationto establish, within its regulations governing student conduct, andeach school board to adhere to, a uniform system of discipline fordisruptive behavior and the removal of a student from a class that includes, among other things, (i) criteria for teachers to removedisruptive students from their classes, including a requirement fora teacher to remove a disruptive student from a class if the disruptivebehavior is violent and a requirement to implement a three-strikesystem for nonviolent disruptive behavior whereby a teacher is requiredto remove a student from a class if the student repeats or continuesthe nonviolent disruptive behavior after the teacher provides twowarnings to the student and (ii) a prohibition against holding ateacher liable for taking reasonable actions or utilizing reasonablemethods to control a physically disruptive or violently disruptivestudent.

Summary: Students who receive home instruction; participationin interscholastic programs. Prohibits public schools from joiningan organization governing interscholastic programs that does notdeem eligible for participation a student who (i) receives home instruction;(ii) has demonstrated evidence of progress for two consecutive academicyears; (iii) is in compliance with immunization requirements; (iv)is a person of school age for whom public school is free; (v) hasnot reached the age of 19 by August 1 of the current academic year;(vi) is an amateur who receives no compensation but participatessolely for the educational, physical, mental, and social benefitsof the activity; (vii) complies with all disciplinary rules and issubject to all codes of conduct applicable to all public high schoolathletes; and (viii) complies with all other rules governing awards, all-star games, maximum consecutive semesters of high school enrollment, parental consents, physical examinations, and transfers applicableto all high school athletes. The bill provides that no local schoolboard is required to establish a policy to permit students who receivehome instruction to participate in interscholastic programs. Thebill permits reasonable fees to be charged to students who receivehome instruction to cover the costs of participation in such interscholasticprograms, including the costs of additional insurance, uniforms,and equipment. The bill has an expiration date of July 1, 2028.

Summary: Public elementary and secondary schools; fundamental rightof parents. Requires each school board that amends or adopts a policy to(i) document the reasons that the amended or adopted policy either impacts or doesnot impact the fundamental right of a parent to make decisions concerning theupbringing, education, and care of his child and (ii) if the school boarddetermines that the amended or adopted policy impacts such fundamental right,ensure that the amended or adopted policy is subsequently amended in such a wayas to be in compliance with the relevant law that establishes such fundamentalright. The bill provides that if any school board fails to comply with any suchrequirement, any parent of a student enrolled in the local school division orany individual member of the school board may bring a cause of action againstthe school board for appropriate relief in the circuit court that hasjurisdiction in the local school division and any such parent or individualmember who prevails in such a cause of action is entitled to an award ofreasonable attorney fees and costs. The bill also requires each local schoolboard to provide opportunities for parental involvement in several ways,including providing to parents of students enrolled in the local schooldivision direct access to and an opportunity to review, upon request, thecomplete curricular content in the local school division and the option to optout of policies, surveys, research studies, or programs of instruction that areinconsistent with the parent's beliefs, values, or goals and standards for hischild.

Summary: Virginia Education Success Account Program;establishment. Permits the parents of qualified students, definedin the bill, to apply for a one-year, renewable Virginia EducationSuccess Account that consists of an amount that is equivalent toa certain percentage of all applicable annual Standards of Qualityper pupil state funds appropriated for public school purposes andapportioned to the school division in which the qualified studentresides, including the per pupil share of state sales tax fundingin basic aid and any state per pupil share of special education fundingfor which the qualified student is eligible. The bill permits theparent of the qualified student to use the moneys in such accountfor certain qualified expenses of the qualified student, includingtuition, deposits, fees, and required textbooks at a private elementaryschool or secondary school that is located in the Commonwealth. Thebill also contains provisions relating to program and account administrationby the Department of the Treasury and a third-party financial institutionthat serves as program administrator pursuant to a contract with the Department of the Treasury.

Summary: School board selection; referendum on directelection of school board members by voters; authorization by local governing body. Allows the governing body of a county, city,or town to file a petition with the circuit court of the county or city or of the county within which the town or the greater part thereofis located asking that a referendum be held on the question of whetherthe members of the school board of the county, city, or town shallbe elected directly by the voters.

Summary: School board for the City of Lynchburg; staggeredterms in the event of election. Requires, in the event that theschool board for the City of Lynchburg is required to be electedby popular vote in accordance with relevant law that permits a voterreferendum on the question of changing the method of school boardmember selection from appointment to election, such school boardto be elected for four-year terms and the school board elections to alternate biennially between the election of one member from eachof the four ward districts and the election of one member from eachof the three at-large districts to ensure staggered terms. The billalso establishes the timeline and process for the expiration of theterms of the nine then-currently appointed members and the electionof the first seven elected members of such school board in the eventof such a change in the school board member selection method in theCity of Lynchburg.

Summary: School Resource Officer Grants Program and Fund. Provides that matching grants from the School Resource Officer Incentive Grants Fund may be awarded to local law-enforcement agencies and local school boards for the expenses related to the equipment necessary for uniformed school resource officers, school security officers, and other relevant school safety personnel and the enhancement of the school-law enforcement partnership through training and programming as determined by the Department.

Summary: Public elementary and secondary schools; reports of certain arrests and convictions; receipt, report, and compilation. Requires each division superintendent to annually designate an employee in the local school division as the division safety official whose duty is to receive all reports required to be made pursuant to relevant law from (i) every state official or agency and every sheriff, police officer, or other local law-enforcement officer or conservator of the peace having the power to arrest for a felony upon arresting a person who is known or discovered by the arresting official to be a full-time, part-time, permanent, or temporary teacher or any other employee in such local school division for a felony or a Class 1 misdemeanor or an equivalent offense in another state and (ii) the clerk of any circuit court or any district court in the Commonwealth upon the felony conviction of any person known by such clerk to be employed by such local school division. The bill requires each division superintendent to include such designation in the collated packet of school safety audits submitted to the Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety pursuant to relevant law and requires the Center to designate an employee of the Center as the school personnel safety official for the Commonwealth whose duty is to compile and maintain a list of each such division safety official. The bill also provides that a probation and parole officer who is supervising a person employed by a local school division in the Commonwealth shall, upon discovering that such supervised person has been arrested or convicted of a felony offense or an equivalent offense in another state, report such arrest or conviction to the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the designated division safety official in the local school division where such supervised person is employed as soon as practicable.

Summary: Public school employees; offense involvingsolicitation of sexual molestation, physical or sexual abuse, orrape of a child; penalty. Provides that the convictions that bar employment and contract work that requires direct contact withstudents on school property during school hours or school-sponsored activities in public schools include any offense involving the solicitationof sexual molestation, physical or sexual abuse, or rape of a child.Current law prohibits any school board from employing or contractingwith anyone who has been convicted of a violent felony set forthin the definition of barrier crime or any offense involving sexual molestation, physical or sexual abuse, or rape of a child, but doesnot specify that this includes any offense involving the solicitationof any such offense.

Summary: School bus operators; training; remote onlineand Spanish language options. Permits the training program developedby the Board of Education for school bus operators to offer the optionfor an applicant for employment as a school bus operator to (i) completeall or any portion of the required hours of classroom training ina remote online format, as determined by the local school division and (ii) receive instruction in the Spanish language for all or anyportion of the required hours of classroom training, as determinedby the local school division.

Summary: Educational opportunities for children of certainforeign service employees and civilian employees of the Armed Forcesof the United States. Requires the provisions of the InterstateCompact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children to applyto school-age children who are dependents of foreign service employeesand civilian members of the Armed Forces of the United States underfederal orders when the parent produces documentation indicatingthat he is required to move in order to perform his job responsibilitiesand such move results in the student's intrastate, interstate, oroverseas relocation, including any such relocation that results inthe student attending a Department of Defense Education Activity school.The bill requires any such student who is in the eighth grade tobe permitted to apply for admission to an academic year Governor'sschool in the same manner as an eighth grade student to whom theprovisions of the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity forMilitary Children apply.

Summary: Public school principals; parental notificationof certain student violations. Requires the principal of anypublic elementary or secondary school or his designee to notify theparents of any student who violates a school board policy or thecompulsory school attendance requirements when such violation islikely to result in the student's suspension or the filing of a courtpetition. Current law permits such principals to make such a notificationwhen the violation could result in the student's suspension or the filing of a court petition and is silent on the designation of suchpower.

Summary: School boards; schoolwide events with parents;free or reduced price meals applications. Requires each schoolboard to ensure that at any schoolwide event to which the parentsof enrolled public elementary or secondary school students are invited,including back to school nights, such parents have prominent access,in paper or electronic form, or both, to information about applicationand eligibility for free or reduced price meals for students anda fillable free or reduced price meals application that may be completedand submitted on site.

Summary: Certain student assessment results; availability. Requires each school board to provide teachers, parents, principals,and other school leaders with their students' results on any Standardsof Learning assessment or Virginia Alternate Assessment Program assessmentas soon as practicable after the assessment is administered.

Summary: Department of Education; written guidance for comprehensive school counseling program. Requires the Department of Education to develop and implement by the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year written guidance for a comprehensive school counseling program for the purpose of providing counseling services and supports in the school setting that address the academic achievement, college and career readiness, and mental health and social and emotional needs of all students.

Summary: Provisional teacher licensure; permissive extension; satisfactory performance evaluations during years of actual employment. Requires the Board of Education to extend for at least one additionalyear, but for no more than two additional years, the three-year provisionallicense of a teacher upon receiving from the division superintendent(i) a recommendation for such extension and (ii) satisfactory performanceevaluations for such teacher for each year during the original three-yearprovisional license that such teacher was actually employed. Currentlaw requires satisfactory performance evaluations for such teacherfor each year of the original three-year provisional license in orderto be eligible for such an extension.

Summary: High school graduation requirements; passingscore on select questions from the U.S. Naturalization Test.Requires the Board of Education, in establishing high school graduationrequirements, to require, except in the case of a high school studentwhose individualized education program indicates otherwise, eachhigh school student to take and correctly answer at least 70 percentof the questions on a test composed of at least 25 but not more than50 of the questions on the civics portion of the U.S. Naturalization Test in order to graduate high school with a standard or advancedstudies diploma, provided that such student may take such test atany time during grades nine through 12 and as many times during such period as necessary to achieve the minimum 70 percent passing score.

Summary: Brown v. Board of Education Scholarship Program;extension of eligibility. Extends eligibility for the Board of Education Scholarship Program to the lineal and collateraldescendants of persons who were residing in jurisdictions in Virginiain which the public schools were closed to avoid desegregation between1954 and 1964 and whose educations were affected by the school closings.Currently, only persons who resided in such jurisdictions at the timeof the school closings are eligible for the program.

Summary: Institutions of higher education; human trafficking awareness and prevention training required. Directs the governingboard of each public institution of higher education to develop andimplement policies requiring a trauma-informed human traffickingawareness and prevention training program be provided to and completedby all first-year students as a part of such institution's first-yearorientation program. The bill also directs the State Council of HigherEducation for Virginia to encourage private institutions of highereducation to develop and implement policies to provide such a human trafficking awareness and prevention training program as a part oftheir first-year orientation programs.

Summary: Department of Education; Virginia-based nonprofit organizations; schools for adults to earn credentials, college credit,and high school diplomas. Requires the Department of Educationto authorize a Virginia-based nonprofit organization as a local educationagency to provide schools for adults to earn (i) (a) an industry-recognizedcredential or (b) dual college credit and (ii) a high school diplomaon one or more diploma pathways set forth in the relevant Board ofEducation regulation in which enrollment is open, on a space-availablebasis, to adults who reside throughout the Commonwealth.

Summary: Nuclear Education Grant Fund and Program established.Establishes the Nuclear Education Grant Fund and Program, to be administeredby the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, for the purposeof awarding grants on a competitive basis to any public institutionof higher education or private institution of higher education inthe Commonwealth that seeks to establish or expand a nuclear educationprogram, defined in the bill as an instructional program that leadsto a degree or credential that specifically supports the nuclearpower industry, including nuclear engineering and nuclear welding.The bill permits the Council to establish such rules, policies, andprocedures as it deems necessary for the administration of the Program,including rules, policies, and procedures for Program applicationsand grant awards.

Summary: Local school boards and comprehensive communitycolleges; compensation structure for adjunct instructors; credit-bearingand noncredit workforce credentials. Encourages local schoolboards and comprehensive communities colleges to enter into localor regional agreements for the establishment and implementation ofa competitive compensation structure to recruit and retain adjunctinstructors to be jointly compensated by the relevant school boardsand colleges to prepare both high school students and college studentsto earn credit-bearing workforce credentials and noncredit workforcecredentials, as that term is defined in relevant law.

Summary: Public institutions of higher education andcertain other public educational institutions; certain immunizationrequirements prohibited. Prohibits any prospective or currentfull-time or part-time employee of a public institution of highereducation or any of its centers or other subdivisions; the VirginiaCommonwealth University Health System Authority; Eastern Virginia Medical School; or any authority, center, or institute specifiedby the bill that enrolls or otherwise provides instruction to studentsfrom being required, as a condition of initial or continued employment,to be immunized against COVID-19. The bill also prohibits any prospectiveor current full-time or part-time student at any such institution,authority, center, institute, or school from being required, as acondition of initial or continued enrollment, to be immunized against COVID-19.

Summary: Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program; eligibility. Makes several changes to the eligibilitycriteria for the Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents EducationProgram, including (i) shortening from five years to one year allof the relevant mandatory physical presence or domicile requirements,(ii) changing the requirement for veterans to be at least 90 percentpermanently disabled to qualify for program benefits to a requirementfor such veterans to have a static rating of at least 90 percentdisabled, and (iii) declaring eligible for program benefits the stepchildrenof eligible living veteran military service members.

Summary: Public institutions of higher education; tuitionand financial aid; dependency override application form. Requireseach public institution of higher education to create and maintaina form by which a student may apply for a dependency override, definedin the bill as the documented determination by a financial aid administratorpursuant to relevant federal law that, for the purposes of tuitionand financial aid eligibility determinations, a student is an independentstudent by reason of other unusual circumstances. The bill requires such form to (i) be published electronically on the financial aidpage of the institution's website; (ii) clearly explain, in languageunderstandable to a student enrolled at the institution, the purposesof a dependency override, potential circumstances that may qualifya student for a dependency override, and common circumstances thatdo not qualify a student for a dependency override; (iii) explicitlyinclude, in language understandable to a student enrolled at theinstitution, a statement that institutions of higher education arepermitted to accept a range of documents to substantiate dependency override applications, including those documents specified by relevantfederal law; and (iv) explicitly include, in language understandableto a student enrolled at the institution, the option to apply fora dependency override based on certain factors enumerated in thebill.

Summary: Certain institutions of higher education;noncredit workforce training program; student grants; reimbursement.Increases from $3,000 to $4,000 the maximum amount for whichthe State Council of Higher Education for Virginia shall reimbursean eligible institution of higher education per completed noncreditworkforce training program per eligible student pursuant to the NewEconomy Workforce Credential Grant Program. Current law providesthat the Council shall reimburse an eligible institution an amountequal to one-third of the cost of the noncredit workforce trainingprogram, not to exceed $3,000, per eligible student upon such eligiblestudent's completion of the program.

Summary: Comprehensive community colleges; educationpreparation programs. Permits comprehensive community collegesto offer four-year bachelor's degree programs in teacher education,subject to the requirements for accreditation and education preparationprogram approval prescribed by the Board of Education in its regulations.

Summary: Public school pupils and parents; access to certain postsecondary information. Prohibits any school board, public elementary or secondary school, including any joint or regional school, or employee or agent of such school board or school, including any division superintendent or school principal, from withholding from any pupil or the pupil's parent any information that is transmitted solely to such school board, school, employee, or agent and that (i) relates to any recognition, award, or postsecondary scholarship eligibility earned by the student, including any such recognition, award, or eligibility earned as the result of the student's achievement on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) examination, or (ii) may affect the student's admission to an institution of higher education. The bill requires all such information to be transmitted to the pupil and the pupil's parent as soon as practicable after receipt of the information.