Virginia House Bill 1954

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Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: Introduced on January 6 2025 - 25% progression
Action: 2025-01-13 - Assigned Approps sub: Elementary & Secondary Education
Pending: House Appropriations: Elementary & Secondary Education Committee
Text: Latest bill text (Introduced) [HTML]

Equity in public school funding and staffing; special education students; at-risk students; English language learner students; support services positions; report. Requires state-funded add-ons to be provided to support special education students that are calculated by multiplying weights set forth in the general appropriation act by the relevant basic aid per-pupil amount for each such student. The bill establishes the At-Risk Program for the purpose of supporting programs and services for students who are educationally at risk, including prevention, intervention, or remediation activities required pursuant to relevant law, teacher recruitment programs and initiatives, programs for English language learners, the hiring of additional school counselors and other support staff, and other programs relating to increasing the success of disadvantaged students in completing a high school degree and providing opportunities to encourage further education and training. The bill also contains provisions relating to certain funding requirements for the At-Risk Program. The bill requires support services positions to be funded based on a calculation of prevailing costs and prohibits support services positions from being subject to any method of funding calculation that caps the number of funded support services positions based on a ratio of such positions to students enrolled the local school division. The bill also requires the Department of Education to develop and implement a data collection process related to English language learner expenditures and student English proficiency levels and identify other options to support English language learners and provide a status report to the Joint Subcommittee on Elementary and Secondary Education Funding on its implementation and data collection efforts by September 1, 2025. Finally, the bill requires the Department of Education, in collaboration with the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services or any other relevant stakeholders with expertise in special education as the Department of Education deems appropriate, to develop a plan for revised special education staffing requirements that addresses the staffing needs of each special education program in each school division as determined by the specific educational and behavioral support needs of students who receive special education and aims to improve special education teacher recruitment and retention and to report its findings to the Joint Subcommittee on Elementary and Secondary Education Funding by November 1, 2025. The bill is a recommendation of the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission.

Public school funding and staffing; special education students; support services positions.

Del. Sam Rasoul [D]

Date	Chamber	Action
2025-01-13	House	Assigned Approps sub: Elementary & Secondary Education
2025-01-06	House	Referred to Committee on Appropriations
2025-01-06	House	Prefiled and ordered printed; Offered 01-13-2025 25104053D

Type	Source
Summary	https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20251/HB1954
Text	https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20251/HB1954/text/HB1954