Bill Text: VA HB1437 | 2017 | Regular Session | Chaptered
Bill Title: Public school students; sight and hearing testing, exceptions.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Passed) 2017-03-27 - Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0765) [HB1437 Detail]
Download: Virginia-2017-HB1437-Chaptered.html
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That §22.1-273 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:
§22.1-273. Sight and hearing of students to be tested; exceptions.
A. The Superintendent of Public Instruction shall
prepare or cause to be prepared, with the advice and approval of the State
Health Commissioner, suitable test cards, blanks, record books, and other
appliances for testing the sight and hearing of the pupils students
in the public schools and necessary instructions for the use thereof. The
State Department of Education shall furnish the same free of expense to all
schools in a school division upon request of the school board of such division
accompanied by a resolution of the school board directing the use of such test
cards, blanks, record books and other appliances in the schools of the school
division.
B. Within the time periods and at the grades provided
in regulations promulgated by the Board of Education, the principal of
each such school shall cause the sight and hearing of the relevant pupils
students in the school to be tested, unless such students are pupils:
1. Any such student is admitted for the first time to a
public kindergarten or elementary school who have and has been so
tested as part of the comprehensive physical examination required by §22.1-270
or the;
2. The parents or guardians of any such
students student object on religious grounds and the students
show student shows no obvious evidence of any defect or disease of
the eyes or ears; or
3. Any such student has an Individualized Education Program or a Section 504 Plan that documents a defect of vision or hearing or a disease of the eyes or ears and the principal determines that such a test would not identify any previously unknown defect of vision or hearing or a disease of the eyes or ears.
C. The principal shall keep a record of such
examinations conducted pursuant to subsection B in accordance with
instructions furnished.
D. Whenever a pupil student is found to
have any defect of vision or hearing or a disease of the eyes or ears, the
principal shall forthwith notify the parent or guardian, in writing, of such
defect or disease. Copies of the report shall be preserved for the use of the
Superintendent of Public Instruction as he may require.
