CHAPTER 590
An Act to amend and reenact §23.1-204.1 of the Code of Virginia, relating to the Virginia Longitudinal Data System; workforce data.
[S 637]
Approved March 30, 2018

 

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 23.1-204.1 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:

§23.1-204.1. Postgraduation employment rates.

A. The Council shall annually publish data on its website on the proportion of graduates of each public institution of higher education and each nonprofit private institution of higher education eligible to participate in the Tuition Assistance Grant Program (§23.1-628 et seq.) who are employed (i) 18 months after the date of graduation and (ii) five years after the date of graduation. The data shall include the program and the program level, as recognized by the Council, for each degree awarded by each institution; the percentage of graduates known to be employed in the Commonwealth; the average salary, hours worked, as available, occupation or occupation code, as available, and the average higher education-related debt for the graduates on which the data is based; rates of enrollment in remedial coursework for each institution; individual student credit accumulation for each institution; rates of postsecondary degree completion; and any other information that the Council determines is necessary to address adequate preparation for success in postsecondary education and, alignment between secondary and postsecondary education, and alignment between postsecondary education and workforce preparation. The Council shall disseminate to each public high school and each public institution of higher education and private institution of higher education for which the Council has student-level data a link on its website to the published data. The Council shall provide a notification template that each public high school may use to annually notify students and their parents about the availability of such data. The published data shall be consistent with the Government Data Collection and Dissemination Practices Act (§2.2-3800 et seq.) and the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. §1232g).

B. Each such institution of higher education shall provide a link to such published postsecondary education and employment data.

2. That the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, the Virginia Employment Commission, and the Virginia Department of Taxation shall cooperate with the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) to determine the feasibility of entering into data-collection and data-sharing agreements, consistent with state and federal law, that would allow SCHEV, through the Virginia Longitudinal Data System, to obtain data from such agencies to assist it in better analyzing the alignment of postsecondary education and workforce in the Commonwealth.