Proposed amendments to the Governor’s budget proposal must be submitted by 5 pm today.
There are more than 1000 bills being considered by the Virginia House of Delegates and nearly 600 by the Virginia Senate, plus hundreds of proposed resolutions in both chambers. We are tracking as many of the disability-related bills as we can, but we urge you to let us know if there is an important issue or proposal that you think we should know about. Contact us at info@dlcv.org or at 1-800-552-3962.
The disAbility Law Center of Virginia may educate policymakers about the impact of proposed legislation.
There are a number of bills being offered this year that may impact children with disabilities. Bills that relate to children’s residential facilities include:
HB 221 (Richard Bell) – requires that children in residential facilities must be immediately enrolled in education programs comparable to their residence school district.
SB 184 (McWaters) – allows a parent to institutionalize a child over the age of 14 even if the child objects. Current law requires the child’s consent or a judicial order if the child is over the age of 14.
Some of the education proposals include:
HB 134 (Cole) – establishes requirements for public schools to have trained aides available to administer insulin to children with diabetes.
HB 228 (Cole) – addresses the education of students with visually impairments with a presumption that such will receive Braille instruction.
There are several proposals concerning the Standards of Learning, also. Those bills will be considered by the House Committee on Education, which meets at 8:30 on Mondays and Wednesdays. The Senate Committee on Education and Health, subcommittee on public Education, may consider the SOL bills as early as January 13th (in the afternoon, after adjournment of the Senate)