Public Comments for 02/02/2022 Education - Early Childhood
HB217 - STEM and Computing (STEM+C); required to review federal occupational categories.
Please pass HB217. Moe can be done to encourage and educate students about opportunities in STEM-C fields and to make sure that educational opportunities in our schools are adequately supporting students pursuing these goals. Identifying the full range of employment opportunities in these areas and the education needed to succeed in them can only be a benefit. Please pass HB221. Please oppose HB344. The establishment of charter schools should remain with local school boards who are accountable to their constituents. Members of the State Board of Education are appointed and consequently are accountable only to those who appointed them. Also, this bill provides that there is no longer the opportunity to revisit the decisions of this State or local boards in granting or continuing such charter. The public should not lose a mechanism of redress already in place. Please oppose HB346. The establishment of charter schools should remain with local school boards who are accountable to their constituents. Extending the establishment of charter and lab schools to private institutions of higher ed and private businesses further removes the oversight of such schools to boards that have no accountability to the public that they serve. Please oppose HB356. The establishment of charter schools should remain with local school boards who are accountable to their constituents. Please oppose HB486. Governor's School admissions should not be constricted by an arbitrary quota of students from one district. Please oppose HB563. While assisting local districts in funding construction where school buildings are in disrepair is a desirable goal, the diversion of funds allocated for instruction should not be institutionalized as a regular mechanism to accomplish this. Please pass HB585. Standardized testing has become the tail that wags the dog in education. Increasing amounts of time are dedicated to teaching towards the test and administering tests to the detriment of education tailored to the needs of students and localities. Reducing such testing the minimum required for federal accountability would free time and resources to more fully meet the needs of students. Please oppose 789. Family life education should remain an opt out program instead of an opt in program. The latter puts an onerous burden on schools for the delivery of this important curriculum. Please oppose HB988. Transgender students deserve equal protection in schools across the Commonwealth. All school districts should maintain certain expectations in this regard. Please pass HB994 Please pass HB1005. This bill stipulates that teachers under continuing contract can resign within the school year but must do so providing 2 weeks of notice. Such a provision provides more time for local school districts to make arrangements for staffing adjustments. Please pass HB1023. Human trafficking is increasingly a problem in the Commonwealth and beyond. Our students should be alert to its threats and educated as to how to protect themselves from it. Please pass HB1026. With technology and the internet playing an increasing role in every aspect of our lives, expanding our understanding of this role and improving education surrounding it can only be a good thing. Please pass HB1299. Our students need as much information as possible about their opportunities after graduating from our public school system.
HB221 - STEM+C; included in Standards of Learning, Bd. of Education to incorporate certain provisions.
Please pass HB217. Moe can be done to encourage and educate students about opportunities in STEM-C fields and to make sure that educational opportunities in our schools are adequately supporting students pursuing these goals. Identifying the full range of employment opportunities in these areas and the education needed to succeed in them can only be a benefit. Please pass HB221. Please oppose HB344. The establishment of charter schools should remain with local school boards who are accountable to their constituents. Members of the State Board of Education are appointed and consequently are accountable only to those who appointed them. Also, this bill provides that there is no longer the opportunity to revisit the decisions of this State or local boards in granting or continuing such charter. The public should not lose a mechanism of redress already in place. Please oppose HB346. The establishment of charter schools should remain with local school boards who are accountable to their constituents. Extending the establishment of charter and lab schools to private institutions of higher ed and private businesses further removes the oversight of such schools to boards that have no accountability to the public that they serve. Please oppose HB356. The establishment of charter schools should remain with local school boards who are accountable to their constituents. Please oppose HB486. Governor's School admissions should not be constricted by an arbitrary quota of students from one district. Please oppose HB563. While assisting local districts in funding construction where school buildings are in disrepair is a desirable goal, the diversion of funds allocated for instruction should not be institutionalized as a regular mechanism to accomplish this. Please pass HB585. Standardized testing has become the tail that wags the dog in education. Increasing amounts of time are dedicated to teaching towards the test and administering tests to the detriment of education tailored to the needs of students and localities. Reducing such testing the minimum required for federal accountability would free time and resources to more fully meet the needs of students. Please oppose 789. Family life education should remain an opt out program instead of an opt in program. The latter puts an onerous burden on schools for the delivery of this important curriculum. Please oppose HB988. Transgender students deserve equal protection in schools across the Commonwealth. All school districts should maintain certain expectations in this regard. Please pass HB994 Please pass HB1005. This bill stipulates that teachers under continuing contract can resign within the school year but must do so providing 2 weeks of notice. Such a provision provides more time for local school districts to make arrangements for staffing adjustments. Please pass HB1023. Human trafficking is increasingly a problem in the Commonwealth and beyond. Our students should be alert to its threats and educated as to how to protect themselves from it. Please pass HB1026. With technology and the internet playing an increasing role in every aspect of our lives, expanding our understanding of this role and improving education surrounding it can only be a good thing. Please pass HB1299. Our students need as much information as possible about their opportunities after graduating from our public school system.
Please move to report HB344, HB346, HB356, HB789, HB1188, HB221, HB340, HB1125, HB1215, HB988, HB1023, HB1093. Please gently PBI HB486 so that academic merits ONLY decide who gets in.
Please move to report HB221, 340, 533, 873, 1032, 1100, 1125, 1347. Thank you.
As a computer programmer who graduated from a liberal arts college, at least in the younger grades it is not STEAM/STEM/computing that we need. Instead we need systematic instruction in history from the earliest primary grades (instead of the scattershot version we have now that goes over basically holidays only for kindergarten through second grade). We need structured literacy in the primary grades and beautiful literary in the upper elementary grades and beyond. We need the liberal arts as our guiding framework, not STEAM, industry, and computing. Even for students who will go on to applied careers and the trades, we need cultural literacy to be a coherent people. And even for students who will go on to computing, it's formal logic that gives the understanding needed for discrete math and boolean logic later. Rather than striking out widely after buzzwords, it's a classical liberal arts education that would best suit the Commonwealth's kids. Don't just take my word for it - please read the attached op-ed on the importance of liberal arts even in STEM fields.
HB223 - Insurance; locality may provide for employees of certain public school foundations.
Thank you for reviewing House Bill NO. 223, which would allow for health benefits for employees of the Chesterfield Education Foundation. Chesterfield Education Foundation (CEF) is a nonprofit organization that supports Chesterfield County Public Schools through various initiatives and programs. For more than 30 years, CEF has provided funding for innovative classroom grants, literacy growth and retention, teacher support, scholarships, equity initiatives, and much more. Providing health benefits to our current employees would allow the foundation to be a supportive partner in their health care. It would also allow us to attract and retain future employees. By supporting this bill, you’re helping our employees who desire to take care of themselves while working tirelessly on behalf of the students and families of Chesterfield County.
HB251 - School boards and local governing bodies; unexpended local funds, etc.
During the 2017-18 School Year, Huntington Middle School, a historic former high school for African Americans during segregation, was closed to the cost needed to repair many aging systems in the facility. This once proud educational institution with years of alumni in our community, closed without ceremony due to infestation, mold, and roof leaks. I am speaking today in support of this legislation because it will enable school divisions like Newport News Public Schools, who are not receiving even half of the requested capital dollars needed to manage infrastructure needs, to adequately meet current needs and more importantly plan for future capital renovations and new construction. Newport News currently receives on average, in a good year, approximately $10-12 million for the capital maintenance of the existing 40+ schools and offices. These dollars are quickly depleted as the school divisions manages projects such as roof replacements, HVAC Replacements, Plumbing, Paving and other school infrastructure projects. I can say with clarity that providing school boards the authority to plan and raise revenue for future construction needs as well as the ability to use unspent EOY Operating Revenue for future construction will lower the burden on local governments and allow them to work in a more productive way to manage larger projects. In closing, I would like to say that even larger urban areas such as Newport News are dealing with this problem. This is not a rural issue. I thank you for your consideration and want to assure you that this would be impactful for schools divisions for many years to come.
I support HB-251. Often our localities (Chesterfield) allows far too much high-density growth than the school division can handle. Funding responsibly set aside for future growth in school maintenance and infrastructure is paramount to quality education, and frankly, ALL of Virginia needs this bill to balance growth and educational infrastructure.
HB340 - High school graduation; multiple pathways to advanced studies diploma, associated diploma seals.
Dear Delegates, Regarding HB 340, it is important for all Virginian high school students to have the opportunity to study world languages as part of an advanced diploma. As a teacher in a Cambridge International School with a World Language Program, every day I see the benefits of students learning other languages. It helps students build their critical thinking, language development, and interpersonal skills. HB 340 makes students choose between studying world languages or CTE. The reality is that being multilingual is a skill that benefits everyone. CTE students, as well as all other students, need the 21st Century cross-cultural and language skills that come from learning other languages in addition to English. Students should not have to choose either one or the other, they should be able to study both as part of an advanced diploma. Sincerely, Rebecca Timothy Bristow, VA
As a longtime World Language educator, I would like to express my opposition to this bill. I strongly believe that our students need the multicultural experience and view that is acquired when they take classes in WL. I have had so many students tell me how thankful they were to have these classes and how it made their entry into the workforce with added advantages. Another negative of this bill is that it pits the 2 departments of CTE and WL as opposed to each other, rather than 2 programs that can, do, and should work together to provide the 21st Century skills needed for our students.
I oppose HB340. I do not agree that language arts should be interchangeable with Career and Tech education for an advanced diploma. Virginia is number 4 in education because we do require exposure to foreign languages. Let's lift Virginia's students up and continue to be one of the most educated states in the United States. Let's focus on equitable funding, teacher retention and agin buildings.
Please move to report HB344, HB346, HB356, HB789, HB1188, HB221, HB340, HB1125, HB1215, HB988, HB1023, HB1093. Please gently PBI HB486 so that academic merits ONLY decide who gets in.
Please do not support the changing of the advanced diploma and graduation requirements to not include world languages. In a global world and work force, students need to develop the soft skills of working and learning with others of a diverse background. This includes learning and collaborating with people of different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, communicating and working towards proficiency. Languages cannot be replaced or compared with CTE courses.
The Foreign Language Association of Virginia opposes HB 340, not because we oppose the creation of alternate curricular paths for students but because the current requirements of the advanced diploma allow for different pathways, including advanced work in Career and Technical Education. Since HB 340 was proposed, numerous parents and teachers have sent examples of students who successfully graduated with an advanced diploma while pursuing CTE courses. One parent wrote, "If a child knows the requirements and what they want to do, they can plan well and get both CTE credits/certifications and the advanced diploma as it stands currently.” That argues for better information and guidance rather than changes in the advanced diploma. In the 21st century, in a Virginia deeply embedded in the global economy in fields ranging from agriculture to national security, all Virginians need the interpersonal and cross-cultural communication skills gained in world language learning. When 2100 U.S. Human Resources departments were surveyed, 93% of the respondents said they value employees able to work effectively across a range of different countries and cultures, 66% identified foreign language skills as part of the hiring process, and 41% reported a hiring preference for multilingual applicants. Virginia needs career-ready global citizens. HB 340 sets up an unnecessary opposition between career and technical education and world languages, which is unacceptable in the modern workplace. The two disciplines must work together to prepare all Virginians for work in this century's economy. World languages and career and technical education are both needed and are not in opposition to each other. The attached infographic illustrates how world language learners develop the skills identified in the Employability Skills Framework for Career and Technical Education. The new Secretary of Education has spoken about the need for an education system that prepares "all Virginians for life, career, and college." Governor Youngkin talks about "restoring high expectations for excellence" in education. Removing components from the advanced studies diploma contracts these goals and lowers expectations for Virginians in high school.
Protest against HB 340
On behalf of the Foreign Language Association of Virginia (FLAVA), I am writing to express our overwhelming opposition to HB340. This bill seeks to “[e]stablish a pathway to the advanced studies high school diploma, and an associated diploma seal for students who successfully follow and demonstrate excellence on such pathway, that requires advanced coursework in a career and technical education field but does not require coursework in world language.” While the intent of this bill is to elevate the prestige of career and technical education, Virginia's students need both career readiness and global readiness skills to succeed after high school. It is imperative that we not diminish the important role of world languages in our students' development. If anything, we need more world language study for both advanced and standard diploma students coupled with career and technical courses. HB340 in its current status, requires one curriculum to rival another. But as the world becomes increasingly interconnected, we should continue to encourage the study of world languages in support of Virginia’s profile of a graduate and as a work readiness skill. In addition to eliminating an opportunity for students to develop soft skills that are important to ensuring our students are equipped to be successful in the workforce, HB340 would do students a second grave disservice. Most four-year universities in Virginia require 2-3 years of world language studies to apply for admission. Top-tier schools across the nation require 3-4 years of world language studies for admission. Language study is valued because it develops both global competency and literacy and contributes to soft skills that successful businesses seek in their employees. Not only would this bill prevent many of our students from gaining admission to the four-year universities of their choice, but it would hamper their economic futures. Currently there is a critical need for speakers of world languages in Virginia. A quick search of indeed.com reveals that there are over 6400 open positions for proficient world language speakers of American Sign Language, French, German, and Spanish, which are taught throughout Virginia's public schools. As President of FLAVA, I join my voice with the administrators and employers who understand the economic value and the cognitive benefits of world language study and in opposition to HB340 in its original and revised forms. I hope that you consider our reasoned opposition as you discuss the bill. Let’s set our students up for success in a globally competitive economy by ensuring they possess the linguistic skills and global competence to succeed.
Thank you for taking the time to hear my thoughts on HB340. As everyone knows, with the invention of the Internet and advancements of technology, the world is becoming "smaller", but what many may not know is that about 75% of the world's population does not speak English. Why is this fact important? It shows the importance of being proficient in a World Language. So why should we not have separate pathways for World Language and CTE? Any educator in either of these content areas will tell you that both content work together to make sure our students are work or world- ready. Ensuring that Virginian students need to be work or world-ready has been part of most school districts 5C's for the past few years. In fact the American Council for Teacher of Foreign Languages has an article that is dedicated to how acquiring a World Language helps students to be World-ready. In one article published by ACTFL "Making Languages our Buisness" (2019) states "(there is) a high and growing demand for language skills in the workplace with 9 put of 10 employers surveyed citing a reliance on bilingual employees and 1 in 3 reporting a Language skill gap." There are about 79 career pathways identified in the 16 major career clusters where being proficient in a World Language gives the applicant an advantage. 56% of employers have stated their need for bilingual speakers will increase in the next 5 years, and this was stated in 2019. My eldest daughter currently works for Hamilton Beach in Richmond as a Bilingual consultant. She was given this employment because of her proficiency in French which she gained by attending and graduating amaury High School in Norfolk. Part of the skills employers look for is intercultural and global competence. These skills are achieved in a World Language course. This does not just apply to students who plan to attend college/University, but to all students. In Virginia alone, there are over 800 internationally owned companies. These companies prefer that a potential employee be proficient in a World Language so they do not have to pay to send the employee through Language classes. Virginia ranks 12th in employment from Europe in the U.S. according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Now, imagine if more of our students were hired due to not only the skills they acquire in CTE, but their ability to converse and interact in a World Language. Currently 14,500 Virginia's are hired by companies like Airbus, Andros, and Thales, to name a few French companies. Final thought, by creating separate pathways and separating CTE and World Languages, you are essentially putting one content area against the other. The Math department does not try to outshine the Social Studies department because they both know they are essential in creating a well-educated member of society. World Languages and CTE have worked together to do the same; creating a student who is not only well-educated but also globally competent and ready plus have a cultural understanding and awareness to be empathetic to various situations. These students need to be creative and critical thinkers, problem-solvers and innovators. This is accomplished through the skills they acquire in World Languages and CTE. Last consideration, several states have World Languages as a cor subject and not elective, look how far there students go. World Languages is no longer for traveling abroad, not when it is heard locally. Thank you for your time.
I ask that the House vote against HB-340. As a professional educator and teacher of World Languages, I feel that this bill is undercutting the importance of the study of world languages and it's role in creating well-rounded citizens of the Commonwealth. The creation of two different advanced diplomas, one with world languages included and one without world languages included sets up an opposition between CTE and the interpersonal, cross-cultural skills all Virginians need in the 21st century. In a global economy, all of our citizens need to have a perspective and understanding of other cultures, which can be gained as students in a world language classroom. Students should be asked to engage in both CTE and language study as part of the advanced high school diploma requirements.
Dear Members of the Education Committees, I ask that you not delete world languages from high school graduation requirements. There is value to language study. See below and in the attached document. Please follow the links to gain more information in those categories of relevance and where information is grounded in research. Please do not shortchange our students. Respectfully, Dick Kuettner Benefits of studying another language - 1. Improves memory – the more you learn new skills, the better your brain functions work. Learning a new language forces you to learn new vocabulary and grammar rules. This trains you brain to remember new words, make connections between them, and use them in contextual situations 2. Enhances multitasking ability – having the ability to think and communicate in different languages helps train multitasking. 3. Improves Attention 4. Improves performance in other academic areas – while learning a language you engage in extracurricular activities in that language, such as communicating with other peers. 5. Develop empathy and compassion – while learning a new language, you are also learning about a new culture. This can lead to thinking in different perspectives and develop understanding for those in that culture. 6. Reduced risk for dementia and Alzheimer’s – the brain creates more neural pathways while learning, keeping it strong a. In a study of more than 200 bilingual and monolingual patients with Alzheimer’s disease, bilingual patients reported showing initial symptoms of the disease at about 77.7 years of age—5.1 years later than the monolingual average of 72.6. Likewise, bilingual patients were diagnosed 4.3 years later than the monolingual patients (80.8 years of age and 76.5 years of age, respectively). 7. Can help math and science - When you learn a language you become used to sorting and processing new information in your target language. Also, there is a correlation between learning a new language and the ability to develop scientific hypotheses. 8.Increased creativity- forces you to think creatively to get you point across, especially if you have a limited vocabulary. 9. Landing jobs – roughly 23% of Americans are bilingual, giving those who are a bilingual a chance to stand out. 10. Improve confidence – the more languages you can speak the more confident you are to put yourself out there. Plus can put you in situations that you never thought you would be in. 11. According to the NIH, millions of Americans use a language other than English in their everyday lives outside of the home, when they are at work or in the classroom. 12. Bilingual people perform better on inhibitory control tests, conflict management, task switching 13. Higher proficiency in a second language, as well as earlier acquisition of that language, correlates with higher gray matter volume in the left inferior parietal cortex 14. Bilingualism positively influences attention and conflict management in infants as young as seven months. a. Navigating a multilingual environment imparts advantages that transfer beyond language. Another useful Link: https://www.actfl.org/center-assessment-research-and-development/what-the-research-shows/cognitive-benefits-students ^ACTFL citations, with papers cited https://www.ostaz.com/english/blog/eu-blogs/benefits-of-learning-a-new-language
We have alternative pathways for learning and provisions like 8VA20C-131-110, allowing students to replace the 140 hours seat time for high school credit by taking, and passing state approved assessments. This bill clearly targets the study of World Languages, and is contrary to the recommendations from the US Department of Education, and business organizations. We have data showing that Virginia is experiencing a foreign language skills gap, and that the study of World Languages and Cultures is aligned with the Virginia Profile of a Graduate. The demand for multilingual employees will double in the next five years. 9 out of 10 employers, who took part of a study conducted by the American Council of Teachers for Foreign Languages "Make Languages our Business" (2017) stated that they need bilingual employees. All career clusters have a demonstrated demand for bilingual employees to meet local and global demands. Instead of eliminating the requirement, we ought to expand the offering of foreign language learning. Employees with language skills have higher incomes in comparison to monolingual employees. This bill will be a disservice to the students of our Commonwealth, who not only need to engage in language learning, but also will need 21st Century soft skills, like intercultural competence, creative problem solving, communication, collaboration, and critical thinking. Learning a language develops and strengthens analytical skills, and gives students different insights and perspectives. Having a 21st century, career ready workforce, and a school system that values global competence and world language studies, will attract future investors to consider Virginia, instead of Atlanta or the NC research triangle. This bill is by no means innovative. Quite the contrary! It moves the needle back and forces students on predetermined tracks or learning silos without regard for data and evidence that we need to lead with languages. We strongly oppose this bill.
Dear Delegates. I ask that you please reconsider HB340, in its revised and previous form, before you take action and move this forward. I ask so for the following reasons: 1. The Bill singles out one discipline in favor of others. 2. Language is the root of communication and is a significant part of our being. 3. Society cannot function without language. 4. Virginia is one state where many languages are spoken because of the diverse communities we have established throughout our history. 5. Not all cultures around the world rely on English language as the main language of communication...no, not even here at home. 6. Language and culture study enhances knowledge of various countries, time-periods, perspectives, and ways of life. 7. Language and culture study improves analytical, critical thinking, and communication skills. 8. If our legislators want us to be more inclusive, more diverse, and more global, how do we do it without world languages to accomplish these goals? 9. If language study is, as I foresee your ambitions, cancelled, you will be shortchanging many Virginia high school students who will not even be able to apply for admission to some of the Commonwealth’s better colleges and universities, which require language for entry. 10. I can vouch first-hand the statistics that state that employers seek potential employees who are beyond being monolingual. Language study and/or fluency is often a deciding point between two good candidates. Paul R. Kuettner
I support HB 340.
Providing this type of support and flexibility to educators and students is one of the things we repeatedly hear is needed. Students need to be able to learn and develop in the skills in which they are interested. There are many examples of students who excel outside of the traditional classroom in a career and technical education environment. CTE schools in Chesapeake, Virginia Beach, and on the Peninsula have success stories of students who were not doing well in a traditional classroom environment, but thrived when taking a hands on class about aerospace engineering, nursing, or technology, to name a few. This bill supports the approach of recognizing students strengths and supporting their career interests, and it is a step forward in putting the student first and the Hampton Roads Chamber supports the bill.
On behalf of the Virginia Organization of World Language Supervisors (VOWLS), I am writing to express our overwhelming opposition to HB340. This bill seeks to “[e]stablish a pathway to the advanced studies high school diploma, and an associated diploma seal for students who successfully follow and demonstrate excellence on such pathway, that requires advanced coursework in a career and technical education field but does not require coursework in world language.” While the intent of this bill is to elevate the prestige of career and technical education, Virginia's students need both career readiness and global readiness skills to succeed after high school. It is imperative that we not diminish the important role of world languages in our students' development. If anything, we need more world language study for both advanced and standard diploma students coupled with career and technical courses. HB340 in its current status, requires one curriculum to rival another. But as the world becomes increasingly interconnected, we should continue to encourage the study of world languages in support of Virginia’s profile of a graduate and as a work readiness skill. In 2017, after years of data collection and evaluation of employees, Google found among the most important qualities of their top employees were all soft skills. These skills include, but are not limited to: communicating and listening well, possessing insights in others (including others’ different values and points of view), having empathy toward and being supportive of colleagues, and being able to make connections across complex ideas. Google goes on to report that good team members demonstrate generosity, empathy, emotional intelligence, emotional safety (meaning each team member can feel confident in speaking up and in making mistakes), and can exhibit a curiosity toward the ideas of their teammates. Each of these soft skills are practiced and are an integral part of the world language curriculum, classroom, and community, so much so they have been identified by ACTFL in their World Readiness Standards for Learning Languages. In 2022, The Center for Global Education Asia Society pondered in their article “Global Competence Through Career and Technical Education” how to ensure students are prepared with skills to connect, to compete, and to collaborate in a global economy. And as the world becomes more interconnected with 1 in 5 jobs tied to international trade, how do we prepare students for work and civic roles in an environment where success increasingly requires the ability to work with others from diverse backgrounds in a global market? The Association for Career and Technical Education concluded that critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, along with creativity and innovation were imperative for work readiness standards. It takes only a glance at Virginia’s Standards of Learning for World Languages to conclude that world language courses are instrumental in supporting students in these areas. In addition to eliminating an opportunity for students to develop soft skills that are important to ensuring our students are equipped to be successful in the workforce, Most four-year universities in Virginia require 2-3 years of world language for admission. Language study is valued because it develops both global competency and literacy and contributes to soft skills that successful businesses seek in their employees. Oppose HB 340.
I am against the passage of VA HB 340 and ask that you oppose this legislation as well. VA HB 340 is misguided legislation and bad policy for the future of our students and workforce. We can do better in educating our students for employability and success in their future. This is an insidious effort to dilute and divest the learning and study of world languages. You should be supporting and advocating for more study and learning of world languages ---not less for all graduation pathways. Eliminating world language study to further the attainment of an advanced diploma does nothing to further Virginia’s prestige as a preeminent leader in education. What is the purpose of an advanced diploma; what is the intended outcome? In all facets, HB 340 misses the mark! Why not cut or eliminate other disciplines of knowledge and learning? Most of us don’t use much math, science, biology, music, or history these days. Why would the future workforce need to know the Pythagoras theory? Why would they need to know about the massacres in Bosnia, much less where is Bosnia? Why would they need to know the difference between meiosis and mitosis? Why would they need to know about covalent bonding? Why would they need to know about the law of gravity? Why would they need to know about the great works of literature and art? The answer is they need to know about all of these; they need to care about them and understand them. I submit that CTE graduates will find themselves in a very diverse, if not the most diverse work environment than almost any other career field. Likely more diverse in all sense of diversity: ethnic, racial, cultural and cognitive than this august chamber. Studies and research indicate that employers across the spectrum want employees with language and intercultural skills –soft skills. The construction sector, healthcare and social assistance/services sector report the highest foreign language skills gap. 39% of employers in the construction sector and nearly 30% in the professional and technical services sector are most likely to be unable to pursue or have lost business in the past three years due to a lack of world language skills in their employee. This is the CTE space! World language study involves perspective taking and sense making; it develops interpersonal skills, intercultural awareness, and empathy. It provides an expanded Weltanschauung to better understand the other –any other! Expanded critical thinking and cognitive clarity are unquestionable outcomes from world language study. Our student’s world is an ever increasingly diverse and complex place and they need the cognitive and critical thinking skills that learning world language and these other disciplines gives them: a well-rounded education.
Please move to report HB221, 340, 533, 873, 1032, 1100, 1125, 1347. Thank you.
Dear Delegates: The following written feedback relates to HB 340. In the attached letter, you will find my thoughts on the bill, but please find here a summary of the letter itself. In regards to the declaration, “The Board of Education shall establish pathways to the advanced studies high school diploma, and associated diploma seals for students who successfully follow and demonstrate excellence on such pathways, that require advanced coursework in a career and technical education field such as advanced manufacturing or robotics in lieu of world language courses or any other required course that the Board deems appropriate," it is important to keep in mind that career and technical education is not in opposition to the study or exploration of world languages and cultures; the two disciplines can and should work together to prepare career-ready global citizens. If one of our primary goals as a state—and as educators—is to produce highly skilled, well-rounded, and culturally sensitive individuals who will eventually become strong job candidates (technical or otherwise) who can compete with those of other states or nationalities, this bill must not pass as it is in its current state. As expressed by ACTFL (the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages), learning a second or third language (other than English) in the 21st century is not only beneficial, but necessary for success in life. If we want our students and citizens of the Commonwealth to become integrated in the local and world community and thus able to function in the modern global marketplace, learning another language is an essential component of any education. Language learning has been associated with enhanced problem solving skills, improved verbal and spatial abilities, improved memory function, enhanced creative and flexible thinking capacity, not to mention enhanced tolerance of individuals and groups from other cultures. Thank you for your time and consideration of this feedback. Sincerely, Antonia Delgado-Poust, Ph.D. Fredericksburg, Virginia
HB 340 is currently before the House Education Committee. I’m commenting as a Virginia voter, a parent, and an educator to ask that you oppose this bill, which clearly aims to eliminate world language courses from the advanced studies diploma. I certainly understand the need to differentiate educational paths for Virginia students based on their talents, interests, and goals. Outlining various curricular paths for students who aspire to the advanced studies high school diploma can serve this goal. However, the original wording of HB 340 unnecessarily prejudges the curriculum that might be established by these new pathways and unfairly targets the world language courses that teach skills--communication and cross-cultural awareness--essential to all Virginians, no matter their career orientation. When representatives of the Foreign Language Association of Virginia expressed our concerns to Delegate Davis, he was kind enough to meet with us and gave us his draft of a substitute HB 340. Unfortunately, this bill sets up a direct opposition between world languages and career and technical education by creating an advanced diploma with no world language requirement and another with no career and technical education requirement. This is unacceptable. All Virginians will pursue careers in a multilingual, multicultural society within the global economy. Career and technical education is not in opposition to world languages; the two disciplines can work together to prepare career-ready global citizens. Finally, HB 340 is unnecessary. Since this bill was proposed, parents and teachers have sent numerous examples of students who successfully met the advanced diploma requirements while pursuing career training in CTE programs. One parent wrote “If a child knows the requirements and what they want to do, they can plan well and get both CTE credits/certifications and the advanced diploma as it stands currently.” That argues for better information and guidance rather than changes in the advanced diploma. Governor Youngkin has talked extensively about "reestablishing expectations of excellence" in public education. Lowering the standards for the advanced diploma by taking away any components of the advanced diploma directly contradicts his goal. For all these reasons I ask that you oppose HB 340. Thank you. Sincerely, Sharon Guinn Scinicariello, Ph.D. University of Richmond (retired) Advocacy Chair, Foreign Language Association of Virginia
The study and acquisition of a World Language is vital to the youth of Virginia. Not only does becoming proficient in a language other than English make a person more marketable in the work place but for our students who decide to attend a University, it makes the student more competitive for admittance. The study of 3 or more years shows the student is dedicate, resilent and prepared for a challenge. These students can think critically and creatively, have an understandinh and empathy of various cultures, not to mention have the ability to deliver their message with clarity and detail. All areas and soft skills desired in the work place. Let's look beyond the multitude of skills taught in a World Language class. There are multitude of published and peer reviewed studies in the area of brain health that show a correlation between the study and continued use of a World Language and the delaied on-set of dementia and Alzeheimer's. We tend to say that our students recieve top education in the state of Virginia, but you are now considering taking away the ability for all of the Virginian students to be Globally competitive in a state that has thousands of international and multinational companies who hire bilingual and multilingual Virginians. Therr is also the military installations which welcome fellow military personnel from our allied countrirs and NATO families typically live in Norfolk/Virginia Beach during their station time here in Virginia. My eldest daughter is a graduate of Maury High School in Norfolk. She was fortunate to study French from Monsieur and Madame Bouziane while she was there. She took French her whole high school career. When she began to study to become a teacher at Virginia Wesleyan University, she was able to place in an advance French class and had her minor of French completed by the end of her Fall semester of her Sophomore year. Today, she works for Hamilton Beach in Richmond as a French-speaking consultant and handles calls from all Francophone countries, mostly Canada and France. There are several states where the study of a World Language is a core subject, such as Massachusetts and Louisiana. We want our students to take the world by storm and use every tool they have been taught to make positive changes to the world and community around them. How can they do this when they cannot communicate with 75% of the world? That's right 75% of the world do not speak English or cannot speak English proficiently enough to have a basic conversation. The U.S. is only 4% of the World's population and we need our students to represent that 4% in a matter that will bring effective change in their future. Some may say that there are translation apps and sites that can be used. That's true but those tools do not know the difference of some of the finer nuances in various languages nor understand slang nor idioms of the languge they are trying to communicate in. Besides having to rely on such tools take away from the flow of a conversation as you build a relationship. Our students, all students, need a World Language so they can be challenged, learn to persevere, and interact with a World that is becoming smaller every single day.
I oppose HB 340 with the creation of an advanced diploma without the world language requiremen. World languages are a crucial component to the advanced studies diploma. Language learning reflects the 21st century skills of communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity. Students who study world languages also learn invaluable soft skills, such as interpersonal communication which involves listening and adjusting what you say accordingly ; possessing and understanding different points of view; empathy; critical thinking; and making connections across complex ideas. Recently Google announced that “The seven top characteristics of success at Google are all soft skills: being a good coach; communicating and listening well; possessing insights into others (including others different values and points of view); having empathy toward and being supportive of one’s colleagues; being a good critical thinker and problem solver; and being able to make connections across complex ideas.” (Washington Post). If one of the world’s top tech companies is placing more emphasis on the soft skills, does this not indicate the importance of language learning and the skills that world language educators are instilling in their students on a daily basis? It is not only Google that sees the importance of these soft skills fostered in the language classroom. According to NACE’s Job Outlook 2016 survey, important hirable attributes include “written communication skills, problem-solving skills, verbal communication skills, and a strong work ethic”. By placing a focus on soft skills, as well as 21st century skills, we are preparing language students to be ready for the competitive global society in which we live. In addition to marketability, learning a language has a multitude of other benefits for students. In order for students to be successful in the global society, they need to develop a sense of interculturality. In the language classroom, students learn to understand and appreciate other cultures and how those cultures relate to their own. Students’ perceptions of the world change and they become more understanding of others. Language truly is a product of a culture, and the knowledge that comes with learning different ways of seeing the world is something that we need more of in today's society. HB 340’s current wording unnecessarily prejudges the curriculum that might be established by the new pathways, unfairly targeting courses that teach skills--communication and cross-cultural awareness--of use to all Virginians, no matter their career orientation. All Virginians live in a multilingual and multicultural society within a global economy. Virginia graduates are expected to “build connections and value for interaction with diverse communities,” one goal of world languages courses. Moreover, all world languages courses teach students interpersonal and communication skills, essential in any workplace. Because they teach such necessary skills, I oppose any advanced studies high school diploma that does not contain world language components.
I am writing to oppose the inclusion of language singling out World Language programs in HB340 and weakening the requirement for world language study in the advanced diploma coursework. The publication _France-Amerique_ reported in 2018 that every US state has a French business operating in it and that in 2017 France was "the third biggest foreign employer" in the US. The same report from the embassy of France in Washington, DC, as commented on by _France-Amerique_, states that 16,500 jobs in Virginia exist because of the presence of French companies. It is crucial to maintain robust language programs in the state of Virginia so that our state can, with the same ease shown by French companies, continue to do business abroad ourselves and create strong links with international business. By grade 8, as far back as the 1980s, students in France were already learning two world languages, with the addition of Latin or Greek as a third language for those aiming for advanced studies. Many of our local middle schools do not offer any world language until grade 8, and then only offer one world language option. It is through universal world language study that France has been in the position to have at least one business in each of our states. All students can learn another language. Best practices in world language instruction are rapidly changing to emphasize proficiency in communicating in the language and to promote the use of authentic language resources. All students should be learning languages long before high school. It is time to strengthen rather than weaken our state's world language education. https://france-amerique.com/en/a-french-company-in-every-u-s-state/ The 2020 report https://frenchtreasuryintheus.org/la-relation-bilaterale/
Please do not support HB340. Proficiency in World Language(s) is a career skill and essential for adults to live, work and thrive in a diverse world. Languages offer a competitive advantage not only within the job market but with many colleges and universities around the planet. World Languages offer more than simply grammar or words, they offer the development of soft skills in being productive global citizens including culture, problem solving, collaboration and organization. All are valuable, but World Languages cannot be replaced by CTE or IT or coding courses for the high school credit requirement or advanced diploma in that they are completely different skill sets.
Dear Committee Members: I am writing to request that the term "in lieu of world language courses" be removed from HB340. It is essential for young people entering the workforce to have the skill of bilingualism . The effectiveness of private businesses and government agencies are minimized by an inability to make international connections. Additionally, world languages uniquely express customs, traditions, values, and history that are not able to be replicated through alternative means. Students should be encouraged to gain proficiency in another language in order to support their cognitive development and communication skills, making them more well-rounded individuals. Virginia must make this a priority for our students - not an alternative.
I am opposed to eliminating foreign languages as a requirement for advanced studies high school degrees. Foreign languages provide invaluable tools to understand the development of words and thus strengthens vocabulary. Also studying foreign languages makes one appreciates one's own language rules, as well as the culture of other countries. Let us keep this useful discipline in our schools.
Students now more than ever need world languages to compete in the global market place. If they do not have access to this important skill in high school it will be detrimental to them obtaining jobs that require languages in the future. Removing world languages from the advanced diploma will hurt all world language departments all over the state. Students in high school need exposure to world languages and if it is no longer a requirement for at least one diploma, they will be less inclined to enroll. This decision has long term impacts for their economic growth in the future.
Yes to HB - 340 - (An amendment could include students with disabilities to allow them to focus on their natural strengths and not force them to take courses they would likely fail, so, differentiated special education instruction...) I support HB 340 in the interest of differentiated instruction in order for students to focus on their career goals. Each students' pathway is different, and flexibility in focusing on what they and their parents choose for them is paramount to post secondary education success in their lives and in our communities.
HB 340 is currently before the House Education Committee. I’m writing as a Virginia voter, a parent, and an educator to ask that you oppose the wording of this bill, which clearly targets world language courses: “The Board of Education shall establish pathways to the advanced studies high school diploma, and associated diploma seals for students who successfully follow and demonstrate excellence on such pathways, that require advanced coursework in a career and technical education field such as advanced manufacturing or robotics in lieu of world language courses or any other required course that the Board deems appropriate.” I certainly understand the need to differentiate educational paths for Virginia students based on their talents, interests, and goals. Outlining various curricular paths for students who aspire to the advanced studies high school diploma can serve this goal. However, the wording of HB 340 unnecessarily prejudges the curriculum that might be established by these new pathways and unfairly targets courses that teach skills--communication and cross-cultural awareness--essential to all Virginians, no matter their career orientation. All Virginians live in a multilingual and multicultural society within a global economy. When 2100 U.S. Human Resources departments were surveyed, 93% of the respondents said they value employees able to work effectively across a range of different countries and cultures, 66% identified foreign language skills as part of the hiring process, and 41% reported a hiring preference for multilingual applicants. Career and technical education is not in opposition to world languages; the two disciplines can work together to prepare career-ready global citizens. Therefore, I ask that you vote to amend the wording of HB 340 to read ““The Board of Education shall establish pathways to the advanced studies high school diploma, and associated diploma seals for students who successfully follow and demonstrate excellence on such pathways, that require advanced coursework in a career and technical education field such as advanced manufacturing, robotics, or other courses that the Board deems appropriate.” Thank you. Sincerely, Sharon Scinicariello, Ph.D. University of Richmond (retired)
Dear Delegates. I ask that you please reconsider HB340 before you take action and move this forward. I ask so for the following reasons: 1. The Bill singles out one discipline in favor of others. 2. Language is the root of communication and is a significant part of our being. 3. Society cannot function without language. 4. Virginia is one state where many languages are spoken because of the diverse communities we have established throughout our history. 5. Not all cultures around the world rely on English language as the main language of communication...no, not even here at home. 6. Research shows that language and culture study enhances knowledge of various countries, time-periods, perspectives, and ways of life. 7. Research shows that language and culture study improves analytical, critical thinking, and communication skills. 8. If our legislators want us to be more inclusive, more diverse, and more global, how do we do it without world languages to accomplish these goals? 9. If language study is, as I foresee your ambition, cancelled, you will be shortchanging many Virginia high school students who will not even be able to apply for admission to some of the Commonwealth’s better colleges and universities, which require language for entry. What a disservice! 10. I can vouch first-hand statistics that show that employers seek potential employees who are beyond being monolingual. Language study and/or fluency is often a deciding point when two equally good candidates compete. Thank you for taking these items into consideration. Sincerely, Dr. Paul R. (Dick) Kuettner
As the 2019 ACTFL Language Teacher of the Year finalist, FLAVA (Foreign Language Association of Virginia) President, a world language educator in Loudoun County, and a Virginia resident, I am horrified by House Bill 340 which would “establish pathways to the advanced studies high school diploma, and associated diploma seals for students who successfully follow and demonstrate excellence on such pathways, that require advanced coursework in a career and technical education field such as advanced manufacturing or robotics in lieu of world language courses or any other required course that the Board deems appropriate”. Career and technical education (CTE) classes cannot replace World Language classes. By doing so, you and your fellow legislators are doing a disservice to ALL students in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Furthermore, by allowing the substitution of CTE classes for World Language classes, you would create a system that is not in alignment with the newly approved Virginia Profile of a Graduate. House Bill 340 undermines the career and college readiness of students in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Most colleges and universities in Virginia require several years of world language study and do not allow CTE classes to replace World Language requirements. All students and therefore all college and career pathways (including computer science) need world language instruction to be successful in the job market of the 21st century. In order for students to be successful in the global society, they need to develop a sense of interculturality. In the language classroom, students learn to understand and appreciate other cultures and how those cultures relate to their own. Students’ perceptions of the world change and they become more understanding of others. CTE courses do not afford students any opportunities to develop cultural competence. Language truly is a product of a culture, and the knowledge that comes with learning different ways of seeing the world is something that we need more of in today's society. HB 340’s current wording unnecessarily prejudges the curriculum that might be established by the new pathways, unfairly targeting courses that teach skills--communication and cross-cultural awareness--of use to all Virginians, no matter their career orientation. All Virginians live in a multilingual and multicultural society within a global economy. Virginia graduates are expected to “build connections and value for interaction with diverse communities,” one goal of world languages courses. Moreover, all world languages courses teach students interpersonal and communication skills, essential in any workplace. Because they teach such necessary skills, I oppose any advanced studies high school diploma that does not contain world language components. Career and technical education classes should not be a substitute for world language classes for the advanced studies diploma. I respectfully oppose any attempts to substitute CTE classes for language study, which is vigorously and uniformly rejected by those in the career and technical field and world language educators. If House Bill 340 resurfaces for a vote, I urge you to consider these facts and vote against it.
Please read the attached letter regarding House Bill 340. I oppose the wording of HB 340, as it clearly targets world language courses: “The Board of Education shall establish pathways to the advanced studies high school diploma, and associated diploma seals for students who successfully follow and demonstrate excellence on such pathways, that require advanced coursework in a career and technical education field such as advanced manufacturing or robotics in lieu of world language courses or any other required course that the Board deems appropriate.” I advocate that the bill be amended to read: “The Board of Education shall establish pathways to the advanced studies high school diploma, and associated diploma seals for students who successfully follow and demonstrate excellence on such pathways, that require advanced coursework in a career and technical education field such as advanced manufacturing, robotics, or other courses that the Board deems appropriate.” Cordially, Heidi L. Trude FLAVA President
Please do not remove or replace World Languages from the diploma requirements. World languages are required for most four year universities. Changing this would start a domino effect of changes for so many students and their career paths. Any world language can be a wonderful addition to any career. CTE has their own standards and tests for competition to be able to receive a license to work in that field. World Languages and CTE are both equally important but are in two different categories. In addition, world languages teach our students to speak and to speak confidently! These languages are a trade in their own and help our students to learn more about the world around them. Learning a World Language will ALWAYS be a useful tool for any student to have. I should know because I grew up learning both French and Spanish just like the majority of my students.
Dear Delegate Davis: HB 340 is currently before the House Education Committee. I’m writing as a Virginia voter, a parent, and an educator to ask that you oppose the wording of this bill, which clearly targets world language courses: “The Board of Education shall establish pathways to the advanced studies high school diploma, and associated diploma seals for students who successfully follow and demonstrate excellence on such pathways, that require advanced coursework in a career and technical education field such as advanced manufacturing or robotics in lieu of world language courses or any other required course that the Board deems appropriate.” I certainly understand the need to differentiate educational paths for Virginia students based on their talents, interests, and goals. Creating various curricular paths for students who aspire to the advanced studies high school diploma can serve this goal. However, the wording of HB 340 unnecessarily prejudges the curriculum that might be established by these new pathways and unfairly targets courses that teach skills--communication and cross-cultural awareness--essential to all Virginians, no matter their career orientation. All Virginians live in a multilingual and multicultural society within a global economy. When 2100 U.S. Human Resources departments were surveyed, 93% of the respondents said they value employees able to work effectively across a range of different countries and cultures, 66% identified foreign language skills as part of the hiring process, and 41% reported a hiring preference for multilingual applicants. Career and technical education is not in opposition to world languages; the two disciplines can work together to prepare career-ready global citizens. Therefore, I ask that you vote to eliminate the words “in lieu of world language courses” from HB 340. Thank you. Sincerely, Natalia Dudnik
I am writing as a World Language teacher and as Vice President of the Virginia Organization of World Language Supervisors (VOWLS) to express my opposition to HB 340, in particular the part that states ‘in lieu of world language courses.’ There is no doubt that CTE courses are a valuable part of students’ education. However, replacing or eliminating the World Language requirement for the Advanced Studies Diploma is not required to support student enrollment in CTE courses. All Virginians live in a multilingual and multicultural society within a global economy. World Language courses help Virginia graduates to "build connections and value for interaction with diverse communities," an identified goal of the profile of a Virginia graduate, and teach interpersonal and communication skills essential in any workplace. World Languages and CTE should be encouraged equally to encourage student success in the skills they will need to be successful and productive adults in an ever changing world. I invite you to read the February 2017 report from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences which addresses the needs of investing in language education in the 21st century, demonstrating that learning a World Language "would have real benefits for our personal lives as well as for commerce, security, and diplomacy. Researchers are discovering that language learning, particularly among young children, improves learning outcomes in a variety of other disciplines over a long period of time. New empirical evidence suggests that it also encourages the development of empathy and effective interpretive skills. Bilingualism enhances overall cognitive ability..... and that a greater public emphasis on language education would yield results far greater than any initial financial investments." ACTFL’s Lead with Languages (2018) reports there is a significant shortage of employees who speak another language. 6400 current job postings IN VIRGINIA that require a second language: these range from Data Analysis, Defense, Healthcare, Energy, Translators, Customer Service and Instructors. World Languages do not hinder CTE careers but only can enhance them making students more marketable. I appreciate your consideration and ask you to vote against HB 340 or at minimum remove the ‘in lieu of world languages’ phrasing.
I am writing with concern about HB340. I am a Spanish teacher and have been for 33 years. I see the need now more than ever for students to learn a world language. I feel that it is very important for students to have a background in a world language - many colleges and universities require it and it does help when people get into the workforce. I have had many former students tell me that they use their Spanish more than they would have thought. I know that taking a World Language is not for everyone, but I think it is important for as many students as possible to take one in school. I do feel that CTE classes are important as well. I don't understand having the alternative. I hope you will reconsider pushing through this alternative to world languages for an advanced diploma. Thank you.
I am writing to express my opposition to HB 340, in particular the part that states ‘in lieu of world language courses.’ There is no doubt that CTE courses are a valuable part of students’ education. However, replacing or eliminating the World Language requirement for the Advanced Studies Diploma is short sighted. ACTFL’s Lead with Languages (2018) reports there is a significant shortage of employees who speak another language. This includes many jobs in technology. Our district, Roanoke County Public Schools, has students that qualified for scholarships and jobs in STEM ONLY because they had competency in another language. It is short sighted to trade one competency for another. Schools’ current schedules frequently allow a student to take up to 8 classes a year and there is adequate room in a schedule for both types of courses. A search of indeed.com lists over 6400 current job postings IN VIRGINIA that require a second language: these range from Data Analysis, Defense, Healthcare, Energy, Translators, Customer Service and Instructors. You can see this is not an isolated skill. I appreciate your consideration and ask you to vote against HB 340 or at the least remove the ‘in lieu of world languages’ phrasing. Cammie Williams Supervisor of World Language and ELL Roanoke County Public Schools
Virginia Secretary of Education, Aimee Guidera, pledged to ensure that each and every student in the Commonwealth will have a "world class" education. A world class education comprises proficiency in a language other than English, preparing our students to be career ready. Being globally ready starts right here in the Commonwealth, with local language needs in every career cluster. HB340 is asking for alternative pathways for students on the expense of World Language acquisition. I oppose this bill in its current form. There is nothing innovative about the nature of the bill. It is taking us backwards. What we need, and what the Virginia Chamber of Commerce clearly prioritizes on their VA Blueprint 2030, are language skills for all. The Seal of Biliteracy is an option for all students to earn a distinguished credential on their high school diploma, demonstrating language proficiency in a language other than English. What we should be asking for is a bill that would ensure that students who successfully earns a Seal of Biliteracy earns high school credit. Passing a VDOE approved standardized test with intermediate mid proficiency in all modes of communication, should be rewarded with 3 WL high school credits. To this day, there are inequitable practices in awarding high school credit for passing the Seal of Biliteracy. Some divisions award credit by exam others don't. Let's change the language of HB340 and include the Seal of Biliteracy. This would truly serve our students, and ultimately Virginia's economic growth potential.
We are faced with yet another attack on world languages instruction in the Commonwealth. With the ability to communicate in another language at the top of employers' desired skills lists, why would we consider this step backwards? Replacing world language education with something else is not the right way to promote alternate pathways. We can work with the sponsor of this bill to keep world languages as a priority in Virginia while providing access to alternate pathways. Removing the requirement for coursework in world languages, coursework that promotes inclusion, understanding, intercultural competence, and interpersonal skills, would set Virginia back, not move us forward. The Commonwealth needs this valuable 21st century skill to be promoted and expanded.
HB340 At this time, more than ever, we are living in a global economy and our Virginia students deserve a chance to fully engage internationally. As an upper-level French and Spanish teacher for the last 20 years, I have had students double and triple major in math, computer science, economics, finance AND a language. Because of their stellar AP language scores, they were able to add a language major or minor to another field of study in order to be competitive in the multi-lingual global marketplace. Now is the time to encourage all Virginians to become proficient in another language. HB340, does not provide the support that our students need to develop global competencies. Virginia educators and the VDOE have been working tirelessly to promote the benefits of multilingualism with our World Language Governor's School Program and the Virginia Seal of Biliteracy. Students should be challenged to expand their horizons, not limit them. According to the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, in Virginia alone, we have over 1200 international business locations operating within our commonwealth. These international companies come from all over the world and speak a myriad of languages. Do not sell our students short. Their future depends on you! https://internationaldirectory.vedp.org/
While I applaud the intent of this bill to elevate the prestige of career and technical education, the devil is always in the details. Virginia's students need both career readiness and global readiness skills to succeed after high school. Please don't diminish the important role of world languages in our students' development. If anything, we need more world language study for both advanced and standard diploma students.
I am writing in opposition to HB 340. In a world that is increasingly multilingual and multicultural, we should be encouraging students to study more world languages for longer, not offering ways to avoid learning world languages. I oppose any advanced studies diploma that does not include world language components. The wording of this bill "in lieu of world language courses" unnecessarily prejudices the curriculum that might be established by these new pathways, unfairly targeting courses that teach skills -- communication and cross-cultural awareness -- of use to all Virginians, no matter their career orientation. All Virginians live in a multilingual and multicultural society within a global economy. World language courses help Virginia graduates build connections and value for interaction with diverse communities, an identified goal of the profile of a Virginia graduate, and teach interpersonal and communication skills, essential in any workplace. Please do not approve HB340 as it is currently written. Do not intentionally put Virginia students at a disadvantage in both the college application process and in the work world. All of us need the skills learned in our world language classrooms.
Hello, I write today in opposition to the current wording of HB340 which unnecessarily targets world language education as part of the high school advanced diploma. Education in world languages provides intellectual and cognitive benefits far beyond the actual language learned. Despite what some think, language learning is accessible to all students, including those with benefits, but should absolutely be a part of any honor or advanced educational program or diploma. World language education is an integral part of Global Readiness standards, 21st Century skills, as well as a core element of all International Baccalaureate programs, including the IB Career Readiness Diploma. The rest of the world understands the importance of communication skills as seen by the requirements of 2nd and 3rd language studies for students in most industrialized countries. Any exclusions of world language learning from the Virginia Advanced Diploma would be a detriment to our students. Thank you for time.
HB 340 is currently before the House Education Committee. I’m writing as a Virginia voter and an educator to ask that you oppose the wording of this bill, which clearly targets world language courses: “The Board of Education shall establish pathways to the advanced studies high school diploma, and associated diploma seals for students who successfully follow and demonstrate excellence on such pathways, that require advanced coursework in a career and technical education field such as advanced manufacturing or robotics in lieu of world language courses or any other required course that the Board deems appropriate.” I certainly understand the need to differentiate educational paths for Virginia students based on their talents, interests, and goals. Creating various curricular paths for students who aspire to the advanced studies high school diploma can serve this goal. However, the wording of HB 340 unnecessarily prejudges the curriculum that might be established by these new pathways and unfairly targets courses that teach skills--communication and cross-cultural awareness--essential to all Virginians, no matter their career orientation. All Virginians live in a multilingual and multicultural society within a global economy. When 2100 U.S. Human Resources departments were surveyed, 93% of the respondents said they value employees able to work effectively across a range of different countries and cultures, 66% identified foreign language skills as part of the hiring process, and 41% reported a hiring preference for multilingual applicants. Career and technical education is not in opposition to world languages; the two disciplines can work together to prepare career-ready global citizens. Therefore, I ask that you vote to eliminate the words “in lieu of world language courses” from HB 340. Thank you. Sincerely, Cristina Berry
In 2017, the US Department of Education developed a framework for Global and Intercultural Competence, in which the need for language proficiency and intercultural competence is clearly outlined. This constitutes an essential commitment to all students, and today, more than ever, we need to prepare all of our students to be career ready to meet local and global demands . Whether hospitality, construction, EMT, police, healthcare or any other career cluster, our Virginia employers are looking not only for technical skills, but global century career skills, which comprise socio-cultural competence and the ability to speak at least one other foreign language. Virginia already offers alternate pathways of learning. What we need is to prepare all students to be globally ready. The Virginia Chamber of Commerce also understands this necessity and prioritizes world language learning Prek-12 in their Virginia 2030 blueprint p.9: Support and expand Dual Language Immersion and the Seal of Biliteracy as seminal pathways toward industry credentialing Emphasize language instruction in earlier grades where children more easily learn other languages Partner with and create internships with multinational companies emphasizing language and technical skills Virginia is already behind our neighboring states, who have invested in world languages studies K-12. Students in Georgia, NC, and SC are graduating multilingual with increased job opportunities and higher starting salaries. I strongly oppose HB 340, as it constitutes a disservice to the students in the Commonwealth.
World language skills are a vital part of 21st Century Skills and global competency for any works, and should be a central part of Virginia's Advanced Diploma. "The ability to communicate with respect and cultural understanding in more than one language is an essential element of global competence.* This competence is developed and demonstrated by investigating the world, recognizing and weighing perspectives, acquiring and applying disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge, communicating ideas, and taking action." ACTFL In the 21st century, language learning meets real world needs: Rewards learners with a resume differentiator – the ability to communicate and collaborate in another language across cultures and time zones Provides access to information and collaboration in any field - including science, technology, engineering, mathematics; business; and health care Develops critical literacies by practicing skills to understand, exchange opinions, and present ideas Develops flexible and adaptable thinking, plus an ability to function in new and unfamiliar situations Prepares learners to think and interact in a global community Language learning develops these 21st century skills as learners: Participate in face-to-face interactions via technology, internships and volunteer opportunities in the community. Apply their competence in a new language to their career and personal goals, broadening their thinking beyond self-serving goals. Become more adept in understanding diverse cultural perspectives and their own identity. I oppose any Advaanced Studies Diploma that excludes world langauges and vehemently oppose the wording of HB340 that seems like a personal vendetta of a particluar sponsor.
HB452 - Public school buses; display of advertising, hiring of school bus drivers.
Dear Members of the Education - Early Child / Innovation Subcommittee, My name is Charles Ronco, and I speak in favor of HB452. As a public school teacher, I apologize that I cannot attend today's meeting either in person or via Zoom. Thank you for accepting my written comments. This bill was spawned from conversations with Prince William County Schools Administration and the Prince William Education Association. The ongoing school bus driver shortage has impacted every school system in the nation, and Virginia's public schools are no exception. Schools need to be able to compete with other commercial enterprises eager to fill their ranks with eligible drivers who have a CDL endorsement. Such drivers see advertisements on large rigs and other commercial vehicles for openings, and they know that there are jobs open for them to fill. Many people don't even know that school bus drivers are desperately needed. This bill would allow our schools to compete for vitally important human resources. Granted, this bill may not be a 'silver bullet' for this critical shortage, but it at least levels the playing field to allow school systems to inform and attract eligible employees into the workforce. Please help our public schools. Please vote in favor of HB452. Thank you, Charles Ronco Math Teacher Unity Reed High School Prince William County Public Schools
HB533 - Public elementary and secondary schools; agreements to establish opportunity classrooms.
To Whom It May Concern, Thank you for the opportunity to comment on HB 1034. As a public high school school teacher and parent of two young children (ages 5 and 2) in Virginia, I have serious concerns that this bill will wind up doing more harm than good for the children of our state. I have worked in two different public school systems in Virginia over 13 years, and I have seen first hand how beneficial counseling services can be to a wide variety of students. If parents are allowed to prohibit their students from accessing counseling services in the school, these students may be cut off from not only critical mental health support, but but also the academic, career, and community support that school counselors and mental health team members provide. All members of a school mental health team must undergo rigorous education before obtaining their licenses, and as such they should be trusted as the professionals they are to provide only services that they deem necessary for students well-being. I strongly urge you to let the trained mental health professionals do their jobs. Don't make students get tied in the mire of adult squibbles. Thank you, Sara Watkins Mother Teacher Concerned Virginia Citizen
To Whom It May Concern, Thank you for the opportunity to comment on HB HB1032. As a public high school school teacher and parent of two young children (ages 5 and 2) in Virginia, I have serious concerns that this bill will wind up doing more harm than good for the children of our state. As VA Senator Peterson said on January 27 of this year, regarding a similar bill, "I don't think we should be involved in micromanaging school libraries...The problem is that you’re going to sweep up books that you don’t intend to sweep up" (Matthew Barakat, abcnews.go.com). I strongly urge you to leave the books in the libraries for the kids. They deserve to have the opportunity to decide with their own parents and personal support systems what books to read. Thank you, Sara Watkins Mother Teacher Concerned Virginia Citizen
Please move to report HB221, 340, 533, 873, 1032, 1100, 1125, 1347. Thank you.
This bill opens the door for Virginia students to get a head start in a career by granting teachers the authority to enter into an agreement with a school board to teach a curriculum on required subjects through an industry specific lens in a designated school classroom.
HB585 - SOL; work group to revise summative assessments, etc.
To Whom It May Concern, Thank you for the opportunity to comment on HB 1034. As a public high school school teacher and parent of two young children (ages 5 and 2) in Virginia, I have serious concerns that this bill will wind up doing more harm than good for the children of our state. I have worked in two different public school systems in Virginia over 13 years, and I have seen first hand how beneficial counseling services can be to a wide variety of students. If parents are allowed to prohibit their students from accessing counseling services in the school, these students may be cut off from not only critical mental health support, but but also the academic, career, and community support that school counselors and mental health team members provide. All members of a school mental health team must undergo rigorous education before obtaining their licenses, and as such they should be trusted as the professionals they are to provide only services that they deem necessary for students well-being. I strongly urge you to let the trained mental health professionals do their jobs. Don't make students get tied in the mire of adult squibbles. Thank you, Sara Watkins Mother Teacher Concerned Virginia Citizen
To Whom It May Concern, Thank you for the opportunity to comment on HB HB1032. As a public high school school teacher and parent of two young children (ages 5 and 2) in Virginia, I have serious concerns that this bill will wind up doing more harm than good for the children of our state. As VA Senator Peterson said on January 27 of this year, regarding a similar bill, "I don't think we should be involved in micromanaging school libraries...The problem is that you’re going to sweep up books that you don’t intend to sweep up" (Matthew Barakat, abcnews.go.com). I strongly urge you to leave the books in the libraries for the kids. They deserve to have the opportunity to decide with their own parents and personal support systems what books to read. Thank you, Sara Watkins Mother Teacher Concerned Virginia Citizen
Please pass HB217. Moe can be done to encourage and educate students about opportunities in STEM-C fields and to make sure that educational opportunities in our schools are adequately supporting students pursuing these goals. Identifying the full range of employment opportunities in these areas and the education needed to succeed in them can only be a benefit. Please pass HB221. Please oppose HB344. The establishment of charter schools should remain with local school boards who are accountable to their constituents. Members of the State Board of Education are appointed and consequently are accountable only to those who appointed them. Also, this bill provides that there is no longer the opportunity to revisit the decisions of this State or local boards in granting or continuing such charter. The public should not lose a mechanism of redress already in place. Please oppose HB346. The establishment of charter schools should remain with local school boards who are accountable to their constituents. Extending the establishment of charter and lab schools to private institutions of higher ed and private businesses further removes the oversight of such schools to boards that have no accountability to the public that they serve. Please oppose HB356. The establishment of charter schools should remain with local school boards who are accountable to their constituents. Please oppose HB486. Governor's School admissions should not be constricted by an arbitrary quota of students from one district. Please oppose HB563. While assisting local districts in funding construction where school buildings are in disrepair is a desirable goal, the diversion of funds allocated for instruction should not be institutionalized as a regular mechanism to accomplish this. Please pass HB585. Standardized testing has become the tail that wags the dog in education. Increasing amounts of time are dedicated to teaching towards the test and administering tests to the detriment of education tailored to the needs of students and localities. Reducing such testing the minimum required for federal accountability would free time and resources to more fully meet the needs of students. Please oppose 789. Family life education should remain an opt out program instead of an opt in program. The latter puts an onerous burden on schools for the delivery of this important curriculum. Please oppose HB988. Transgender students deserve equal protection in schools across the Commonwealth. All school districts should maintain certain expectations in this regard. Please pass HB994 Please pass HB1005. This bill stipulates that teachers under continuing contract can resign within the school year but must do so providing 2 weeks of notice. Such a provision provides more time for local school districts to make arrangements for staffing adjustments. Please pass HB1023. Human trafficking is increasingly a problem in the Commonwealth and beyond. Our students should be alert to its threats and educated as to how to protect themselves from it. Please pass HB1026. With technology and the internet playing an increasing role in every aspect of our lives, expanding our understanding of this role and improving education surrounding it can only be a good thing. Please pass HB1299. Our students need as much information as possible about their opportunities after graduating from our public school system.
HB1032 - School boards, local; standards for certain public school library materials, parental review.
I am for HB1032 because it is needed to help break poverty cycles caused by destructive behavior choices, which is frequently presented in a lot of today's library materials and normalized by media echo chambers, social media trolls, rent-a-townhall mobs, and faux "community represented" committees. I am also for Parents Right to the education and wellness for their children. In America, kids belong to parents, not the government, and the government is run by we the people, nor vice versa. Our county government leaders, teachers unions, pharmaceuticals industry, and abortion industry and their activists in the schools and libraries are as guilty now as the Tobacco Industry was for causing devastation to many kids and adults for their self-centered profits and agendas. The Tobacco Industry was Guilty in getting many kids and adults sick and devastated because of smoking addictions. Everyone knows that the Tobacco Industry increased the demand for smoking by using constant imagery of smoking cigarettes and cigars, creating a world image that everyone does it, adding addiction to it, and suppressing the knowledge that it leads to cancer and heart failure, among other diseases. It took a reversal of the methods--getting the image of doing it out of pictures and movies and teaching what smoking does to the body--to significantly reduce the bad behavior choice. It is a known fact that marketing through repetition, especially when echoed in the entertaining and "newspaper" world, is a psychological form of influence and acceptance--a way to normalize behaviors, it is behavioral change manipulation. Now substitute cigarettes with sexually explicit materials and substitute the Tobacco with the new gravy train sex industry groups of abortion, pharmaceutical, government-dependence, and enemies. Now you see what's really going on, and shame on the evil profiteers of destroyed lives. Vultures -- all of them. Health and economic statistics clearly show that temporary"benefits" of teenage sexual.activity, premarital sexual.activity, extra-marital sexual activity, or improper sexual activity lead to abortions, diseases, infertility, preterm births, depression, insecurity, single family homes, impoverishment cycles, broken families, unsatisfied married life, broken dreams, increased drug use and crime, and premature death. Social-economic and health statistics cleanly show that to significantly break economic poverty cycles and to significantly improve health statistics, financial status, dream achievements, and longevity, one must follow behavioral choices of the two parent married home and to save sexually activity until then and within that. Therefore, to best help accomplish such successful behavioral choices stop aiming at kids lessons and easy access to imagery of sexually explicit and disease-ridden behaviors and normalizing it in fake echo chambers of acceptance. And to counter those that defend Compressive Sex Education, which teaches EVERYTHING under the sun, as the best method, who with a sane mind would teach 1000 ways with 1000 images to smoke if you don't want them to smoke, or 1000 ways with a 1000 images to use drugs, or drink alcohol, shoot a gun or eat delicious candy if you really don't want them too? Therefore, you don't teach 1000 ways with 1000 images of what sex activity exists, healthy or not, outside of marriage, and especially before legal ages. It not just normalizing but grooming.
To Whom It May Concern, Thank you for the opportunity to comment on HB 1034. As a public high school school teacher and parent of two young children (ages 5 and 2) in Virginia, I have serious concerns that this bill will wind up doing more harm than good for the children of our state. I have worked in two different public school systems in Virginia over 13 years, and I have seen first hand how beneficial counseling services can be to a wide variety of students. If parents are allowed to prohibit their students from accessing counseling services in the school, these students may be cut off from not only critical mental health support, but but also the academic, career, and community support that school counselors and mental health team members provide. All members of a school mental health team must undergo rigorous education before obtaining their licenses, and as such they should be trusted as the professionals they are to provide only services that they deem necessary for students well-being. I strongly urge you to let the trained mental health professionals do their jobs. Don't make students get tied in the mire of adult squibbles. Thank you, Sara Watkins Mother Teacher Concerned Virginia Citizen
To Whom It May Concern, Thank you for the opportunity to comment on HB HB1032. As a public high school school teacher and parent of two young children (ages 5 and 2) in Virginia, I have serious concerns that this bill will wind up doing more harm than good for the children of our state. As VA Senator Peterson said on January 27 of this year, regarding a similar bill, "I don't think we should be involved in micromanaging school libraries...The problem is that you’re going to sweep up books that you don’t intend to sweep up" (Matthew Barakat, abcnews.go.com). I strongly urge you to leave the books in the libraries for the kids. They deserve to have the opportunity to decide with their own parents and personal support systems what books to read. Thank you, Sara Watkins Mother Teacher Concerned Virginia Citizen
I support this bill 1036. Parents/families need the option to decide for their children whether to wear a mask or not. Many children are being harmed emotionally by being required to wear a mask. Also masks negatively impact many childrens’ ability to learn especially for special need kids and those with speech language challenges. Data and science shows masks are not helping protect children and adults. Normally healthy Kids and very young adults are not at a very, very low risk of serious illness.
The U.S. federal government and every state has strict laws against obscenity and child pornography. The intent of these federal laws, state laws, and Supreme Court case law is to protect children from inappropriate content. In Roth v. U.S. (1957) the legislature does not need to show actual harm to ban materials in order to protect “the social interest in order and morality.” The distribution of R-rated books is inconsistent with directives of law. The Supreme Court has stated there is a “duty to inculcate community values in school.” And “[t]he importance of public schools in the preparation of individuals for participation as citizens, and in the preservation of the values on which our society rests, long has been recognized by our decisions.” The Code of Virginia emphasizes moral and character education. There are numerous studies that illustrate that explicit materials psychologically negatively affect teenagers. R-Rated materials betray the stated goals of teachers to their students: to enhance the holistic intellectual being, to shape the moral character and ethical value systems, and to have the objective of student mental health well-being. Studies that illustrate we have a vulnerable teen population. Video games, audio recordings, and movies have ratings. Fairfax County Public Schools requires permission to watch R-rated movies. It is outrageous that we have adults wanting pornographic materials. This is not book banning. There is porn in our schools and it needs to come out.
HB1032: How will this process be kept free from politics or personal biases of the people put on boards to select what books to keep? I don't believe it's possible to do so. A gentle reminder that groups that ban books tend to not be remembered as "the good guys". This would be no different. HB1036: The suggestion of this bill should be enough to get the delegate ejected from our state government. The lack of critical thinking skills required to still not believe we should be mitigating the ongoing pandemic is stunning. HB1068: This is a thinly veiled attempt to stop the teaching of important moments in our nations history that paint one particular set of political beliefs in a bad light. This bill is written in bad faith and should not be passed. HB1126: This is a purposeful attempt to turn the public against the "academics" (teachers) similar to what has been seen in countries as fascism was on the rise. Parents did not go to college for childhood development or education, and being a parent does not inherently make you more qualified to decide what materials children should learn. If parents want that level of control, there are private schools that they can spend the money on to receive it. Otherwise, they should leave it to the professionals. HB113: I honestly can't believe this needs to be said. The separation of church and state originated in this state. This should not need to be explained to government officials. Putting anything on government property relating to any religion should not be considered.
As a parent, I do not want a school board or a group of other parents to determine what is appropriate for my children. School libraries contain books for every student - not books that are the best fit for every students. Parents should be able to have conversations with their children about their own family values; students should be able to put down materials that do not fit their family's beliefs. What is being called explicit or inappropriate is skewing toward books written about or by people who are People of Color or LBGTQ+. This is unfair for many students who want to and need to read books that either reflect their own experiences or allow them to gain empathy through someone's perspective. Many schools are already divided by grade levels (K-5, 6-8, 9-12) and have collections curated by a professional librarian (most of whom have graduate degrees with focused course work on collection development). What is appropriate for a high school student may not be a good choice for a sixth grader - but that is already addressed within the school and the library. Books are already optional. By taking them off the shelf because a group of parents and board members think they may be explicit or dangerous, is taking that option away from students AND their parents. Removing materials should be a private conversation within a family that does not affect others.
I am writing in opposition for all three of these bills - HB1007, HB1009, HB1032. First, these bills are redundant and there is no need for all three of them. School public libraries should be staffed by licensed school librarians with advanced degrees in library science. They are trained to select materials that are age appropriate, and that address their specific school community. Every child has the right to choose from books that represent them as well as give them a perspective of other people's lives and worlds. My daughter, who graduated from Virginia Tech with honors in Engineering, never chose books with blond hair, blue-eyed girls like her. When she brought books home from the school library, it was my responsibility to read and discuss books with her. I believe that her early exposure to diverse books helped her become the successful, productive person she is. The other concern with these bills is that the term "sexually explicit" or "certain public school library materials" are both extremely vague. Who gets to decide what these terms mean in each school district? I believe that if these bills are passed, it is an overreach of the state government into school board business. These bills will also create the need for additional staffing to notify parents and to identify books which meet these vague terms or to censor them and remove them from the library. As we all know, schools are facing an unprecedented staffing shortage, and school staff, including librarians, are being asked to do a lot right now to cover these shortages. There is no extra time to undertake such an enormous task. Also, hiring new staff to review books, would put a financial strain on school districts. We know that no one likes unfunded mandates from the state. I know the focus in this administration is about parent choice in education. As a parent, I have the right to select my children’s exposure to books, movies, games, the internet. However, I do not have the right to do the same for other children. These bills essentially are giving a select group of parents’ choice, while ignoring other parents the right to choose what they think is best for their child and family. These bills are about censorship. Following Texas' book banning is not what Virginia wants or needs.
Public school libraries should not include material that includes sexual content, sex trafficking, parental rebellion, anti police, pro racism, or transgenders. There are many option at the county libraries where you can check out these books. The public school is offering a service to their community and these books serve no purpose in education, therefore, should not be in the public school libraries.
February 2, 2022 Madam Chair and Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to address you today. My name is Judy Deichman and I am the President of the Virginia Association of School Librarians, the Instructional Specialist of Library Services for Richmond Public Schools, the librarian for the RPS Lit Limo which began delivering books to students throughout the city in July of 2020, and the parent of 5 children that all attended and graduated from public schools here in Virginia. I have been a librarian in Virginia for over 13 years. I am here to share a statement from VAASL in opposition of HB1032. Statement on Opposition to Legislative HB1032 February 2, 2022 First, this bill is unnecessarily repetitive because, under existing Virginia Law, school boards are required to have selection policies for materials used and available to public school students (§§ 22.1 238, 22.1-241), as well as a review of materials policy, sometimes called challenge of materials (§ 22.1-253.13:7.C.2). The existing provisions in state law which require “clear procedures for handling challenged controversial materials” already give parents a path to address any concerns with books in school libraries. Second, librarians and public school educators have a long partnership with parents and support the right of every parent to control what their child reads, and the instructional material used in their child’s public education program. Parents are appropriate decision makers when restricting materials for their own child. As educators, we encourage parents to discuss their child’s reading material and school instructional program. We do not approve of other parents restricting appropriate materials for children that are not their own. Third, educators are supportive of providing students with appropriate, accurate information and materials that will meet the instructional needs and interests of the students. Materials in a school setting are selected based on professional expertise. Library materials are selected by a certified librarian, who has received additional professional training in collection development, child development, and pedagogy, using standards outlined by their elected, local school boards. The proposed legislation attempts to sensationalize this process and wrongly calls into question the professionalism and values of the school librarians and administrators who oversee the selection of materials and are dedicated to the best interests of their students. We appreciate the support librarians and school educators are given by our Virginia legislators and hope this statement of opposition to HB1032 will provide guidance when considering the appropriateness of this bill and it’s intended and/or unintended effects on Virginia Public Education and Virginia public educators. Respectfully, Judy Deichman Virginia Association of School Librarians (VAASL)
I oppose HB1032.
Please move to report HB221, 340, 533, 873, 1032, 1100, 1125, 1347. Thank you.
I am writing to urge you to vote no on HB 1032. As a first grade teacher in Fairfax County Public Schools for the past 10 year, I have worked closely with several school librarians. I have seen from them how lengthy the process can already be to acquire a new book and get it into the hands of students because there are already processes built into the acquisition process to ensure high-quality and appropriate materials are selected. This bill would make the process of new material acquisition prohibitively challenging and would have a direct negative impact on the quantity and quality of new material students would have access to. Virginia's school librarians are certified professionals who have extensive training in selecting appropriate materials for the students they serve. It is our charge as public school educators to ensure that we are curating materials in our school libraries and classrooms that represent the diversity of identities and experiences of our student populations and communities. The books and other materials in our schools should serve as mirrors, reflecting students' own experiences back to them, as well as windows to take a peek into the lives and experiences of others to build understanding and empathy for those around us. Watching a small vocal minority of parents and community members stirring up division in Fairfax County School Board meetings around books written by and/or featuring LGBTQIA+ people makes me very concerned about the possibility that this bill will make it easier for these groups to prevent school libraries from stocking these books. LGBTQIA+ youth, and particularly trans youth are at a much higher risk for suicide when their identities are not affirmed by those around them. Having a supportive adult in their lives significantly decreases the likelihood of suicide. In some cases, school librarians are these adults, connecting these students with books that reflect their identity and let them know that they are not alone. Our librarians welcome collaboration with families and are open to discussing the materials available to their child. Allowing our librarians to exercise their professional discretion to curate appropriate materials and also empowering families to have conversations with their school librarians is the way to ensure that students have access to high-quality materials where every child can see themself represented. I ask you to please vote no on this bill.
Speaking to these bills HB 1032, HB 1126, HB 1347 and HB 786 -I would like to thank the Delegates LaRock and Avoli for your courage to stand up for parents who obviously in our Commonwealth have had trouble being heard. These bills address some issues at hand concerning our children’s educational/ instructional materials”. What goes into a mind comes out in a life.” Let’s make sure what we’re offering as education protects the hearts, minds and bodies of all of our children . Please support these bills and let’s get back on track to affirm teachers educating our children and affirm the rights of parents in the public school arena,too.
HB1047 - Students who need or use augmentative and alternative communication; instruction, eligibility.
To Whom It May Concern, Thank you for the opportunity to comment on HB 1034. As a public high school school teacher and parent of two young children (ages 5 and 2) in Virginia, I have serious concerns that this bill will wind up doing more harm than good for the children of our state. I have worked in two different public school systems in Virginia over 13 years, and I have seen first hand how beneficial counseling services can be to a wide variety of students. If parents are allowed to prohibit their students from accessing counseling services in the school, these students may be cut off from not only critical mental health support, but but also the academic, career, and community support that school counselors and mental health team members provide. All members of a school mental health team must undergo rigorous education before obtaining their licenses, and as such they should be trusted as the professionals they are to provide only services that they deem necessary for students well-being. I strongly urge you to let the trained mental health professionals do their jobs. Don't make students get tied in the mire of adult squibbles. Thank you, Sara Watkins Mother Teacher Concerned Virginia Citizen
To Whom It May Concern, Thank you for the opportunity to comment on HB HB1032. As a public high school school teacher and parent of two young children (ages 5 and 2) in Virginia, I have serious concerns that this bill will wind up doing more harm than good for the children of our state. As VA Senator Peterson said on January 27 of this year, regarding a similar bill, "I don't think we should be involved in micromanaging school libraries...The problem is that you’re going to sweep up books that you don’t intend to sweep up" (Matthew Barakat, abcnews.go.com). I strongly urge you to leave the books in the libraries for the kids. They deserve to have the opportunity to decide with their own parents and personal support systems what books to read. Thank you, Sara Watkins Mother Teacher Concerned Virginia Citizen
HB1047 VCASE thanks Del. Tran for continuing a dialogue about this bill to assist students who use augmentative and assistive communication devices. VCASE has opposed HB1047 as originally drafted and opposed the substitute was shared this morning. VCASE would support a substitute that would have VDOE review, update, and disseminate AAC procedures that would emphasize compliance with the IEP that addresses assessment, access, supports, training, and least restrictive environment matters. In the original proposed legislation, the requirements that restrict the use of any evaluation tool in considering eligibility or services is contrary to IDEA and Virginia evaluation and eligibility guidance that the team review multiple sources of information about the student. VCASE supports practices that provide students access to general education classes to the maximum extent appropriate and is concerned about any particular claim that a student with an AAC may have a unique right in this consideration. Lastly, the IEP has the force of law. If an IEP includes the specifics of training, support, and least restrictive setting, then that IEP must be followed. If the service is delayed, the the student is qualified for compensatory services and the parents can lodge a state complaint or request a due process hearing if they claim an IEP violation has occurred. We hope to support a version of this bill that has a VDOE study of these services with reemphasis on IEP compliance with AAC procedures.
I am reaching out in support of H.B. 1047, albeit with some concerns that I hope to see addressed through an amendment. As a speech-language pathologist, I am grateful to see legislative support for users of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Communication is a human right, and AAC facilitates communication for people who might otherwise be unable to request their basic wants and needs, make a comment, or tell their loved ones how they feel. School-based support for AAC will open the doors for hundreds, if not thousands of AAC users across the Commonwealth. My only concern regarding this bill is that it opens the door for pseudoscientific forms of communication. In particular, Facilitated Communication and the Rapid Prompting Method are forms of AAC that have been discouraged by numerous organizations over the years, including that American Speech-Language-Hearing Association that issues my credentials as a speech-language pathologist. Whereas "good" AAC allows the users to create spontaneous, novel, unique, and generative messages, Facilitated Communication and the Rapid Prompting Method have no evidence to support their efficacy; based on the lack of evidence, it is generally understood that the facilitators are creating the messages themselves, essentially "speaking for" the individual with a disability. This doesn't empower the communicator, it removes their autonomy. While I 100% support a bill that improves the availability and training of AAC in Virginia's schools, I hope to see this loophole closed before the passage of H.B. 1047. Perhaps wording might be added to stipulate that this bill supports "evidence-based AAC," or "AAC that has been generally deemed best practice," or perhaps wording that specifically excludes Facilitated Communication or the Rapid Prompting Method. For more information, please see the following link, which includes cautions against Facilitated Communication and Rapid Prompting Method from dozens of organizations, including the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Psychological Association, Association for Behavior Analysis, the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, and more. https://www.asha.org/slp/cautions-against-use-of-fc-and-rpm-widely-shared/
The National Council on Severe Autism (NCSA) enthusiastically supports efforts to increase accessibility to Alternative and Assistive Communication (AAC) for those with minimal or no language. But we have grave concerns that House Bill 1047, as it is written, will be used to support the use of pseudoscientific interventions that fall under what speech pathologists refer to as "facilitated communication," which includes but is not limited to Spelling to Communicate (S2C) and the Rapid Prompting Method (RPM). More than three decades of research has confirmed that the products of FC are controlled (usually unconsciously) by the nondisabled assistant or facilitator -- like a ouija board. That is why virtually every relevant professional organization -- such as the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, the American Psychological Association, the Association for Science in Autism Treatment and over a dozen other national and international organizations oppose all forms of FC. It is critical that the language of the IDEA, which requires that services and supports be evidence-based (meaning supported by peer-reviewed studies), be included in this bill. FC poses significant harm to students, most notably in terms of both financial and opportunity cost. A very recent study (January 2022) published in the journal Exceptional Children calculated that the Rapid Prompting Method costs school districts $32,159 per student the first year alone, and almost $28,000/year in ongoing support "with little evidence of positive outcomes." We thank you for your concern for our population, and urge you to amend this important bill to ensure that our kids receive only evidence-based interventions in Virginia schools. Thank you for the opportunity to submit comment -- Amy Lutz Vice-President, National Council on Severe Autism
We applaud the effort to ensure students who utilize AAC are included in general education. AAC is an evolving form of communication and there are problematic interventions that claim to be AAC that are not. That’s why it is critical that the language in IDEA, the requires services and supports to be based on peer-reviewed research as much as is practicable, be included in the bill. If controversial methods are implemented in general education classrooms, speech-language pathologists and behavior analysts could be in violation of their codes of ethics. Amendments: As used in this section, "augmentative and alternative communication" or "AAC" means any device, tool, support, or service, or any combination thereof, that facilitates any form of communication, other than oral speech, that can be used to express thoughts, needs, wants, and ideas.. In accordance with with U.S.C. Section 1414(d)(1)(A), page 99, Services and supports related to AAC included in an individualized education plan shall be based on research-based methods as much as is practicable. No individualized education program team, member of such team, or school division employee shall solely utilize the results of any intelligence quotient test or any other test to measure intelligence or cognitive ability to determine a student with a disability's eligibility to be provided with and use AAC at school.
I am attaching a narrative in support of HB 1047. Thank you for your time- Crystal Ton
I love the intent of this bill, but I am concerned that the ASHA definition that is used at the top is too broad and does not reflect best practice. I think this bill would better serve children if it used the definition that added the necessity of evidence-base for the communication types. Otherwise, well-meaning school systems could train people on limiting forms of communication, such as facilitated communication because that is the easier and cheaper thing to do rather than what is best for the student. Speech therapists would then need to go against their ethics code to train people on the chosen system. Thank you for your attention.
I am writing in support of HB 1047 which would require timely training needed to use AAC devices. Communication is a basic human need. My friend's child uses an AAC device and her teachers in Fairfax County do not receive adequate timely training in order to allow the device to be used effectively. All students need and deserve basic communication between teachers and peers. Acknowledging that a child needs a device to communicate but failing to provide the training to use the device properly or in a timely manner prevents that child from accessing a free and appropriate public education. Please vote in support of HB 1047. Thank you.
I urge you to support HB 1047 for my daughter and students like her. I sent an email to the subcommittee earlier this week describing the difficulties we had getting our daughter identified for speech services in the first place, as well as the difficulties in implementing the methods needed to support her AAC device with fidelity once she was assigned one. We have continuously worked collaboratively with our daughter's IEP team, and we have had a very supportive administration of which we are very appreciative - but that collaboration has not been enough to overcome the barriers to effective implementation of AAC that result from a lack of timely access to necessary training. We have had years where our child's teachers weren't able to access training on our daughter's device until mid-October or mid-November. Months of learning opportunities are missed because teachers cannot effectively communicate in the students' AAC language. This bill will address that, within the bounds of IDEA's existing regulations, to ensure that appropriate training happens before a child enters the classroom. This is critical so that, from the first day of school, AAC users have access to the same social and academic opportunities as their non-disabled peers. I have worked to remedy this at a local level for some time, in coordination with other local families, and it has become clear that the state must require these changes in order for systemic change to occur for all preK-12 AAC users. This bill also brings to the forefront what IDEA already requires - that students not be denied access to a general education classroom due to their AAC status, and that IQ tests not be used to deny a child AAC supports. Communication is the key to accessing education and unveiling a student's capabilities. Please support Virginia's AAC user population and pass HB 1047 today. Thank you.
I strongly urge you to vote in favor of HB 1047. This bill is the right thing to do to support our most marginalized students. Some nonspeaking students in Virginia, like my 10 year old son, Nico, who has Angelman Syndrome, are fortunate to be born into families with the resources to seek out and provide them with augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) privately, and to fight for their right to be supported in regular classrooms. Unfortunately, the vast majority of students in Virginia who are unable to be understood using speech are never given the right supports to learn to communicate effectively using language. When a nonspeaking student isn’t given the supports and training necessary for them to “prove” they can understand and communicate with language, educators all too often give up and assume they simply are too disabled to use language. They are given IQ tests that are not designed for people who cannot either speak or do not have reliable fine motor control to point or use a pencil. When they get a low IQ score, that is used against them. Those low IQ scores are used to essentially “blame” the student for their failure to learn to use AAC, when all that is needed is better training and supports. Even students with significant disabilities, like those with Angelman Syndrome, are capable of understanding and using language. This bill is also important because, currently, if a student needs AAC but hasn’t been given access to it, they are nearly always placed in a fully segregated setting. I am aware of fewer than a dozen nonspeaking students in the entire state of Virginia who are fully included, and my son is one of them, thanks to the significant advocacy my wife and I have had to devote to fighting for him to be included with his non-disabled peers. Even with all of our advocacy, knowledge and resources, we have never had staff who are properly trained to support our son's communication needs on the first day they work with him. This is the equivalent of hiring someone to teach French who does not themselves speak the language, and simply expecting them to pick it up as they go along. Why is it acceptable to assign untrained staff to support students like my son, when this would never be acceptable in any other part of our education system? In my current role as the chair of my local Special Education Advisory Committee, I see how students of color and those from families with far less privilege than my own are more frequently segregated and never given the opportunities to live up to their potential. This bill would begin to address those inequities by ensuring that educators are provided the training they need to support ALL AAC users, not just the most privileged. Finally, because I understand that some are arguing that this bill would create an “unfunded mandate,” I want to conclude by pointing out that this bill does not, in fact, create any additional obligations on school districts other than to ensure that training is provided to staff when they need it, rather than after the fact. No additional spending requirements will be imposed on school districts as they are already supposed to be training staff to support students’ use of AAC, under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. HB 1047 is the right thing to do to support our most marginalized students, most of whom continue to lack access to the AAC they need to communicate, learn, and be members of their school community.
HB 1047 is supported by nearly three dozen state, local and national organizations, including major autism organizations (e.g., the Virginia Autism Project, Autism Society of Central Virginia, Autism Society of Northern Virginia, Autism Society Tidewater Virginia, Autistic Self Advocacy Network, and NeuroClastic), Down syndrome and cerebral palsy organizations, and AAC-focused and disability-led organizations that are experts on AAC (e.g., the United States Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, the Association for Assistive Technology Act Programs, the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America, CommunicationFIRST, and TASH). Virginia’s teachers unions support it, including the Virginia Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers Virginia. It’s supported by speech-language pathologists, teachers of students who need and use AAC, the Virginia PTA, and families of the most disadvantaged and marginalized students in Virginia. The Arc of Virginia and the Virginia Board of People with Disabilities support it. It’s supported by AAC users and other people with disabilities, who really should be the main stakeholders you listen to on this topic. And it is supported by allies of AAC users who believe that communication is a basic human right. This is an incredibly modest bill. To oppose it would send the message that the General Assembly and the people of Virginia believe the most marginalized and vulnerable students don’t have the same right to communicate as other students. It would send the message that the Subcommittee believes that people who can’t speak don’t have the potential to learn and succeed in life. It would convey that you don’t care whether people who can’t speak are ever given the tools and supports they need to communicate, to be educated, to be employed, and to live productive, meaningful lives. It would convey that you believe that people who cannot speak aren’t worthy of being seen or educated alongside nondisabled students. And if you oppose it because you buy into the lobbyist talking point that this would create an unfunded mandate, you’d be conveying that you aren’t aware that nearly all of the bill’s requirements – including the requirement to provide training to support educators who teach AAC users – are already embedded in existing federal law under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act’s assistive technology provisions. This bill would simply ensure that the AAC and training are provided when teachers and the student actually need it, to avoid situations like Calvin’s, where school staff and students are set up to fail. As the House budget office has already determined, this bill would in fact have zero budgetary impact. Calling HB 1047 an unfunded mandate, as some lobbyists are doing, is both disingenuous and patently false. Read the bill. And support our most marginalized students in Virginia, the vast majority of whom are never provided access to robust, language-based AAC, are never given the opportunity to learn alongside and make friends with their nondisabled peers, are given IQ tests that simply are not evidence-based for them, and have low IQ scores weaponized against them to try to justify the denial of AAC and forced segregation. Students who need AAC in Virginia need this bill, and I encourage you to do the right thing for these most marginalized students and vote in favor of HB 1047. – Tauna Szymanski, JD, MPA
HB 1047 must pass. Access to appropriate communication modalities is both a human right and a safety issue. Access isn't just handing a device to a child just as inclusion isn't just placing a disabled child in a GenEd setting with no supports. Inclusion is a verb, not a noun. Inclusion is action that makes learning accessible to an array of diverse learners. Inclusion is not where a child is sitting, but how a child is able to access learning. It is not possible for a nonspeaker with a device to learn in a classroom with a teacher who does not understand the child's language. One of the objections we hear relentlessly at NDLC is that when neurodivergent children are included in general ed classrooms, they distract abled students, as though classrooms are the providence of abled people that disabled children are invading. The reason disabled children sometimes distract abled children is the segregation paradigm pervasive in education. Neurodivergent children aren't inherently distracting, unless neurotypical children have no exposure to them. Anything one has not seen or experienced can be distracting. The answer to that is more exposure to nonspeakers in classrooms, not less. One of the arguments oft repeated by those who opposed racial integration in schools was concern White students would be distracted by Black students. We've hear this trope resurrected with every group society seeks to exclude. Nonspeakers are a group with some of the highest rates of restraint and seclusion. When a child isn't able to communicate, often they will the only way they are able, through behavior. Then, rather than seeing the adult failure to appropriately accommodate the child, the child is punished. Far too often, inability to use words to communicate is the impetus for excluding nonspeaking children from general ed. The choice to remove a child from the rest of us isn't determined on the child's needs, but adult decisions. My 15 year old son is autistic and was nonspeaking. He wasn't offered an AAC until 4th grade, and then when we sent him in with a device, nobody in his classroom understood his language. So he was hurt, then angry, then segregated, then locked alone in a seclusion cell hundreds of times. No problems were solved through that locked door. He wasn't seen or heard because the people around him couldn't understand his language. Then he was locked alone, without his device, in a void, punished for his teachers' inability to interact with him. These weren't bad people; they simply weren't trained. So he moved from one restrictive environment to more restrictive environments. He was alone, inside and outside of his seclusion cell. He was invisible. This is a common experience for this population. Communication is a fundamental human right, so is inclusion. We can't continue excluding nonspeaking children from education and life. They need us to see them, to hear them, to know them. Thurgood Marshall opined in the Brown v Board decision, "separate is inherently unequal." Nonspeaking children have a right to a fully supported inclusion education. That's not just handing them an AAC and sliding a desk into a room. Inclusion is helping them be wherever they are capable of being with whatever supports are needed. They shouldn't have to leave us to be supported. We need to keep nonspeakers with us, because they belong with us. They have a right to be seen and understood. Pass HB 1047. We stand with nonspeakers.
Please vote YES to HB 1047! I'm a former elementary school teacher and a mother of a child who uses AAC. I know all too well that students who cannot access communication are more likely to be segregated from their non-disabled peers. The inability to speak is often falsely equated to low intelligence. This bill will help guard against placing AAC users in more restricted environments. It will also ensure that our educators have the training they need (and often request), so they are able to appropriately include and support their students who use AAC to communicate. Thank you for making this happen!
Please support HB 1047 and students like Calvin. Earlier this week, Lindsay and I sent the subcommittee personal emails describing our son’s experience in classrooms where his team was untimely and inadequately trained in how to support his use of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). We have been advocating for change in AAC training at the local level for more than three years, and we come to this body for a resolution that we couldn’t obtain through repeated attempts at collaboration with Virginia’s largest school district. Through our advocacy with and for our son, we have learned that students in other districts often go without teachers and staff who are trained in a timely manner. In addition, we have learned that AAC users are often deprived meaningful educational opportunities because of unnecessary segregation and the use of intelligence-based testing to determine who needs and gets to use AAC. Passing HB 1047 would ensure that students who need and use AAC don’t experience these unnecessary barriers, and enjoy the benefits of a well-trained classroom team. As parents of a child who—based on his specific brain malformation—shouldn’t be able to communicate with language, we know that there is value in testing limits and changing expectations. Despite his diagnosis, Lindsay and I spent months learning and using American Sign Language to communicate with Calvin, with hopes that he would someday pick it up. And we remember the first time he used ASL spontaneously to comment that he saw a dog. From that point forward, we continued to push limits and change our own expectations, and Calvin accelerated in his expressive language skills at home via an AAC device and meaningful AAC experiences. But when he entered the public school system full time, he plateaued, and in some respects regressed, because he lacked access to well-trained teachers and staff who could provide meaningful language modeling. Lindsay and I enjoy collaborating with Calvin’s IEP team. But we don’t have access to staff training records. We don’t have access to a list of the training modules the school district provides its employees. And even if we had access to that information, we usually learn who is assigned to Calvin’s classroom only about a week before school begins. To expect us and other parents to be able to advocate for timely training for our children by using the IEP process—as some opponents to this bill have suggested—isn’t a fix and shows that some people don’t know how long the IEP process takes. By contrast, based on their knowledge of the school district’s training opportunities and the skill level of their teachers and staff, school administrators can ensure that appropriate AAC training is identified and scheduled when they make classroom assignments. There is no law or regulation that prevents school administrators from doing this and setting up their teachers, staff, and students for success. Finally, nothing in this bill requires school districts to spend additional funds to comply with its requirements—that is, unless a school division currently is shirking its existing obligations to train its teachers and staff to teach and support AAC users. HB 1047 simply requires school divisions to shift when they provide such training to a time that will ensure that teachers, staff, and students who use AAC benefit from our public school system, just like other students. We look forward to you voting in support of this bill.
My name is Elizabeth Altieri and I am a professor of special education at Radford University in southwest Virginia. I have decades of experience training teachers how to teach ALL students, regardless of their support needs. I also co-direct the VDOE-funded Virginia Inclusive Practices Center, which provides training to teachers around the Commonwealth. In 2018, I was elected to and continue to serve on my local School Board. I strongly urge you to pass HB 1047. In my work with schools locally and around the Commonwealth, I have found that teachers are desperate to know how to better support students who need AAC, both with their communication and with their academic and social inclusion. I have also found time and time again that many educators automatically and incorrectly assume that people who cannot speak with their mouths can’t understand and learn to use language to communicate. IQ tests aren’t evidence-based for this population, and yet they are routinely given to nonspeakers, and the resulting low scores are used to deny both AAC and inclusion. Even though HB 1047 is a modest bill (I believe more is truly necessary to begin to level the playing field for the most vulnerable students in Virginia), I do believe it’s an important first step to supporting teachers. The bill is not onerous, is easily achievable, is NOT in fact an unfunded mandate (AAC training is currently required under the IDEA but often does not happen in a timely fashion, or at all), and is supported by families and teachers alike. This is the first bill in Virginia that will begin to address the significant unmet needs of students who need and use AAC. Please keep in mind that these students aren’t represented by expensive lobbyists. I strongly encourage you to support this very modest piece of legislation.
I am an elementary school special education teacher who supports HB 1047, because school divisions need to know that they can’t send teachers and staff into a classroom with an AAC user and expect everyone to just figure it out (like they did me). In addition, as someone who currently teaches an AAC user in the general education setting, I support this bill’s goal to ensure that AAC users are not unnecessarily segregated from their peers, and I support clarifying that intelligence-based exam results cannot be used in assessing whether students need or use AAC, as such results lack any evidentiary basis for use in students. In 2019, I was excited to teach an AAC user for the first time. What a fun and exciting challenge and a new way for me to learn to interact with people. I knew to request training in AAC because his parents told me I should request it. I got a few hours of training 4 days before school began on what core vocabulary was and a little bit of the philosophy behind AAC devices in general. I did not receive training on the specific device my student was using until November, nearly 3 full months into the school year. Further, the training I received was not at the level needed to provide a quality education to my AAC user from day one in the classroom. I had to figure a lot out as I went along. I was supposed to be educating this child, but instead I was experimenting on him to figure out what worked and what did not work in my attempts to understand and communicate with him. As an educator one of my top priorities is ensuring that my students feel welcome and have fun and meaningful experiences at school. How am I supposed to make a student feel welcome when I am not effectively communicating with them? It was hard and frustrating, and I felt like I wasted a good portion of the kid’s kindergarten year trying to learn what I needed to do to provide the high-quality education that other students were getting. I have gotten the opportunity to support this child again this year in 2nd grade. I think I have gotten a little better at it, after a year and a half of working with this AAC user, but, admittedly, it is his parents that provide me much of my useful training, not the school district. I cannot image what parents who do not have the means to advocate for their children with the school district or have the ability to provide on the job training to the teachers supporting their child must be going through. For them we need to make sure effective AAC training happens before school begins. What I want, more than anything else (including a raise) is to get the support I need to effectively do my job. It is hard and demoralizing to constantly tread water and to feel like you are wasting a child’s primary education. Educators want your help and support to teach all their students. That support must include effective training for AAC users. I ask that you support HB 1047 and its commonsense approach to ensuring that teachers and staff are ready to teach and support AAC users in our schools.
Please support HB 1047 by voting YES! It is critically important that ALL students have access to communication and education. Those who require augmentative and alternative communication devices should not be prevented from education and access merely because they use a device to communicate. All students deserve an equitable education and all humans deserve to speak and be heard. Thank you, Diane Cooper-Gould
Dear Members of the House Education- Early Childhood/Innovation Subcommittee, Please VOTE YES on HB1047. My three children are able to communicate without supports, and they struggle to get their needs met in school. I can only imagine how much harder the children who communicate in alternative ways have to fight to access their education and communicate meaningfully with their teachers and classmates. Every child, no matter how they communicate, has the right to access the school curriculum and communicate using their augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). This issue is important to me because our obligation is to provide FAPE to every child, and every teacher deserves the training and supports they need to best meet the needs of their students. Students who need AAC are often denied the supports they need based on unwarranted assumptions about their potential. This bill is a modest but important first step to ensuring that teachers get the resources and training they need to support all their students, including those who need AAC. It would help ensure that students who cannot speak have the same opportunities to reach their potential as all other students. I want all my children's classmates to receive true access to education, and having the ability to communicate back and forth with their teachers is crucial. Please Vote YES on HB1047. Sincerely, Lauren McCaughey, parent
Minimally or non-verbal students must be given access to communication from DAY 1. My son suffered a brain tumor surgery and chemotherapy, limiting his communication. AAC was an equitable way to demonstrate skills he could not through typing or writing. Of 54 teachers and staff members, 7 had experience or training on any AAC option. Even though included in the IEP, my son did not receive a device for 4 months after identification and purchasing individually is incredibly cost prohibitive. Despite many forms of therapy and accommodation, AAC was the essential to progressing. Virtual school was not possible without adaptive technology. Please vote in favor.
My name is Janna Dressel and I live in Arlington. As a former special education teacher and a parent of a 6th grader who relies on multiple forms of AAC and has extensive support needs, I am writing to encourage you to vote in support of HB 1047. In both my professional and personal experience, including as past-president of the district-wide Arlington Special Education PTA, teachers receive insufficient training and resources to support and teach students who need and use AAC. I have had to learn a great deal about AAC as a parent, and my family is fortunate enough to have the resources to allow me to take time off from teaching so I can support my son's own education and inclusion in school. I spend a lot of unpaid time training and supporting the teachers and other educators who have my son in their classes. Students who need AAC who come from families who don't have the resources like mine to be able to learn about and provide their child with AAC and to train and support their child's school teams are often left behind. My son is currently enrolled in general education classes for all subject areas, but that unfortunately is still the exception rather than the norm for AAC users, even in Arlington. Most AAC users in Virginia that are fully included in regular classes are those from privileged families who have the resources to advocate and support the school teams teaching their children. AAC and inclusion opportunities for students who cannot speak should not be reserved only for the most privileged. This bill would begin to level the playing field for nonspeakers, and would begin to address teachers’ calls for the need for more training to support AAC users. I urge you to pass HB 1047. Thank you.
Good morning. My name is Dr. Yoosun Chung. I apologize that I cannot present this testimony live this morning. I am an associate professor of assistive technology program in the College of Education and Human Development at George Mason University. I am also the past president of the United States Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication. I live in Fairfax with my husband and two children. I came to America to study abroad after I graduated high school in South Korea. I was the first person in Korea at that time, who earned a doctoral degree, as a person with cerebral palsy. Without my AAC, I would not have been able to earn my doctoral degree, and, nor, teach students at a university. As both an AAC user, and, as a professional who focuses on researching and supporting the use of AAC for students who need it, I strongly urge, you to pass HB 1047. This bill is a very modest and achievable first step, for thousands of students in Virginia, who don’t yet have meaningful access to robust, language-based AAC, due to misguided assumptions about their capacity to learn and use language, and, due to lack of teacher training. This bill will ensure that, both educators and students receive the supports they need to communicate effectively, and, have the same opportunities at school as students without speech difficulties. HB 1047 is the right thing to do, and it’s achievable. Thank you very much for listening to my earnest testimony.
Dear Members of the House Education- Early Childhood/Innovation Subcommittee Please VOTE YES on HB1047. Every child, no matter how they communicate, has the right to access the school curriculum and communicate using their augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). This issue is important to me because 1) Says that a student who needs or uses AAC cannot be denied access to regular classrooms or age-appropriate academic instruction on the basis that the student needs support with AAC; 2) Says IQ scores cannot be used to decide whether the student can be provided with AAC at school; and 3) Says that school staff will be provided timely training in how to support a student’s use of AAC, and in how to design instruction to accommodate their unique communication access needs. 4) As defined in the bill, "augmentative and alternative communication" or "AAC" means any device, tool, support, or service, or any combination thereof, that facilitates any form of communication, other than oral speech, that can be used to express thoughts, needs, wants, and ideas. 5) We believe any way that a student communicates should be supported. Students who need AAC are often denied the supports they need based on unwarranted assumptions about their potential. This bill is a modest but important first step to ensuring that teachers get the resources and training they need to support students who need AAC. It would help ensure that students who cannot speak have the same opportunities to reach their potential as all other students. Please Vote YES on HB1047. signed g-rod and arc of nrv advocates! \
Dear Members of the House Education- Early Childhood/Innovation Subcommittee Please VOTE YES on HB1047. Every child, no matter how they communicate, has the right to access the school curriculum and communicate using their augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). This issue is important to me because,_____________(insert anything you want to add)_ Students who need AAC are often denied the supports they need based on unwarranted assumptions about their potential. This bill is a modest but important first step to ensuring that teachers get the resources and training they need to support students who need AAC. It would help ensure that students who cannot speak have the same opportunities to reach their potential as all other students. Please Vote YES on HB1047. signed, g-rod and arc of nrv aodvcates!
Washington Speech-Language Pathology Group supports both HB1047 and HB1246 because we believe both bills would provide benefits necessary to the health, safety and welfare of the Virginia disabilities community. HB 1246 would greatly benefit students by providing them with essential tools to further their learning. Our speech-language pathology practice treats many children and adults who would benefit from the passage of HB1047. AAC devices are an essential communication tool for those who are non-verbal and those whose ability to verbalize is significantly impaired. It is our experience that the use of AAC devices can motivate speech acquisition. This is well documented in the literature, On behalf of our patients, their parents or caregivers, we lend our support to both bills and encourage swift passage. Thank you for the opportunity to be heard.
We support HB1047 ! HB1047 Provides that no student who needs or uses augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), shall be denied the opportunity for inclusion in regular classrooms or the provision of age-appropriate instruction on the basis that such student may require support with AAC. 1) Says that a student who needs or uses AAC cannot be denied access to regular classrooms or age-appropriate academic instruction on the basis that the student needs support with AAC; 2) Says IQ scores cannot be used to decide whether the student can be provided with AAC at school; and 3) Says that school staff will be provided timely training in how to support a student’s use of AAC, and in how to design instruction to accommodate their unique communication access needs. 4) As defined in the bill, "augmentative and alternative communication" or "AAC" means any device, tool, support, or service, or any combination thereof, that facilitates any form of communication, other than oral speech, that can be used to express thoughts, needs, wants, and ideas. 5) We believe any way that a student communicates should be supported.
Despite the provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), kids without spoken language are often not given access to alternative means of communication. HB 1047 will help assure that students, in accordance with IDEA, will be provided access to augmentative and alternative communication (AAC); that teachers/staff will receive the necessary training; that students will not be denied access to AAC based on IQ tests; and that these students will not be denied the opportunity for inclusion in regular classrooms or the provision of age-appropriate instruction because they may need support with AAC. Please vote yes on this bill. It is good for students and families and it is good for our communities! We need to hear the "voices" of all students, including those who communicate in ways other than the spoken word. You can "hear" some of these voices in this 5 minute video made by and with non-speaking autistic people. https://youtu.be/H7dca7U7GI8
Dear Members of the House Education- Early Childhood/Innovation Subcommittee Please VOTE YES on HB1047. Every child, no matter how they communicate, has the right to access the school curriculum and communicate using their augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Students who need AAC are often denied the supports they need based on unwarranted assumptions about their potential. This bill is a modest but important first step to ensuring that teachers get the resources and training they need to support students who need AAC. It would help ensure that students who cannot speak have the same opportunities to reach their potential as all other students. Please Vote YES on HB1047. Sincerely, Erin Whitt
I feel it is long past time to consider the needs of students who need assistive devices in order to access a Free Appropriate Public Education. It is my understanding the Delegate's Tran's legislation would be instrumental in making sure that these students are fully considered throughout the Commonwealth's public schools. For too long, solutions for students with these needs have been determined by relying on voluntary efforts by educators and families alike. While the percentage of such students may seem small, the individual impact is what truly matters. I urge you all to move for passage of this bill and make sure it gets passed by both branches of the General Assembly and is then signed into law by the Governor.
I support HB1047, HB319, HB418, and HB419.
Please pass this bill! Many students need augmentative and alternative communication if they are to learn. A little investment will have a big impact!
HB1100 - Public elementary and secondary school buildings; standards for maintenance, operations, etc.
To Whom It May Concern, Thank you for the opportunity to comment on HB 1034. As a public high school school teacher and parent of two young children (ages 5 and 2) in Virginia, I have serious concerns that this bill will wind up doing more harm than good for the children of our state. I have worked in two different public school systems in Virginia over 13 years, and I have seen first hand how beneficial counseling services can be to a wide variety of students. If parents are allowed to prohibit their students from accessing counseling services in the school, these students may be cut off from not only critical mental health support, but but also the academic, career, and community support that school counselors and mental health team members provide. All members of a school mental health team must undergo rigorous education before obtaining their licenses, and as such they should be trusted as the professionals they are to provide only services that they deem necessary for students well-being. I strongly urge you to let the trained mental health professionals do their jobs. Don't make students get tied in the mire of adult squibbles. Thank you, Sara Watkins Mother Teacher Concerned Virginia Citizen
To Whom It May Concern, Thank you for the opportunity to comment on HB HB1032. As a public high school school teacher and parent of two young children (ages 5 and 2) in Virginia, I have serious concerns that this bill will wind up doing more harm than good for the children of our state. As VA Senator Peterson said on January 27 of this year, regarding a similar bill, "I don't think we should be involved in micromanaging school libraries...The problem is that you’re going to sweep up books that you don’t intend to sweep up" (Matthew Barakat, abcnews.go.com). I strongly urge you to leave the books in the libraries for the kids. They deserve to have the opportunity to decide with their own parents and personal support systems what books to read. Thank you, Sara Watkins Mother Teacher Concerned Virginia Citizen
Please move to report HB221, 340, 533, 873, 1032, 1100, 1125, 1347. Thank you.
HB1125 - School boards; parental notification of certain incidents, Alyssa's law-silent panic alarms.
To Whom It May Concern, Thank you for the opportunity to comment on HB 1034. As a public high school school teacher and parent of two young children (ages 5 and 2) in Virginia, I have serious concerns that this bill will wind up doing more harm than good for the children of our state. I have worked in two different public school systems in Virginia over 13 years, and I have seen first hand how beneficial counseling services can be to a wide variety of students. If parents are allowed to prohibit their students from accessing counseling services in the school, these students may be cut off from not only critical mental health support, but but also the academic, career, and community support that school counselors and mental health team members provide. All members of a school mental health team must undergo rigorous education before obtaining their licenses, and as such they should be trusted as the professionals they are to provide only services that they deem necessary for students well-being. I strongly urge you to let the trained mental health professionals do their jobs. Don't make students get tied in the mire of adult squibbles. Thank you, Sara Watkins Mother Teacher Concerned Virginia Citizen
To Whom It May Concern, Thank you for the opportunity to comment on HB HB1032. As a public high school school teacher and parent of two young children (ages 5 and 2) in Virginia, I have serious concerns that this bill will wind up doing more harm than good for the children of our state. As VA Senator Peterson said on January 27 of this year, regarding a similar bill, "I don't think we should be involved in micromanaging school libraries...The problem is that you’re going to sweep up books that you don’t intend to sweep up" (Matthew Barakat, abcnews.go.com). I strongly urge you to leave the books in the libraries for the kids. They deserve to have the opportunity to decide with their own parents and personal support systems what books to read. Thank you, Sara Watkins Mother Teacher Concerned Virginia Citizen
Please move to report HB344, HB346, HB356, HB789, HB1188, HB221, HB340, HB1125, HB1215, HB988, HB1023, HB1093. Please gently PBI HB486 so that academic merits ONLY decide who gets in.
Please move to report HB221, 340, 533, 873, 1032, 1100, 1125, 1347. Thank you.
HB1246 - School divisions, local; work group to recommend ways to procure accessible digital tools.
Very import
To Whom It May Concern, Thank you for the opportunity to comment on HB 1034. As a public high school school teacher and parent of two young children (ages 5 and 2) in Virginia, I have serious concerns that this bill will wind up doing more harm than good for the children of our state. I have worked in two different public school systems in Virginia over 13 years, and I have seen first hand how beneficial counseling services can be to a wide variety of students. If parents are allowed to prohibit their students from accessing counseling services in the school, these students may be cut off from not only critical mental health support, but but also the academic, career, and community support that school counselors and mental health team members provide. All members of a school mental health team must undergo rigorous education before obtaining their licenses, and as such they should be trusted as the professionals they are to provide only services that they deem necessary for students well-being. I strongly urge you to let the trained mental health professionals do their jobs. Don't make students get tied in the mire of adult squibbles. Thank you, Sara Watkins Mother Teacher Concerned Virginia Citizen
To Whom It May Concern, Thank you for the opportunity to comment on HB HB1032. As a public high school school teacher and parent of two young children (ages 5 and 2) in Virginia, I have serious concerns that this bill will wind up doing more harm than good for the children of our state. As VA Senator Peterson said on January 27 of this year, regarding a similar bill, "I don't think we should be involved in micromanaging school libraries...The problem is that you’re going to sweep up books that you don’t intend to sweep up" (Matthew Barakat, abcnews.go.com). I strongly urge you to leave the books in the libraries for the kids. They deserve to have the opportunity to decide with their own parents and personal support systems what books to read. Thank you, Sara Watkins Mother Teacher Concerned Virginia Citizen
Students with disabilities use the same education technology as their peers. While there is a robust market for education technology, accessibility for students with disabilities is not a factor in the product selection process by Virginia school boards, despite the existence of widespread accessibility standards for over twenty years. As a result, school boards are purchasing technology that cannot be used by students with disabilities. Since much of a student’s academic experience is tied to technology deployed by schools (including classroom materials, testing, portals for grades, and homework), it is critical for these products to be accessible to students with disabilities. With the recent shift to virtual learning during the pandemic, this access challenge for students with disabilities has increased. Currently, teachers are forced to develop one-off solutions to address systemic challenges with technology acquisitions made at the district level. HB 1247 proposes that the Department of Education convene a work group that would provide input and recommendations on the provision of accessible digital tools in the classroom. The study group will examine the problem and propose solutions to the procurement of accessible technology. Many organizations support this bill, including the National Federation of the Blind of Virginia, the Parents of Blind Children, the Disability Law Center and many others. We would appreciate favorable consideration.
VCASE appreciates Del. Tran connecting with us on this HB1246. VCASE supports the substitute for HB1246 that has a stakeholder workgroup study and recommend policy changes ensuring the accessibility of learning and management educational platforms obtained by local divisions through the procurement process. All platforms used by school divisions for instruction should be accessible in compliance with the Rehabilitation Act, section 508. This has been required federal law with required compliance effective for several years. Amendments to the Virginia Procurement Act could also strengthen statewide accessibility requirements. Thank you!
I’m Ally Kelso, a high school student from Burke. I’m a blind student who uses a screen reader to access online class work during school. Often times, the website or Digital materials I need to access in class are very difficult to navigate or incompatible with my screen reader. One example of this issue is when I had to take the online economics and personal finance class that all Virginia high school students are required to take. The website was quite inaccessible and I ended up needing my mom to read and fill in my dictated answers for quizzes and tests so that I could complete the course. This situation would’ve been avoidable if my county had ensured that the virtual Virginia website, which I used for the class, met all of the website accessibility guidelines. Last year, when my county was doing virtual school, I faced difficulties navigating blackboard collaborate ultra, the county’s virtual meeting platform of choice, because of the platform’s inaccessibility. I couldn’t hear what my classmates were typing in the chat box when I was typing things in the chat box simultaneously and I was not able to navigate to the links that teachers placed inside the chat box either which made it difficult for me to participate in class discussions and obtain class work at the same time as my peers. Once again, these situations would not have occurred in my county if The current website accessibility guidelines and standards we’re implemented. When I am not able to access materials and school just like my classmates, I lose my independence and my drive to work extremely hard. The passage of HB 1246 would fix these challenges for me and other visually impaired Virginia students. All disabled students in Virginia would benefit from this legislation and would be able to thrive in school and beyond. Thank you for your time.
I am writing in strong support of HB1246 and why it's passage is so very important to me and to Virginia students. This legislation is vital to the education of children who are blind or have other disabilities. These students use the same education technology as their peers to access their classes, materials, information and grades. While there is a vast market for educational portals, platforms, websites and digital apps, accessibility for students with disabilities is often overlooked or not a factor in the product selection process by Virginia school boards. As a result school boards are purchasing technology that cannot be used by students with disabilities. Since the majority of a student's assignments are done online using digital methods for testing, classwork and homework, portals for accessing those materials, grades and school information, it is critical for these products to be accessible to all students, including those with disabilities. The pandemic has simply exacerbated the accessibility challenges and will compound as education and society continues to advance in technology uses in all areas of school, work and life. Sharing a story about my own daughter, who is blind and identifies as a person with Autism who will graduate this year with a 4.0 GPA. Prior to taking legal action seven years ago, she would sit in classes confused and lost due to inaccessible digital platforms & materials (even experienced computer users and trainers for the blind could not access them). We had to retain legal assist., eventually settling with the school district (different district than we currently live) who ended up employing extra staff specifically to make all digital materials accessible to her. We still have staff in place to insure accessibility. Once she had accessible materials she is able to complete work independently in classes with a 4.0 GPA and going to college in the fall. Currently, the responsibility of adapting materials are often being pushed onto classroom teachers and teachers for the visually impaired are spending a considerable amount of time adapting digital materials, coming at a hefty price tag to divisions, let alone the stress and burnout. Other times parents and divisions are spending immeasurable hours through the dispute res. processes, at a hefty price tag and enormous stress to parents, school divisions and staff. Going through dispute resolution and due process is not only financially and emotionally devastating to everyone involved but is costing valuable time and undue and extreme distress to the student. Why HB 1246? It shifts accountability to education technology vendors! First, the bill will require local school boards to include accessibility requirements in the procurement process. Second, the bill will require that vendors indemnify the purchaser for costs arising from any lack of product accessibility. Third, the bill will require school boards to prioritize the purchase of education technology that best meets accessibility standards while taking into consideration costs and lack of alternatives. Fourth, the bill will require vendors to remediate inaccessibility issues within 180 days’ notice. Finally, the bill will require that school boards and the Dept. of Ed. track accessibility and remediation efforts and make such information publicly available to all school boards. Your support is vital to the education of blind and disabled children. Thank you.
As a parent and volunteer advocate for other parents, I am writing in SUPPORT OF HB 1246, a bill which promotes accessible design of educational technology. This bill is much needed to provide access for students and adults with disabilities; however, in reality, accessible design benefits everyone. A concrete ramp benefits people in wheelchairs, but parents with strollers rely on the same ramps. Likewise, accessible design of educational technology not only provides access to people with disabilities, but it also provides greater ease of access for nondisabled people who suffer from eye fatigue after reading screen after screen or need a little magnification to see clearly or audio to multitask. Unlike the ADA, IDEA, and 504 which were all passed long before the computer age, this HB 1246 incorporates specific Web Content Accessibility Guidelines that provide much needed direction which helps districts meet the broad goals of established disability rights legislation; while other legislation provides the What, HB 1246 provides the much needed How. Unlike other legislation which requires costly lawsuits, this legislation proactively utilizes the crucial relationship between buyer and vendor, and relies on the natural implications of economics to motivate edtech vendors to create products according to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). This bill will also help reduce staffing shortages (a need identified by the JLARC Study) by enabling direct, independent access rather than wasting precious staffing hours on teacher-created/facilitated retrofits which are neither efficient nor effective. While pre-digital era legislation proposes that separate can be equal, this legislation acknowledges the field-leveling potential of technology and establishes the need for accessible design as the default state of educational technology. Please support this important bill. Thank you.
I support HB 1246 Kimberly Drudge I believe that accessible technology is important as a blind high school student. I need access to all materials, whether on the internet or on my computer. When I was in middle school, particularly sixth and seventh grade, materials were almost always given to me in an inaccessible format, particularly on the computer. I have a teacher for the blind and visually impaired, or a TVI for short, who adapts things for me in Braille or accessible documents if the assignments are not on an accessible website, which is a lot of things. When I was in middle school, I had no idea how to access my work. I would sit in class, confused and not able to understand what was going on. The teachers would go at a very fast pace and I would get so frustrated and I always felt behind. Currently I use a website called Schoology to get to my digital assignments once they have been adapted by my TVI or teacher and posted on there. Schoology is somewhat accessible but not completely. When it's time to take a test, however, if the test is on Schoology it is inaccessible. When using the testing on Schoology when I click on the answer I want according to what, a different answer would actually get selected and I would not know until after the test was submitted. This is just one of many examples of why accessible technology is important. There are so many programs that are used in school that are not accessible and it makes it so hard to try and keep up and stay positive in school. Luckily, I have a science teacher and a Spanish teacher who understand my needs and take the time to make tests and assignments accessible for me but I know that my teachers are overwhelmed and so busy. All technology that is used in schools should already be accessible so we all can learn and so the teachers don't have to do so much extra work. Your support to HB 1246 is extremely important to me and the disability community. I believe accessible technology needs to improve not just for blind or visually-impaired people, but for people of all types of disabilities.
Dear Delegates, I am writing in support of HB 1246, which promotes accessibility of educational technology. I am a parent, a volunteer parent advocate, and constituent of Delegate Tran who has graciously allowed me to help write this bill. I have directly witnessed ways in which district-procured digital content, when not designed to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, prevents access for students who could otherwise independently access apps, websites, and other digital content if that content was designed according to standards set forth in Section 508. I have also been contacted directly by fellow parents and educators who have witnessed and experienced similar barriers for students and parents. These barriers existed pre-pandemic, were only exacerbated by distance learning, and continue today in both virtual and in-person settings. Forced to choose between pouring time, money, and energy into a lawsuit or investing those resources directly into my own children, I chose my children, and as a result, my children are fabulous readers and avid learners who have advanced academic and technology skills. Many others are not so lucky. Fortunately, my family, unlike most others, is able to privately provide an appropriate education without the help of the public schools. However, though I thank God for the unexpected route our lives have taken, I know that my child and all students with disabilities have the civil right to a free and appropriate public education alongside friends and neighbors. So I am here. To ask you to pass the first disability rights legislation which is founded on principles of capitalism: simple direction which acknowledges that our economy depends on private owners, including educational technology vendors, who create products for profit according to the specifications of the buyer. Until that buyer specifies the need for accessibility in the procurement process, vendors have little natural motivation to create accessible products. Unfortunately, as evidenced by the stance of the School Board Association, even well-intentioned educators need direction and accountability to do what is right for students with disabilities. Please support this important bill which will communicate and promote our country’s values, not only of capitalism, education, and a system of checks and balances, but of bipartisan collaboration in support of people with disabilities, a population which makes up roughly 25% of our great nation. Thank you. Donna Genelin
Please pass HB 1246. Virtual learning was a mixed bag in our house. In some ways, the lack of distractions and one-on-one support to model our daughter's AAC device really improved her ability to access the curriculum, and she made significant progress. In other ways, virtual learning showcased how utterly inaccessible educational technology is to a student with complex communication and motor needs. Our daughter has a global motor planning disorder, which means her body often does not move the way she wants it to, and it can take years of practice to learn new motor plans. She did not walk until she was 3.5 years old, after years of physical therapy. Her fine motor skills are also impacted significantly, along with her oral speech. Our district has relied heavily on educational programs like ST Math and Imagine Learning - both of which are inaccessible to someone with fine motor deficits. We spent much of virtual learning having to figure out supports on our own, as school staff didn't know how to make these programs accessible either. That onus shouldn't be on school staff or families. It must be on the companies who create the programs. Please support HB 1246 to ensure this responsibility lies with the creators, and not the consumers. Thank you
The Commonwealth of Virginia and the US Federal government have for 15+ years had a commitment to procure accessible information and communication technology to ensure a diverse and inclusive environment. However, this has not been the case of school systems in Virginia. School systems still treat access to technology by students with disabilities as a one-off accommodation. In practical terms this means that students don’t have timely access to the same digital materials as their peers and adaption is costly and time intensive for teachers of the blind and visually impaired. Digital accessibility is readily achievable and there are many applications that are born accessible to people with disabilities. However, there is no process in place to require accessibility be considered during the procurement process and there is no incentive for education tech companies to make their products and services accessible because no one has held them accountable. This bill would increase access and inclusion to children with disabilities and parents with disabilities. I support the bill which does not cost the commonwealth money but will hold vendors accountable for inaccessible and exclusionary software – yet allowing flexibility for purchase of not fully accessible technology based on lack of market availability.
The National Federation of the Blind of Virginia is Virginia’s largest and most active membership organization for people who are blind or low vision. Students (and their parents) from across Virginia are struggling because the technology used for their academic experience does not work with the assistive technology deployed by their schools. These students use the same education technology as their peers. While there is a robust market for education technology, accessibility for students with disabilities is not a factor in the product selection process by Virginia school boards, despite the existence of widespread accessibility standards for over twenty years. As a result, school boards are purchasing technology that cannot be used by students with disabilities. Since much of a student’s academic experience is tied to technology deployed by schools (including classroom materials, testing, portals for grades, and homework), it is critical for these products to be accessible to students with disabilities. With the recent shift to virtual learning during the pandemic, this access challenge for students with disabilities has increased. Currently, teachers are forced to develop one-off solutions to address systemic challenges with technology acquisitions made at the district level. HB 1246 shifts accountability to education technology vendors. First, the bill will require local school boards to include accessibility requirements in the procurement process. Second, the bill will require that vendors indemnify the purchaser for costs arising from any lack of product accessibility. Third, the bill will require school boards to prioritize the purchase of education technology that best meets accessibility standards while taking into consideration costs and lack of alternatives. Fourth, the bill will require vendors to remediate inaccessibility issues within 180 days’ notice. Finally, the bill will require that school boards and the Department of Education track accessibility and remediation efforts and make such information publicly available to all school boards. The National Federation of the Blind of Virginia fully supports HB1246 and urge its passage.
The Arc of Northern Virginia strongly supports Delegate Tran's bill, HB1246. This bill is critical to ensuring technologies used in public school settings are accessible to students with disabilities. The IDEA passed more than 40 years ago but the need for this bill is further proof of how we continue to struggle to adequately include and support students with disabilities. We heard from families during the pandemic where their blind children were only provided written (non-Braille material) and from people whose children had fine motor deficits who couldn't manipulate the apps needed for virtual classrooms. As a result, those students began losing hard won skills and couldn't move forward. We must pass this bill to ensure the eye of equity and inclusion is provided as schools develop and roll out new student technologies.
I am in support of bill HB1246. It must be passed. Thank you.
Washington Speech-Language Pathology Group supports both HB1047 and HB1246 because we believe both bills would provide benefits necessary to the health, safety and welfare of the Virginia disabilities community. HB 1246 would greatly benefit students by providing them with essential tools to further their learning. Our speech-language pathology practice treats many children and adults who would benefit from the passage of HB1047. AAC devices are an essential communication tool for those who are non-verbal and those whose ability to verbalize is significantly impaired. It is our experience that the use of AAC devices can motivate speech acquisition. This is well documented in the literature, On behalf of our patients, their parents or caregivers, we lend our support to both bills and encourage swift passage. Thank you for the opportunity to be heard.
Hello. I want to offer my support for HB 1246. Part of my job is to make sure our resources, publications, and course content is accessible for all users. Due to my job, I have learned that accessibility is and SHOULD be part of all aspects of design and course implementation. Accessibility is not an afterthought or - it can be universally beneficial for all users and should be at the forefront of anyone being a steward of the funds they receive. It is possible to create rich and inclusive content and when bills like BH1246 pass, they show vendors and content designers that accessibility matters. That all users matter. I 100% support for this bill because it extends beyond blind individuals to the greater community of individuals with disabilities. -Jan Shea, North Chesterfield, VA Proud parent of a special needs daughter, accessibility content creator, and advocate.
Thank you for your consideration of this bill. I am the parent of two blind children and a sighted child. My oldest daughter is 14 years old and blind with an orthopedic impairment. She is working in the general education curriculum with nondisabled peers and wants to be a teacher when she grows up. She accesses her curriculum with a variety of assistive technology. She uses a 32 cell braille display with a screen reader called JAWS to access the same work as her nondisabled peers. Because of her orthopedic impairment, which affects her wrists and hands, it is very difficult for her to read braille on paper. Electronic braille on a braille display is much more accessible for her. But she is unable to take the state standardized tests using the same technology that she uses to complete her school work every day. These tests are not accessible using a screen reader and must be read to her by a human reader. Research shows that students do best taking tests in the same format that they learn, but this is not an option for my daughter because the tests are not available in a format accessible to her. Because of this, my child who has been on the A/B honor roll for her entire middle school career, has not yet passed an SOL test. From time to time in class, her teachers will assign online activities, games, and programs that are also not accessible. This forces her to be singled out and given alternate assignments, which must be created by her TVI. She is often embarrassed and feels left out when this happens, and is looking forward to the day when all educational activities will be accessible for students who are blind or who have any type of disability. HB 1246 addresses my daughter's concerns and will help many students with disabilities in schools across the commonwealth. I appreciate your consideration.
HB1299 - High school students; instruction concerning post-graduate opportunities.
To Whom It May Concern, Thank you for the opportunity to comment on HB 1034. As a public high school school teacher and parent of two young children (ages 5 and 2) in Virginia, I have serious concerns that this bill will wind up doing more harm than good for the children of our state. I have worked in two different public school systems in Virginia over 13 years, and I have seen first hand how beneficial counseling services can be to a wide variety of students. If parents are allowed to prohibit their students from accessing counseling services in the school, these students may be cut off from not only critical mental health support, but but also the academic, career, and community support that school counselors and mental health team members provide. All members of a school mental health team must undergo rigorous education before obtaining their licenses, and as such they should be trusted as the professionals they are to provide only services that they deem necessary for students well-being. I strongly urge you to let the trained mental health professionals do their jobs. Don't make students get tied in the mire of adult squibbles. Thank you, Sara Watkins Mother Teacher Concerned Virginia Citizen
To Whom It May Concern, Thank you for the opportunity to comment on HB HB1032. As a public high school school teacher and parent of two young children (ages 5 and 2) in Virginia, I have serious concerns that this bill will wind up doing more harm than good for the children of our state. As VA Senator Peterson said on January 27 of this year, regarding a similar bill, "I don't think we should be involved in micromanaging school libraries...The problem is that you’re going to sweep up books that you don’t intend to sweep up" (Matthew Barakat, abcnews.go.com). I strongly urge you to leave the books in the libraries for the kids. They deserve to have the opportunity to decide with their own parents and personal support systems what books to read. Thank you, Sara Watkins Mother Teacher Concerned Virginia Citizen
Please pass HB217. Moe can be done to encourage and educate students about opportunities in STEM-C fields and to make sure that educational opportunities in our schools are adequately supporting students pursuing these goals. Identifying the full range of employment opportunities in these areas and the education needed to succeed in them can only be a benefit. Please pass HB221. Please oppose HB344. The establishment of charter schools should remain with local school boards who are accountable to their constituents. Members of the State Board of Education are appointed and consequently are accountable only to those who appointed them. Also, this bill provides that there is no longer the opportunity to revisit the decisions of this State or local boards in granting or continuing such charter. The public should not lose a mechanism of redress already in place. Please oppose HB346. The establishment of charter schools should remain with local school boards who are accountable to their constituents. Extending the establishment of charter and lab schools to private institutions of higher ed and private businesses further removes the oversight of such schools to boards that have no accountability to the public that they serve. Please oppose HB356. The establishment of charter schools should remain with local school boards who are accountable to their constituents. Please oppose HB486. Governor's School admissions should not be constricted by an arbitrary quota of students from one district. Please oppose HB563. While assisting local districts in funding construction where school buildings are in disrepair is a desirable goal, the diversion of funds allocated for instruction should not be institutionalized as a regular mechanism to accomplish this. Please pass HB585. Standardized testing has become the tail that wags the dog in education. Increasing amounts of time are dedicated to teaching towards the test and administering tests to the detriment of education tailored to the needs of students and localities. Reducing such testing the minimum required for federal accountability would free time and resources to more fully meet the needs of students. Please oppose 789. Family life education should remain an opt out program instead of an opt in program. The latter puts an onerous burden on schools for the delivery of this important curriculum. Please oppose HB988. Transgender students deserve equal protection in schools across the Commonwealth. All school districts should maintain certain expectations in this regard. Please pass HB994 Please pass HB1005. This bill stipulates that teachers under continuing contract can resign within the school year but must do so providing 2 weeks of notice. Such a provision provides more time for local school districts to make arrangements for staffing adjustments. Please pass HB1023. Human trafficking is increasingly a problem in the Commonwealth and beyond. Our students should be alert to its threats and educated as to how to protect themselves from it. Please pass HB1026. With technology and the internet playing an increasing role in every aspect of our lives, expanding our understanding of this role and improving education surrounding it can only be a good thing. Please pass HB1299. Our students need as much information as possible about their opportunities after graduating from our public school system.
Please VOTE YES and support this critically important bill! Explicit, systematic, cumulative literacy instruction based on the science of reading is critical for teaching our VA students how to read. Decades of research supports this methodology. As an education advocate I have dedicated many years to helping our students thrive. Literacy education based on the science of reading is best practice for ALL students regardless of ability. It is long past time, that our VA schools teach reading effectively. Thank you!
HB1347 - Family life education instruction; school year time limit.
To Whom It May Concern, Thank you for the opportunity to comment on HB 1034. As a public high school school teacher and parent of two young children (ages 5 and 2) in Virginia, I have serious concerns that this bill will wind up doing more harm than good for the children of our state. I have worked in two different public school systems in Virginia over 13 years, and I have seen first hand how beneficial counseling services can be to a wide variety of students. If parents are allowed to prohibit their students from accessing counseling services in the school, these students may be cut off from not only critical mental health support, but but also the academic, career, and community support that school counselors and mental health team members provide. All members of a school mental health team must undergo rigorous education before obtaining their licenses, and as such they should be trusted as the professionals they are to provide only services that they deem necessary for students well-being. I strongly urge you to let the trained mental health professionals do their jobs. Don't make students get tied in the mire of adult squibbles. Thank you, Sara Watkins Mother Teacher Concerned Virginia Citizen
To Whom It May Concern, Thank you for the opportunity to comment on HB HB1032. As a public high school school teacher and parent of two young children (ages 5 and 2) in Virginia, I have serious concerns that this bill will wind up doing more harm than good for the children of our state. As VA Senator Peterson said on January 27 of this year, regarding a similar bill, "I don't think we should be involved in micromanaging school libraries...The problem is that you’re going to sweep up books that you don’t intend to sweep up" (Matthew Barakat, abcnews.go.com). I strongly urge you to leave the books in the libraries for the kids. They deserve to have the opportunity to decide with their own parents and personal support systems what books to read. Thank you, Sara Watkins Mother Teacher Concerned Virginia Citizen
My name is Tarina Keene and I am the Executive Director for Pro-Choice Virginia. On behalf of our 25,000 members, we oppose HB 1347. Family Life Education that is based on science, is medically accurate and age-appropriate is essential to developing a well-rounded and confident child that can make educated decisions about their bodies and their futures. Knowledge is power and limiting learning to one hour a year is detrimental to empowerment and is a potential threat to public health. Please reject this bill.
I strongly oppose HB1347. Family life education is essential curriculum that this bill would severely undermine.
Please move to report HB221, 340, 533, 873, 1032, 1100, 1125, 1347. Thank you.
Speaking to these bills HB 1032, HB 1126, HB 1347 and HB 786 -I would like to thank the Delegates LaRock and Avoli for your courage to stand up for parents who obviously in our Commonwealth have had trouble being heard. These bills address some issues at hand concerning our children’s educational/ instructional materials”. What goes into a mind comes out in a life.” Let’s make sure what we’re offering as education protects the hearts, minds and bodies of all of our children . Please support these bills and let’s get back on track to affirm teachers educating our children and affirm the rights of parents in the public school arena,too.
HB113 - Public school buses; displaying decals with "In God We Trust" and "One Nation Under God" on buses.
I support displaying decals with "In God We Trust" and "One Nation Under God" on buses. If we remove God, we give power to grant and take away rights to people and the Government , and that would be a tyrannical disaster. Our wise and selfless founding fathers understood the necessity of putting us all equal under God, of all having rights bestowed to us from God, and to put our Government in the limited role of ensuring those rights are protected and to further limit it by design of three equal branches and a republic representative format. This is why our nation is the most free and prosperous and good. It us our sovereign duty to keep it this way for our future generations.
To Whom It May Concern, Thank you for the opportunity to comment on HB 1034. As a public high school school teacher and parent of two young children (ages 5 and 2) in Virginia, I have serious concerns that this bill will wind up doing more harm than good for the children of our state. I have worked in two different public school systems in Virginia over 13 years, and I have seen first hand how beneficial counseling services can be to a wide variety of students. If parents are allowed to prohibit their students from accessing counseling services in the school, these students may be cut off from not only critical mental health support, but but also the academic, career, and community support that school counselors and mental health team members provide. All members of a school mental health team must undergo rigorous education before obtaining their licenses, and as such they should be trusted as the professionals they are to provide only services that they deem necessary for students well-being. I strongly urge you to let the trained mental health professionals do their jobs. Don't make students get tied in the mire of adult squibbles. Thank you, Sara Watkins Mother Teacher Concerned Virginia Citizen
To Whom It May Concern, Thank you for the opportunity to comment on HB HB1032. As a public high school school teacher and parent of two young children (ages 5 and 2) in Virginia, I have serious concerns that this bill will wind up doing more harm than good for the children of our state. As VA Senator Peterson said on January 27 of this year, regarding a similar bill, "I don't think we should be involved in micromanaging school libraries...The problem is that you’re going to sweep up books that you don’t intend to sweep up" (Matthew Barakat, abcnews.go.com). I strongly urge you to leave the books in the libraries for the kids. They deserve to have the opportunity to decide with their own parents and personal support systems what books to read. Thank you, Sara Watkins Mother Teacher Concerned Virginia Citizen
HB1032: How will this process be kept free from politics or personal biases of the people put on boards to select what books to keep? I don't believe it's possible to do so. A gentle reminder that groups that ban books tend to not be remembered as "the good guys". This would be no different. HB1036: The suggestion of this bill should be enough to get the delegate ejected from our state government. The lack of critical thinking skills required to still not believe we should be mitigating the ongoing pandemic is stunning. HB1068: This is a thinly veiled attempt to stop the teaching of important moments in our nations history that paint one particular set of political beliefs in a bad light. This bill is written in bad faith and should not be passed. HB1126: This is a purposeful attempt to turn the public against the "academics" (teachers) similar to what has been seen in countries as fascism was on the rise. Parents did not go to college for childhood development or education, and being a parent does not inherently make you more qualified to decide what materials children should learn. If parents want that level of control, there are private schools that they can spend the money on to receive it. Otherwise, they should leave it to the professionals. HB113: I honestly can't believe this needs to be said. The separation of church and state originated in this state. This should not need to be explained to government officials. Putting anything on government property relating to any religion should not be considered.
This is unnecessary and serves to separate people more. We do not have an established religion in our country; we don't need to proclaim "our trust in god", especially when people do not believe in the same god. I would be disappointed in my school system spending money on this.
I strongly oppose this bill as it violates the separation of church and state that is fundamental to our constitution. Vote no on this bill.
I oppose HB113 due to the jurisprudential concept of separation of church and state. As a teacher and a parent, I don’t want my children being exposed to beliefs that we as a family do not hold. With the amount of abuse and misconduct that continues to be exposed in the Catholic Church, as well as other religions, the sayings that involve god do not apply to all citizens. We cannot put a blanket statement on all people if we want to treat all people equally.
I strongly oppose HB113 and anyone who supports the Constitution and constitutional rights should be as well. What happened to the separation of Church and State? Religion has no place being taught or advertised in our schools or on our school buses. This would also show a message of ONE religion as being the right or dominant one. There are many religions practiced by our students and staff, and that is a part of what diversity is. Displaying these messages on buses shows students and families when students are picked up for school each morning that their religion and culture does not matter to Virginia's public school system, because only one religion is acceptable. I strongly encourage you to vote no on this bill.
Millions of Americans don't believe in a god, and forcing their children to grow up reading "In God We Trust" or "One Nation Under God" on their bus every day seems like cult-like behavior with its aggressive proselytizing and manipulative and authoritarian mind control. The role of schools is to educate children, not brainwash them toward a particular religion. Let religiously-affiliated private schools put those stickers on their buses if they'd like. There is no need for that in a free society where government cannot tell its citizens what to believe. Imagine if a non-Christian had to submit to the sticker "In Jesus We Trust". If we need stickers on our buses, let's return to our traditional, inclusive, American motto: "E Pluribus Unum."
Please vote no on this bill. Placing these messages on school property will only serve as a reminder of divisions that exist between peoples and further divide students into Us vs Them sects. Instead, we should be looking for ways to unify the student body and remind everyone that, regardless of race, sex, color, creed, orientation, etc, we are all Americans.
This bill quite frankly violates the first amendment of the constitution. Religion has no place in Virginia Public Schools and quite frankly, putting "in god we trust" on our buses will impose religion onto students.
Separation of church and state. I would not want my child to ride these busses. Please stop imposing your views on others and parent your own kids.
Greetings legislators, I ask that you oppose HB113 as it Violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution. Our public schools must have a separation of church and state. This bill favors monotheistic Abrahamic religions over polytheistic religions and those who are atheists— this creates and an issue of inequality and marginalization of these groups. Allow me to share a little history lesson: "One Nation Under God" comes from the Pledge of Allegiance. The original Pledge was written by Christian socialist minister and writer, Francis Bellamy. "One Nation Under God" was added to the Pledge of Allegiance, on Flag Day of 1954 when Congress passed the law. The pledge used to be recited with the right hand in the “Bellamy Salute" (named after Francis Bellamy) with the right hand resting first outward from the chest, then the arm extending out from the body. Once Hitler came to power in Europe, Americans were concerned that this position of the arm and hand resembled the Nazi or Fascist salute and in schools today we put our right hand over heart only. This change was made in 1942 when Congress established the current practice of reciting the pledge with the right hand over the heart. As an educator, I've seen students and staff who opt-out of reciting the pledge for religious and political reasons. Many students cannot simply opt-out of riding the bus to school. As we provide a public service to our communities, we must ensure that we are being equitable and inclusive. Making such changes will be oppressive and marginalizing to students, staff, and our communities within the Commonwealth of Virginia. In closing, if any such changes should be made to our bus fleets, it should be by switching from diesel to electric. This bill is not financially sound and the money that would be spent on putting on these decals can be used elsewhere. Thank you for reading my comment. I look forward to you opposing HB113.
The first amendment of the US Constitution stipulates freedom of religion, and the separation of church and state is part and parcel of how things are supposed to work in the USA. Mandating "in God we trust" and "one nation under God" to be put on buses of public schools runs completely counter to that.
I ask that you categorically oppose HB113 as it Violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution. It establishes a government preference for some religions over others or none. Our public schools exist to educate ALL students and that means students of all religions and no religion. Please oppose or amend HB344. While extending the agency of instituting charter schools to the state at large MAY be a desirable outcome (I remain unconvinced on this but openminded), the ability of local citizens to appeal the decision of the Board should not be removed. Citizens deserve the opportunity to revisit the determination of the Board and to additional information to strengthen their case for or against. Please oppose HB37. Local school boards should retain the decision power re the necessity of SROs. In general I am against the eroding of local control of schools. And in this specific case locations do exist where the presence of LEO’s in the educational setting will be more disrupting than helpful. I ask that you categorically oppose HB4. Schools should absolutely retain the right to determine when misdemeanors committed while in school should be reported to law enforcement. Crimes rising above the misdemeanor level should be required reporting. Please oppose HB8 Schools need fewer guns not more in them.
Please oppose HB113. Our public schools exist to educate ALL students and that means students of all religions and no religion. Students should not begin or end their day feeling marginalized by the institution that exists to serve them all. Please oppose or amend HB344. While extending the agency of instituting charter schools to the state at large may be a desirable outcome, the opportunity to appeal the decision of the Board should not be removed. Citizens deserve the opportunity to revisit the determination of the Board and to present a strengthened case. Please oppose HB37. Local school boards should retain the purview to determine if school resource officers are installed in their school based on their citizenry, cultural norms, and level of disruption in the school environment. Many environments exist where the presence of law enforcement in the educational setting will be more disrupting than helpful. Please oppose HB4. Schools should retain the purview to determine when misdemeanors committed while in school should be reported to law enforcement. Crimes are committed in many settings that do not result in the involvement of law enforcement. Staff and teachers who are attempting to build relationships of trust and nurturing with students should not be mandated into law enforcement referrals in instances where pursuing such discipline responses as restorative practices could result in positive and meaningful growth without funneling students into an already robust school to prison pipeline.
HB113 - Violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution as it establishes a government preference for monotheistic religions, implying an exclusion of atheism and polytheism. HB37 Excessive contact between LEO and Students can cause common discipline issues to be escalated in to criminal issues that could potentially ruin a child's life (School to prison pipeline) HB59 like HB4 criminalizes the same school discipline issues that we may have committed as kids ourselves. This will further feed the school to prison pipeline and given the statistics regarding incarceration and prosecution in the Commonwealth, I suspect that this would impact minority communities more than white communities HB8 Looks like another attempt to introduce "Armed Mentors" into Virginia schools. Schools need fewer guns not more in them.