Good afternoon Madam Chair. My name is Mike Asip and I am the Policy Chair of the Virginia Council of Administrators of Special Education. I want to thank Del. Laufer for bringing HB85 before this body. I speak for my organization strongly in support of HB85, which seeks to create a postsecondary transition counselor certificate program that can improve successful enrollment, support, and performance of students with disabilities in Virginia's two and four year colleges and universities. Some of our students are provided extensive services in their Pre-K-12 settings and could be capable in college with the added support of a skilled transition counselor. That hand off and supports from secondary to post secondary settings would make a tremendous difference for our students. HB85 is a low-risk, high-leverage strategy. There is no mandated hiring, no required participation, and no state budget impact. Our students with disabilities in post secondary demonstrate completion gaps that persist even when students are academically qualified, indicating barriers related to support and navigation rather than ability. I am aware of other states that provide more than accommodations, with support services that close this completion gap. We would appreciate the subcommittee's support of HB85 for the futures of Virginia students with disabilities, enhancing Virginia's educational opportunities and workforce development. Thank you Madam Chair and members of the Subcommittee.

Comments Document

On behalf of the Virginia Division on Career Development and Transition (VADCDT), we ask that you review our attached written letter of support for Delegate Laufer's HB85 to require the State Council of Higher Education to develop and establish a Virginia-specific postsecondary transition counselor certificate program.

Good afternoon Madam Chair. My name is Katie Smith and I work at Henrico County Public Schools as the Director of Special Education and also am a member of the Virginia Council of Exceptional Children and Council of Administrators of Special Education. I am strongly in support of HB85, which seeks to create a postsecondary transition counselor certificate program that can improve successful enrollment, support, and performance of students with disabilities in Virginia's two and four year colleges and universities. Some of our students are provided extensive services in their Pre-K-12 settings and could be capable in college with the added support of a skilled transition counselor. Many of our transition supports are geared towards supporting students who are not college bound, and a transition counselor would help significantly to ensure we provide a balance of resources and support to all students with disabilities and their families/guardians to ensure post-secondary success. Again, please support HB85 for the futures of Virginia students with disabilities . I would like to thank Del. Laufer for patroning this bill. Thank you Madam Chair and members of the Subcommittee.

Good afternoon Madam Chair. My name is Lauran Ziegler and am a retired special educator of 38 years in both Chesterfield and Hanover Schools and a member of the Virginia Council of Administrators of Special Education. I speak for my organization strongly in support of HB85, which seeks to create a postsecondary transition counselor certificate program that can improve successful enrollment, support, and performance of students with disabilities in Virginia's two and four year colleges and universities. Some of our students are provided extensive services in their Pre-K-12 settings and could be capable in college with the added support of a skilled transition counselor. In my many ears as a special educator I have seen that opening opportunities for special education students to access post secondary support will enable our students to continue to achieve their goals in careers and life. Again, please support HB85 for the futures of Virginia students with disabilities. We thank Del. Laufer for patroning this bill. Thank you Madam Chair and members of the Subcommittee."

All religions have the right to pray. The right is for everyone especially Christian’s and Jewish people who have been assaulted by violent rioters like Antifa, and radical leftists. Respect everyone equally in our state.

I applaud Del. Simon’s bill HB131 that will allow all students to practice their religion while on their campuses of higher learning. It is essential that we uphold our right to celebrate our faith for all Americans, as long as the separation of church and state is properly protected and upheld. Please support HB131.

As co-chair of the Virginia Coalition for Human Rights, an organization that supports all human rights with our emphasis on Palestinian rights, I want to express our support for Del Simon's bill. It is vital that students of all religious beliefs are afforded the rights to practice their religion on our college campuses. Thanks to Del Simon for introducing the bill and I hope that it will be approved by the subcommittee and passed in the House and Senate.

Thank you for the opportunity to submit comments in support of HB383. My name is Richard Cheng and I am a Scrum Alliance Certieid Scrum Trainer (CST) and a Kanban University Accredited Kanban Trainer (AKT). I am writing based on my direct professional experience working with organizations that either are or were SCHEV certified, including Excella Training, NextUp Solutions, and Sprightbulb Training. While I fully support appropriate oversight of higher education, the SCHEV certification requirements place a significant and costly burden on professional training organizations like ours, particularly in terms of ongoing maintenance, reporting, and administrative overhead. Agile, Scrum, and Kanban training programs are already governed by rigorous and well established professional bodies, most notably Scrum Alliance and Kanban University. These organizations enforce strict standards for curriculum, instructor qualification, learning objectives, and certification integrity. In practice, this professional governance already provides strong consumer protection and quality assurance. Our courses are short duration professional classes, typically ranging from one to three days, and they lead to well regulated, industry recognized certifications. They are not degree programs, nor are they intended to function as traditional academic education. The current SCHEV requirements create practical challenges that directly impact students. Each physical training location must be separately certified, which makes it difficult to move classes to locations that are more accessible or better suited to student needs. In addition, the administrative overhead slows our ability to rapidly introduce new courses, even when those courses are created and released by Scrum Alliance or Kanban University in response to evolving industry demand. HB383 provides a reasonable and targeted exemption that recognizes the unique nature of professional Agile training while preserving appropriate oversight through existing professional certification bodies. I strongly support its passage. Thank you for your consideration. Richard Cheng

Comments Document

See attachment.

I write today in support of HB427 to include Student Parents in data collection at institutions of higher education in Virginia. Too often parenting students are left out of funding consideration due to being an invisible population on campuses across the country. One in five students in undergraduate programs are also parenting children under the age of 18. Parenting students are often faced with barriers to their success through no fault of their own. Parenting students face having to reduce working hours, spend less time caring for their children, and reducing sleep in order to be successful students. These factors can cause parenting students to drop out or stop out of their educations at higher rates than their non-parenting peers. By including parenting students in data we can offer better support to the unique challenges that student parents face when trying to be successful in their educations. As a former parenting student who now supports parenting families, I know first hand the difficulties and invisibility faced by these students. Biases against parenting students still exist in higher education settings; yet these students show up everyday without asking for help and suffering in silence. We owe it to them to say that we see you and we count you, because you matter. Please vote yes on HB427, so we can count the many students who are parenting and support them in their success.

Madam Chair, members of the committee. My name is Jordan Hill and I am a student at Virginia Commonwealth University. I also have the honor to serve as the chapter's First Vice President for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People at the campus. The cost of tuition keeps increasing every year by the Board of Visitors. This continues to happen but there is no benefit of improvement for the students population. Limiting our additional cost and include them into tuition would be a great benefit for all. I am personally aware of the silents efforts that have a similar objective within this scope on our campus as well.