Virginia Law

A. In-service training school/sessions.

1. In-service training shall be obtained by attending and completing an approved in-service training school or a series of approved in-service training sessions which combined comply with the compulsory in-service training standards. Such training must be attended at a certified training academy unless provided otherwise in accordance with 6VAC20-30-50 B and C.

2. Criminal justice officers attending approved in-service training shall not be placed on duty or on call except in cases of emergency.

3. Individuals who maintain training certification in secondary functions may comply with the compulsory in-service training standards by attending 40 hours of approved in-service training, provided that all legal training requirements are included for the designated secondary function(s) and that the career development/elective training is job related.

B. Partial in-service credit.

1. Individual. Upon written request of the chief of police, sheriff or agency administrator, the director may authorize attendance and successful completion of job-related courses for partial in-service credit. Such request shall be submitted no later than 60 days following the last day of the course. Whenever possible, such request should be submitted prior to the beginning date of the course. Any request for partial in-service credit shall include the name of the sponsoring agency, name and location of the course, and a curriculum which shall include at a minimum the date, time and instructor for each subject included in the course. Attendance shall be documented and submitted to the department for approval.

All such requests from the Department of Corrections shall be reviewed and endorsed by the training manager prior to being forwarded to the department for consideration.

2. Course. The director may approve job-related training courses offered by training providers that have not been certified as criminal justice academies as meeting the requirements to receive partial in-service credit. Requests for such approval shall be submitted 60 days prior to the commencement of the course on forms provided by the department. Courses meeting the minimum criteria may be approved for one year or until the course content is revised, whichever occurs first. The sponsoring provider shall document attendance. It shall be the responsibility of the officer receiving training to ensure that documentation of attendance is submitted to a certified training academy for tracking and subsequent submission to the department. The sponsoring agency shall also certify to the agency administrator that the officer successfully completed the course. The department shall only consider for approval requests from providers where there is an indication that criminal justice officers from Virginia have attended or will attend the course for which approval is requested.

This subdivision shall not apply to any criminal justice agency or certified training academy in this Commonwealth.

C. In-service credit for multi-media criminal justice programming.

1. Tested multimedia training. Training received via multimedia programs utilizing computer-generated or agency-administered objective-based testing may be applied toward in-service credit if:

a. The training program is approved by the academy director or designee, and the instructional topic is directly related to criminal justice;

b. A post-viewing objective-based examination covering the instructional material is administered to the student by the academy director or designee, or administered via the multimedia presentation, and the student has no access to the examination or ability to affect, alter, or destroy the examination questions or examination results;

c. The student achieves a minimum passing score of 70% or above on a postviewing examination, scored by the academy director or designee, or the computer;

d. All postviewing examinations administered, and their results, shall be maintained in accordance with the appropriate Library of Virginia retention schedule. These records shall be made available to the department upon request.

2. Administrative requirements. The academy director of the certified academy that approves multimedia training shall determine the number of hours of in-service credit to be awarded for each multimedia training session.