Virginia Law

The Superintendent of Public Instruction shall be the chief executive officer of the public school system and shall have the following duties:

1. Serve as the executive officer of the Virginia Department of Education;

2. Establish and maintain an orderly plan for preserving and making accessible regulations, standards, guidelines, and policies adopted by the State Board of Education;

3. Act as an agent for the State Board of Education and seek board approval on all federal government projects before funds are obtained and the project is implemented. Annual program plans for each program of federal aid to education in which the state desires to participate will be compiled by the superintendent for consolidation review by the State Board of Education prior to submission to the U.S. Office of Education;

4. Prepare or have prepared suitable registers, blanks, and other forms that may be necessary for making appropriate reports to the Virginia Department of Education. By circulars and otherwise, the superintendent shall give information and instruction conducive to the proper organization and conduct of the schools;

5. Require of division superintendents detailed reports annually and special reports from time to time as the superintendent may deem proper, and use all proper means to promote an appreciation of education among the people;

6. Preserve in convenient form in the superintendent's office all papers, documents, and records relating to educational work in Virginia and in other states;

7. Prepare, as prescribed by law, a plan for apportioning the money appropriated by the state for public school purposes;

8. Provide for the superintendent's office a suitable official seal with which official documents may be authenticated;

9. Submit annually to the State Board of Education on or before the first day of November a detailed report of the superintendent's official proceedings for the year ending the 30th day of June preceding, including receipts and expenditures for the public schools, a statistical report showing the number of children, male and female, respectively in the state, and in each county and city, compensation paid teachers, the cost of education per pupil, and whatever else may tend to exhibit the real conditions of the schools. It shall be the duty of the superintendent to offer suggestions to the State Board of Education and to the General Assembly concerning matters pertaining to the Department of Education at any time that the public interest seems to require it; and

10. The State Board of Education authorizes the Superintendent of Public Instruction to approve, in compliance with § 22.1-98 of the Code of Virginia, reductions in the school term for a school or the schools in a school division without a proportionate reduction in the amount paid by the Commonwealth from the Basic School Aid Fund.