CHAPTER 13
An Act to direct the Board of Education to take certain actions regarding the Commonwealth's participation in the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Approved March 16, 2005
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. § 1. That, pursuant to § 9401 of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (the Act), the Board of Education shall seek waivers from compliance with those provisions of the Act that are (i) in conflict with Title IX, Section 9527 (a), which prohibits federal authorities from mandating, directing, or controlling state or local allocation of resources and from mandating state or local expenditure of funds or incursion of any costs not paid for under the Act; or (ii) duplicative of the Commonwealth's existing educational accountability system as set forth in the Standards of Quality, Standards of Learning, and Standards of Accreditation; or (iii) lacking in effectiveness, including, but not necessarily limited to, those addressing (a) testing of students with disabilities or limited English proficiency; (b) additional or excessive testing; (c) exclusion of passing scores on expedited retakes of Standards of Learning assessments from calculations of adequate yearly progress; (d) measurement of adequate yearly progress based on, among other things, individual grade levels rather than longitudinal data and individual subgroup failures; (e) the overinclusion of certain students in several subgroups; and (f) components of the Commonwealth's educational accountability system and teacher licensure and employment requirements that, in the discretion of the Board, already substantially comply with the spirit and intent of the federal act.
2. That the Board of Education shall examine the fiscal and other implications for the Commonwealth and its local governments in the event that Virginia continues its compliance with, or withdraws from participation in, the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The Board shall convey its findings from such examination to the House Committees on Education and Appropriations and the Senate Committees on Education and Health and Finance no later than October 1, 2005.
3. That an emergency exists and this act is in force from its passage.