CHAPTER 526
An Act relating to the requirements for obtaining a high school diploma and students with limited English proficiency.
Approved April 4, 2006
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. § 1. Certain data collection and analysis required.
A. The Board and Department of Education shall collect statewide data on Virginia's public school students with limited English proficiency (LEP) and school division programs for LEP students that shall include, but need not be limited to, (i) the demographics of Virginia's LEP students, including country of origin, first or native language, school attendance in the country of origin, and age and grade of first enrollment in a Virginia public school; standards of learning assessment scores; reasons for dropping out of high school; barriers to high school graduation; graduation rates; kinds of diplomas awarded to LEP students, class standing, and college aspirations and attendance; and (ii) school division programs designed to assist LEP students in academic achievement, such as exercising the option to allow LEP students to attend until attaining the age of 22, providing targeted remediation classes for students who have failed the English 11 standard of learning assessments, summer school English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classes, after-school and weekend tutoring, and other strategies to assist older high school LEP students in meeting graduation requirements.
B. The Board and Department shall (i) analyze the data required to be collected by subsection A in relationship to the requirements for obtaining a high school diploma as set forth in the Standards for Accrediting Public Schools in Virginia, the federal No Child Left Behind Act, and the needs of LEP students; and (ii) by December 1, 2006, recommend to the Senate Committee on Education and Health and the House Committee on Education steps to resolve the issues relating to the requirements for obtaining a high school diploma and students with limited English proficiency that will retain high academic standards and accountability, while assisting such students in their endeavors to obtain an education and to become productive Virginians.