CHAPTER 587
An Act to provide two-year waivers from third grade Standards of Learning assessments in certain cases.
Approved March 20, 2013
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. § 1. Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, the Board of Education shall grant a two-year waiver from the science or history and social science Standards of Learning assessment requirement, or both, for third grade students to a public elementary school that had an adjusted pass rate of less than 75 percent on the Standards of Learning reading assessments administered during the previous school year and that: (a) applies for a waiver in the form and by the deadline prescribed by the Board pursuant to regulation; (b) hires a full-time reading specialist to work with the third grade students and teachers in the school; (c) develops a system to monitor the academic progress of all third grade students in the subject area in which the assessment waiver is sought, which shall include the administration of a summative assessment or another divisionwide assessment to third grade students in that subject area; (d) commits to publishing the adjusted pass rate of third grade students on such summative assessment or other divisionwide assessment once the results are available; and (e) commits to providing at least 30 minutes of instruction per day to third grade students in the subject area in which the assessment waiver is sought.
The Board of Education shall consider applications and grant waivers based on the criteria above from the third grade Standards of Learning assessment in science or history and social science or both in advance of the 2013-2014 school year, based on the school's adjusted pass rate on the Standards of Learning reading assessments administered during the 2011-2012 school year.
2. That the provisions of this act shall expire on July 1, 2015.