Virginia Law

Article 1. General Provisions.

It is a goal of the Commonwealth that its public school teachers be compensated at a rate that is competitive in order to attract and keep highly qualified teachers. As used in this section, "competitive" means, at a minimum, at or above the national average teacher salary. The Department of Education shall conduct a biennial review of the compensation of teachers and shall consider the Commonwealth's compensation for teachers relative to the national average teacher salary. The results of these reviews shall be reported to the Governor, the General Assembly, and the Board of Education by June 1 of each odd-numbered year.

1987, c. 240; 2006, c. 373; 2017, c. 301; 2020, c. 690.

Public school employees whose active duty service with the regular armed forces of the United States or the National Guard or other reserve component has required their absence from their full-time employment in a school division shall receive supplemental pay as determined by and from the relevant local school division if the military compensation of such employee is less than the regular salary paid to such employee by the school division.

2004, c. 528.

The Board of Education may, out of such funds as may be appropriated for the purpose, provide for the awarding of teaching scholarship loans to students preparing to teach by attending nonprofit institutions of higher education in the Commonwealth whose primary purpose is to provide collegiate or graduate education and not to provide religious training or theological education. The Board shall include in the list of specialties eligible for this scholarship loan program, scholarship loans for students preparing to teach in early childhood programs. Such scholarship loans shall be apportioned and administered pursuant to regulations of the Board.

Code 1950, § 22-21.4; 1973, c. 469; 1980, c. 559; 1990, c. 450.

A. With such funds as may be appropriated for this purpose and any gifts, donations, grants, bequests, and other funds that may be received on behalf of the Program by the Board of Education, there is hereby established the Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program, hereinafter referred to as the "Program," to: (i) increase the number of teacher candidates pursuing careers in critical teacher shortage areas as defined in the Board of Education's Regulations Governing the Determination of Critical Teacher Shortage Areas; (ii) expand eligibility to teacher candidates, including graduate students and paraprofessionals from Virginia school divisions who are enrolled full-time or part-time in an approved teacher education program; (iii) increase the diversity of persons pursuing careers in teaching, including male teacher candidates enrolled in an elementary or middle school education program and minority teacher candidates enrolled in any teaching endorsement area; and (iv) increase the number of teacher candidates pursuing careers in career and technical education.

B. The Board of Education shall establish, in regulation, criteria for determining critical teacher shortage areas for awarding scholarships pursuant to this section. The criteria shall include such factors as the needs in teaching endorsement areas among the several school divisions of the Commonwealth, teacher shortages at the elementary and secondary grade levels, and teacher shortages in rural and urban regions of the Commonwealth.

C. The Program shall be administered by the Board of Education. The Board may promulgate such regulations as may be necessary for the implementation of the Program. The Board shall consult with the State Council of Higher Education in the implementation of the Program.

The Program shall consist of scholarships awarded annually to teacher candidates, including graduate students and paraprofessionals from Virginia school divisions at an accredited baccalaureate private institution of higher education in the Commonwealth or baccalaureate public institution of higher education in the Commonwealth, who (i) are enrolled full-time or part-time in an approved teacher education program or are participants in another approved teacher education program; (ii) have maintained a cumulative grade point average of at least 2.7 on a 4.0 scale or its equivalent; and (iii) are nominated for such scholarship by the institution where they are enrolled. In addition, the candidates must meet one or more of the following criteria: (a) be enrolled in a program leading to an endorsement in a critical shortage area as established by the Board of Education; (b) be a male teacher candidate in an elementary or middle school education program; (c) be a minority teacher candidate enrolled in any teacher endorsement area; or (d) be a student in an approved teacher education program leading to an endorsement in career and technical education.

D. Before any teaching scholarship is awarded in accordance with the provisions of this section, the scholarship recipient shall sign a promissory note agreeing (i) to pursue an approved teacher education program full-time or part-time at an accredited baccalaureate private institution of higher education in the Commonwealth or baccalaureate public institution of higher education in the Commonwealth or another approved teacher education program and (ii) upon graduation, to begin teaching in the public schools of the Commonwealth in a critical teaching shortage discipline or in a career and technical education discipline or, regardless of teaching discipline, in a school with a high concentration of students eligible for free or reduced lunch or in a rural or urban region of the Commonwealth with a teacher shortage.

Upon program completion, the scholarship recipient shall begin teaching in the public schools of the Commonwealth in the first full academic year after becoming eligible for a teaching license, and shall fulfill the teaching obligation in accordance with the promissory note by teaching continuously in Virginia for the same number of years that he was the beneficiary of such scholarship. Such scholarship recipient may fulfill the teaching obligation by accepting a teaching position (i) in one of the critical teacher shortage disciplines as established by the Board of Education; or (ii) in a career and technical education discipline; or (iii) regardless of teaching discipline, in a school with a high concentration of students eligible for free or reduced lunch; or (iv) in any discipline or at any grade level within a school division with a shortage of teachers, as defined in the Board of Education's Regulations Governing the Determination of Critical Teacher Shortage Areas; or (v) in a rural or urban region of the state with a teacher shortage.

E. The Board of Education may recover the total amount of funds awarded as a scholarship, or the appropriate proportion thereof, including any accrued interest, if the scholarship recipient fails to honor the teaching obligation.

F. There is hereby created in the Department of the Treasury a special nonreverting fund known as the Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Fund, hereinafter referred to as the "Fund." The Fund shall be established on the books of the Comptroller, and any moneys remaining in the Fund at the end of the biennium shall not revert to the general fund but shall remain in the Fund. The Fund shall consist of such moneys as may be appropriated for the Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program and such gifts, donations, grants, bequests, and other funds as may be received on its behalf by the Board of Education. The Fund shall be used solely to fund the Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program. Interest earned on such moneys shall remain in the Fund and be credited to it. Moneys in the Fund shall be used solely to award scholarships pursuant to the Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program as provided in this section. Disbursements from the Fund for such scholarships shall be made by the State Treasurer on warrants issued by the Comptroller upon written request of the President of the Board of Education.

G. The Board of Education and the State Council of Higher Education shall make available to parents, students, teachers, high school counselors, and academic advisors and financial aid administrators at public and private institutions of higher education information concerning the Virginia Teacher Scholarship Loan Program, eligibility for the loans, and the terms and conditions under which such loans are awarded, in order that students interested in pursuing careers in the teaching profession may be advised of the availability of such financial assistance.

2001, c. 660; 2002, c. 889; 2007, c. 31; 2008, cc. 48, 141; 2019, cc. 139, 796.

A. There are hereby established traineeships that shall be awarded to persons who are interested in working in programs for the education of children with disabilities for either part-time or full-time study in programs designed to qualify them as special education personnel in the public schools. Applicants for such traineeships shall be graduates of a recognized institution of higher education.

B. The award of such traineeships shall be made by the State Board, and the number of awards during any one year shall depend upon the amounts appropriated by the General Assembly for this purpose. The amount awarded for each traineeship shall be $450 for a minimum of six semester hours of course work in areas relating to special education to be taken by the applicant during a single semester or summer session.

C. This program shall be administered by the Department of Education under rules and regulations promulgated by the State Board.

2014, c. 484; 2023, cc. 148, 149.

A. As used in this section, unless the context requires a different meaning:

"Clinical faculty member" means a licensed public or private school teacher who meets the standards of the board of visitors or other governing body for acceptance in an institution's clinical faculty program.

"Student teacher" means an individual enrolled in a program for training teachers in an accredited institution of higher education located in this Commonwealth.

"Training institution" means an accredited public or private institution of higher education which has implemented a training program for public school teachers designed to improve skills in supervising and evaluating student teachers.

B. The governing board of any public institution of higher education in the Commonwealth or accredited private institution of higher education in the Commonwealth may establish a clinical faculty program utilizing specially trained public school teachers as supervisors of student teachers. Any such program shall include the following components:

1. Any teacher accepted as a clinical faculty member shall be designated adjunct faculty;

2. Prior to being assigned student teachers, all clinical faculty members shall be required to attend training programs offered by accredited public or private institutions of higher education which are designed to improve their skills in supervising and evaluating student teachers;

3. Clinical faculty members shall be given the responsibility for the grading and evaluation of the student teachers assigned to them in cooperation with appropriate full-time faculty members at the institution; and

4. Such data on the clinical faculty program as may be required by the Board of Education shall be provided by the institution in a timely manner.

C. Any governing board that chooses to implement a clinical faculty program pursuant to subsection B shall develop standards for acceptance of public or private school teachers as clinical faculty members. Public or private school teachers may apply to the institution of higher education for acceptance as clinical faculty members for the purpose of supervising and evaluating student teachers.

D. There is hereby authorized to be appropriated for the purposes of this section such sums as the General Assembly may from time to time determine to be necessary. The Board of Education shall serve as fiscal agent for the training institutions and the clinical faculty programs.

The Board shall allocate from such funds as are appropriated, moneys to participating training institutions for the purpose of compensating clinical faculty members. The Board, in consultation with the training institutions, shall set such compensation.

The Board shall, in cooperation with the State Council of Higher Education, set criteria for the programs implemented by the training institutions. The Board may also issue such guidelines as may be necessary for the implementation of the provisions of this section. The training program criteria set by the Board and the Council and the guidelines issued by the Board shall not be subject to the Administrative Process Act (§ 2.2-4000 et seq.). However, prior to establishing such criteria or issuing such guidelines, the Board and the Council shall consult with the Office of the Attorney General and provide opportunity for public comment.

1990, c. 800; 1992, c. 132.

A. Each school board shall report to the Department of Education annually the number and type of teacher, other instructional personnel, and support staff vacancies in the school division.

B. Each approved education preparation program shall report to the Department of Education annually the number of individuals who completed the program by endorsement area.

C. The Department of Education shall (i) establish deadlines for and the format of the reporting of the data pursuant to subsections A and B and (ii) aggregate and report such data annually on the Department's website.

2020, c. 674.

A. There is hereby established the Teacher Reengagement Program (the Program) for the purpose of addressing instructional personnel shortages and COVID-19 pandemic-related student learning loss.

B. Any school board may hire an individual pursuant to the Program, subject to the following conditions and limitations:

1. The individual works on a part-time basis;

2. The individual is compensated with part-time pay; with any health, dental, and vision insurance coverage that is available to full-time school board employees; or with some combination of such pay and coverage;

3. In the case of an individual who holds a renewable or provisional teaching license issued by the Board, the individual's duties consist of teaching students, providing one-on-one tutoring services to students, or mentoring teachers, or some combination thereof;

4. In the case of an individual who does not hold a renewable or provisional teaching license issued by the Board, the individual has professional experience or expertise in a certain subject matter area and the individual's duties consist of providing one-on-one tutoring services to students in such subject matter area; and

5. The individual complies with all laws, regulations, and school board policies and procedures applicable to part-time school board employees.

C. Any school board that hires any part-time employee pursuant to the Program shall annually report to the Department such data on the implementation of the Program that the Department deems necessary to evaluate its continued effectiveness at addressing instructional personnel shortages and student learning loss.

2023, c. 429.

Repealed by Acts 2011, c. 216, cl. 2.

A. Each school board shall ensure that all elementary school teachers in its employment are provided at least an average of 30 minutes per day during the students' school week as planning time.

B. The Department shall annually collect and present in the Virginia School Survey of Climate and Working Conditions school-level and division-level data on the share of teachers that are provided each working day a lunch break of at least 30 minutes in length and unencumbered by any teaching or supervisory duties.

1995, c. 404; 2000, c. 650; 2009, c. 482; 2024, c. 196.

A. As used in this section:

"Appraisal and advisement" means the act of assisting students in exploring their abilities, interests, skills, and achievement to make decisions and develop immediate and long-range goals and plans.

"Consultation, collaboration, and referrals" means the act of (i) providing information to and receiving information from individuals or teams to support a student's needs; (ii) working and communicating with parents, teachers, administrators, other school staff, and community stakeholders to (a) promote achievement for a specific student or (b) promote systemic change to address the needs of groups of underserved or underrepresented groups of students; and (iii) referring students to outside providers and resources as necessary.

"Crisis counseling" means the act of providing counseling to individual students or small groups of students to help such students navigate critical situations such as emergencies and crises.

"Direct counseling" means school counseling curriculum lessons and activities, individual counseling, small group counseling, crisis counseling, appraisal and advisement, and consultation, collaboration, and referrals. "Direct counseling" does not include program planning and school support.

"Individual counseling" means the act of providing developmentally appropriate, goal-focused, and brief counseling sessions to individual students to address issues relating to mental health and wellness, social and emotional development, academic achievement, and college and career readiness.

"Program planning and school support" means the act of defining, planning, managing, and assessing school counseling activities. "Program planning and school support" includes the act of reviewing data, creating annual student outcome goals, creating action plans and results reports, holding annual administrative conferences, monitoring use-of-time, creating annual and weekly calendars, and facilitating school counseling advisory councils.

"School counseling curriculum lessons and activities" means the act of providing data-informed lessons or activities at the classroom level or on a schoolwide basis to provide students with the knowledge, attitudes, and skills appropriate for their developmental levels.

"Small group counseling" means the act of providing counseling to small groups of students with similar developmental or situational challenges with the goal of improving achievement, attendance, mental health or wellness, or behavioral outcomes.

B. Each school counselor employed by a school board in a public elementary or secondary school shall spend at least 80 percent of his staff time during normal school hours in the direct counseling of individual students or groups of students and may spend up to 20 percent of his staff time during normal school hours on program planning and school support.

2019, c. 139; 2023, cc. 347, 349.

Repealed by Acts 2004, c. 872, cl. 7, effective May 4, 2005.

Each public school board and each administrator of every private or parochial school shall post, in each of their schools, a notice, pursuant to § 63.2-1509, that: (i) any teacher or other person employed in a public or private school who has reason to suspect that a child is an abused or neglected child, including any child who may be abandoned, is required to report such suspected cases of child abuse or neglect to local or state social services agencies or the person in charge of the relevant school or his designee; and (ii) all persons required to report cases of suspected child abuse or neglect are immune from civil or criminal liability or administrative penalty or sanction on account of such reports unless such person has acted in bad faith or with malicious purpose. The notice shall also include the Virginia Department of Social Services' toll-free child abuse and neglect hotline.

2004, cc. 710, 752.

A. As used in this section:

"Abusive conduct" means conduct of a school board employee in the workplace that a reasonable person would find hostile and that is severe enough to cause physical harm or psychological harm to another school board employee based on a determination in which the following factors are considered: the severity, nature, and frequency of the conduct and, when applicable, the continuation of the conduct after a school board employee requests that it cease or demonstrates outward signs of physical harm or psychological harm in the face of the conduct. "Abusive conduct" includes verbal or physical conduct that a reasonable person would find threatening, intimidating, or humiliating; the gratuitous sabotage or undermining of another school board employee's work performance; attempts to exploit another school board employee's known psychological or physical vulnerability; or repeated infliction of verbal abuse, such as the use of derogatory remarks, insults, or epithets. "Abusive conduct" does not include (i) a single act, unless it is especially severe, or (ii) conduct that the school board proves with clear and convincing evidence is necessary for the furtherance of its legitimate and lawful interests.

"Abusive work environment" means a workplace in a school division in which abusive conduct occurs.

"Physical harm" means a material impairment of a school board employee's physical health or bodily integrity, as documented by a licensed physician or another licensed health care provider.

"Psychological harm" means a material impairment of a school board employee's mental health, as documented by a licensed psychologist, psychiatrist, or psychotherapist or another licensed mental health care provider.

B. Each school board shall implement policies and procedures to educate school board employees about bullying, as defined in § 22.1-276.01, and the need to create a bully-free environment.

C. Each school board shall adopt policies to:

1. Prohibit abusive work environments in the school division;

2. Provide for the appropriate discipline of any school board employee who contributes to an abusive work environment; and

3. Prohibit retaliation or reprisal against a school board employee who alleges an abusive work environment or assists in the investigation of an allegation of an abusive work environment.

D. Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit a school board's authority to adopt policies to prohibit any other type of workplace conduct as the school board deems necessary.

2013, c. 575; 2018, c. 488; 2021, Sp. Sess. I, c. 450.

Any division superintendent, member of a school board or other school officer or any principal or teacher in a public school violating any provision of this title shall be guilty of a Class 4 misdemeanor if no other penalty is prescribed.

Code 1950, § 22-215; 1980, c. 559.

A. The Board of Education may (i) issue written reprimand to or (ii) suspend or revoke the administrative or teaching license of any holder of a Board-issued administrative or teaching license who knowingly and willfully commits any of the following acts related to secure mandatory tests administered to students as required by this title or by the Board of Education:

1. Giving unauthorized access to secure test questions;

2. Copying or reproducing all or any portion of any secure test booklet;

3. Divulging the contents of any portion of a secure test;

4. Coaching or assisting examinees during testing or altering test materials or examinees' responses in any way;

5. Making available any answer keys;

6. Failing to follow test security procedures established by the Department of Education;

7. Providing a false certification on any test security form required by the Department of Education;

8. Retaining a copy of secure test questions;

9. Excluding students from testing who are required to be assessed; and

10. Participating in, directing, aiding, assisting in, or encouraging any of the acts prohibited by this section.

For the purposes of this section, "secure test" means an item, question, or test that has not been made publicly available by the Department of Education.

Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit educational personnel from providing input to administrators or other authorized personnel, including school board members and members of the General Assembly, except when done in a manner that violates test integrity or security regarding the accuracy, clarity, or propriety of test items or test administration procedures.

B. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit or restrict the reasonable and necessary actions of the Board of Education, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, or the Department of Education in test development or selection, test form construction, standard setting, test scoring and reporting, or any other related activities which, in the judgment of the Superintendent of Public Instruction or the Board of Education, are necessary and appropriate.

C. Any written reprimand, suspension, or revocation imposed for the acts enumerated in this section shall be rendered pursuant to Board regulations promulgated pursuant to the Administrative Process Act (§ 2.2-4000 et seq.) and § 22.1-298.1, governing the licensure of teachers.

2000, cc. 634, 659; 2004, cc. 939, 955; 2006, cc. 27, 349; 2011, c. 248; 2019, c. 587.

A. The Board of Education shall suspend or revoke the administrative or teaching license it has issued to any person who knowingly and willfully with the intent to compromise the outcome of an athletic competition procures, sells, or administers anabolic steroids or causes such drugs to be procured, sold, or administered to a student who is a member of a school athletic team, or fails to report the use of such drugs by a student to the school principal and division superintendent as required by § 22.1-279.3:1. Any person whose administrative or teaching license is suspended or revoked by the Board pursuant to this section shall be ineligible for three school years for employment in the public schools of the Commonwealth.

B. Any suspension or revocation imposed in accordance with this section shall be rendered pursuant to Board regulations promulgated pursuant to the Administrative Process Act (§ 2.2-4000 et seq.) and § 22.1-298.1, governing the licensure of teachers.

2005, c. 481; 2006, cc. 27, 349.

The Board shall not be authorized to suspend or revoke the administrative or teaching license it has issued to any person who is in default or delinquent in the payment of a federal-guaranteed or state-guaranteed educational loan or work-conditional scholarship solely on the basis of such default or delinquency.

2018, cc. 170, 381.