Community Schools, Office of; established within Department of Education.

Public education; community schools; Officeof Community Schools at Department of Education; Community School Development and Implementation Planning Grant; Community SchoolCoordinator Program; state goal. Requires the Department of Educationto establish the Office of Community Schools as an office within the Department for the purpose of supporting the development and growthof community schools throughout the Commonwealth in accordance withthe Virginia Community School Framework and requires the Office to establish and administer (i) the Community School Development and Implementation Planning Grant for the purpose of providing grantsto school boards that seek to designate any school within the localschool division as a community school to assist with the planningand implementation of such designation and (ii) the Community SchoolCoordinator Program for the purpose of providing funding to schoolboards that previously completed a planning grant and now seek toemploy or hire through contracted services with a qualified nonprofitorganization a community school coordinator to oversee any communityschool designated in the local school division. The bill also establishesa state goal of prioritizing funding for such initiatives and grantprograms to enable their expansion to serve the top 33 percent ofpublic elementary and secondary schools in the Commonwealth for highestidentified student percentage, as defined in the bill, based on datafrom the immediately preceding school year.