Admission of evidence; evidentiary hearing; excluded persons. Exempts one person whose presence, in the judgment of the court, would be supportive of the complaining witness and would not impair the conduct of a fair hearing or pose a substantial risk of influencing or affecting the content of the testimony from being excluded from evidentiary hearings for certain prosecutions. The bill provides that if such support person is exempted, the judge shall admonish such support person to not prompt, communicate with, or influence the complaining witness in any way. Lastly, the bill provides that a court may exercise its discretion to remove the support person from the courtroom if it believes such support person is prompting, communicating with, or influencing the complaining witness.
Advanced Emergency Training and First Aid Equipment Grant Fund and Program established. Establishes the Advanced Emergency Training and First Aid Equipment Grant Fund and Program for the purpose of awarding grants from the Fund on a merit-based, competitive basis to school divisions to cover the cost of advanced emergency training of school board employees whose positions involve regular interaction with students and to purchase emergency first aid equipment for schools in the school division.
Department of Education; statewide mobile application for student reporting of suspicious activity. Requires the Department of Education, with such funds as may be appropriated for such purpose pursuant to the general appropriation act or provided from any other source, and alone or in partnership with another state agency or a nonprofit organization, or a combination thereof, to develop or procure a multiplatform compatible mobile application that is made available at no cost to each public elementary and secondary school student and that permits each such student to report suspicious activity, including by attaching screenshots, other photographs, and videos, to the appropriate school and local law-enforcement officials for analysis and potential response. The bill requires the Department to assist each school board to coordinate student awareness of and access to such mobile application but provides that no school board shall bear any cost or additional administrative burden relating to such mobile application.
Public institutions of higher education; admissions and enrollment; certain Virginia student yields required. Requires, beginning with the incoming freshman class in the fall semester of the 2026-2027 academic year and for each admissions and enrollment period thereafter, each public institution of higher education to establish and implement admissions practices that yield total Virginia student enrollment of at least 78.5 percent at the institution.
Tax increment financing; use of other local taxes. Authorizes the governing body of a county, city, or town to apply tax revenues from sources other than real estate taxes for use in tax increment financing of development projects. Under current law, only real estate taxes are specifically authorized to be used for such projects. The governing body may choose any or all of such taxes to be applied in such manner. The amount of revenues to be so used shall be the amount of the increase of such taxes collected in the development project area in a given year compared with the base amount of revenues prior to the establishment of such area. The local taxes that may be so applied include local sales and use taxes, merchants' capital taxes, license taxes, admissions taxes, transient occupancy taxes, meals taxes, and other local taxes and fees for utilities and transportation purposes.
Damage or trespass to public services or utilities; penalty. Provides that any person who intentionally destroys or damages any facility, fixtures, equipment, or information technology system used to provide, process, transmit, furnish, or maintain public services, utilities, or other critical infrastructure is guilty of a Class 3 felony. Under current law, any person convicted of intentionally destroying or damaging public services or utilities is guilty of a Class 4 felony. If the destruction or damage to such public services, utilities, or other critical infrastructure can be repaired for less than $1,000, such act is a Class 1 misdemeanor. Current law provides that repairable damage is a Class 3 misdemeanor. The bill also makes it a Class 3 felony if such destruction or damage might threaten the release of increased radioactive materials or ionizing radiation. If exposure to such increased release of radioactive materials or ionizing radiation causes injury to another person, the person causing the damage or destruction is guilty of a Class 2 felony; however, it is a Class 1 felony if such damage or destruction causes the death of another person.
Discretionary sentencing guideline midpoints; violent felony offenses. Adds to and removes certain felony offenses from the list of violent felony offenses for discretionary sentencing guideline midpoints. Offenders with prior convictions for violent felony offenses receive "enhancements" on the guidelines that increase the recommended sentences for those offenders. The bill contains technical amendments.
Publication of legal notices; website. Allows a locality to publish legal notices on the locality's website instead of, or in addition to, publishing such notices in a newspaper having general circulation in the locality.
Admission to bail; rebuttable presumptions against bail for an alien illegally present in the United States. Creates a rebuttable presumption against bail for an alien illegally present in the United States charged with certain criminal offenses enumerated in the bill. The bill also requires the court to consider specified factors when determining whether the presumption against bail has been rebutted and whether there are appropriate conditions of release.
Disclosures in land use proceedings; statewide application. Alters certain land use disclosure requirements applicable to officials in any county with the urban county executive form of government (Fairfax County) by replacing "relationship of employee-employer, agent-principal, or attorney-client" with the broader phrase of "business or financial relationship." The bill makes the same change to existing provisions that currently apply only to Loudoun County and applies the change statewide.
Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry; offenses requiring registration; purchase or sale of minors; penalty. Adds the crime of purchasing or selling of minors to the list of offenses requiring registration in the Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry.
Earned income tax credit. Allows eligible low-income taxpayers to claim a refundable income tax credit equal to 20 percent of the federal earned income tax credit claimed that year by the taxpayer for the same taxable year. The bill also states that individuals who would have been entitled to the federal equivalent of this credit but for the fact that the individual, the individual's spouse, or one or more of the individual's children does not have a valid social security number are eligible to claim this credit. Under current law, taxpayers may choose to claim either a nonrefundable tax credit equal to 20 percent of the federal earned income tax credit claimed that year or a refundable tax credit equal to 15 percent of the federal earned income tax credit claimed that year.
