Nursing homes; application requirements. Requires all applicants for a nursing home license to complete and submit an application on a form approved by the Department of Health. Under the bill, the applicant is required to provide certain information in the application form, including information on (i) ownership interests in nursing homes, (ii) pending litigation, (iii) real property related to the nursing home, (iv) secured notes, (v) the financial history of persons mentioned in the application, and (v) contact information for certain persons. The bill requires the Department of Health to publish written notice of all applications for nursing home licensure on its website, including a copy of the application form completed by the applicant and information about the public input and comment process. Under the bill, all applications for nursing home licensure are subject to a 30-day public comment period. The bill allows individuals to request a public hearing on an applicant's suitability for nursing home licensure. The bill sets forth the factors that the Department of Health is required to consider in determining whether to approve or deny an application to operate a nursing home.
Board of Education; procedure for adjusting grievances; definition of "classified instructional support staff." Requires the Board of Education, for the purpose of its regulations that establish the procedure for adjusting grievances, to define "classified instructional support staff" to mean any nonlicensed teacher, both nonexempt and exempt, who is employed in a local school division and involved in classroom instruction and any other full-time or part-time employee who works more than 90 days total in a 200-day school year and to include teaching assistants, long-term substitutes, site-based substitutes, temporary teachers, and other nonlicensed instructors who substitute in the place of licensed teachers.
Department of Health Professions; veterinary medicine; exceptions for care of animals injured in line of duty. Provides an exception to the unauthorized practice of veterinary medicine for any law-enforcement officer, firefighter, or emergency medical services personnel who provides emergency treatment to any animal in his care that is injured in the line of duty.
Unpaved secondary highway funds; improvements; report. Provides that improvements to nonsurface treated secondary highways may, at the discretion of the locality, include changes other than paving, including enhanced maintenance and capital improvements to such highway. The bill directs the Department of Transportation to review and consider methods of improving unpaved secondary highways other than paving such highways and report its findings and recommendations to the Chairs of the House and Senate Committees on Transportation by November 1, 2024.
Study; joint committee of the House Committee on Education and the Senate Committee on Education and Health; challenges faced by and effective strategies for ensuring the sustainable, long-term success of the five historically black colleges and universities in the Commonwealth; report. Establishes a joint committee consisting of five members of the House Committee on Education and three members of the Senate Committee on Education and Health to study the challenges faced by and effective strategies for ensuring the sustainable, long-term success of the five historically black colleges and universities in the Commonwealth–Hampton University, Norfolk State University, Virginia State University, Virginia Union University, and Virginia University of Lynchburg–by discussing, adopting, and recommending to the Governor and the General Assembly for formal recognition and endorsement a comprehensive statewide HBCU Support Plan.
Study; State Council of Higher Education for Virginia; public institutions of higher education in the Commonwealth; guaranteed first-year admission; report. Requests the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia to study the feasibility of implementing a guaranteed first-year admission policy at each public institution of higher education for certain high school graduates in the Commonwealth and report its findings and recommendations no later than the first day of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly.
Elections; voting equipment and systems; State Board approval process; printed receipt for cast ballot. Requires voting systems approved by the State Board of Elections to produce a printed receipt for each voter who has cast a ballot that shows the date and time the voter's ballot was cast, the voter's number corresponding to the order in which ballots were cast, and a list of all the voter's selections on the ballot as recorded by the voting system.
Visitation; petition of grandparent. Removes the provision providing that, in any case or proceeding in which a grandparent has petitioned the court for visitation with a minor grandchild, and a natural or adoptive parent of the minor grandchild is deceased or incapacitated, the grandparent who is related to such deceased or incapacitated parent shall be permitted to introduce evidence of such parent's consent to visitation with the grandparent, in accordance with the rules of evidence and that, if the parent's consent is proven by a preponderance of the evidence, the court may then determine if grandparent visitation is in the best interest of the minor grandchild.
Health insurance; coverage for therapeutic day treatment services. Requires health insurers providing health care plans to provide coverage for therapeutic day treatment services for children with serious emotional disturbances, defined in the in bill as children who have a mental illness diagnosis and have experienced functional limitations due to emotional disturbance, including experiencing a school shooting or the loss of a loved one in a school setting, over the past 12 months on a continuous or intermittent basis. Under the bill, "therapeutic day treatment services" are treatment programs that combine psychotherapeutic interventions with education and mental health and may include evaluation; medication education and management; opportunities to learn and use daily living skills and to enhance social and interpersonal skills; and individual, group, and family counseling. The bill applies to plans delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed on and after January 1, 2025.
Stormwater management regulations; enterprise data center operations. Directs the State Water Control Board to adopt regulations that require certain stormwater management techniques for land disturbances related to the construction, expansion, or operation of an enterprise data center operation, as defined in the bill, that is located within one mile of any land owned or operated as a unit of the National Park Service or designated as a Virginia State Park or state forest.
Department of General Services; Office of Pharmaceutical Services; report. Establishes in the Department of General Services an Office of Pharmaceutical Services to develop and execute a plan to consolidate state agency prescription drug purchasing and pharmacy benefit management programs to increase efficiency in prescription drug purchasing and constrain spending on prescription drugs. The bill directs the Department to provide to the Governor and the General Assembly an interim report on the development of the plan by November 1, 2024, and a final report on the plan by November 1, 2025.
School boards; placement in alternative education programs; disclosure of certain information in delinquency cases. Requires the clerk of any court in which a disposition is entered or deferred in any proceeding where a student is charged with an offense that, pursuant to relevant law, is required to be disclosed to the superintendent of the school division in which the student is enrolled to, upon request of any such division superintendent, provide additional information that may be relevant to such student's placement in an alternative education program, including the circumstances surrounding the disposition or deferred disposition and any conditions ordered in relation to a deferred disposition. If the student is not enrolled in school at the time the disposition is entered or deferred, the clerk is required to send the additional information to the division superintendent of the school in which he was enrolled at the time of the offense, upon request of such division superintendent.
