Student literacy programs and plans; certain adjustments. Prohibits any Department of Education-approved student literacy screener that is administered to identify deficiencies that warrant reading intervention services for students in grades kindergarten through eight from commencing earlier than the tenth full instructional day of the academic year, and requires the testing window established by the Department to extend no fewer than 15 full instructional days to ensure adequate instructional readiness and equitable access. The bill requires (i) the Department's template for student reading plans to (a) auto-populate all available student data from the results on the literacy screener provided by the Department; (b) minimize duplicative manual data entry; (c) authorize the use of standardized instructional profiles for students presenting substantially similar literacy needs, where appropriate; and (d) permit the batch creation of plans when it is appropriate to the instructional context; (ii) the Department to annually compile, in a de-identified format, themes and trends reported through division-level educator feedback mechanisms related to the implementation of the literacy screeners provided by the Department and the development of reading plans; and (iii) prior to the statewide implementation of any substantial modification to the literacy screeners provided by the Department or associated data systems, the Department to conduct an implementation feasibility analysis that assesses system readiness, teacher workload impact, and anticipated training needs. The bill also establishes several new requirements for divisionwide literacy plans.
Sales and use tax on taxable services and digital personal property; taxes levied in certain transportation districts; funding for transportation. Decreases the retail sales and use tax from 4.3 percent to four percent and expands such tax to taxable services, defined in the bill, and digital personal property, also defined in the bill, beginning on January 1, 2027. Additionally, the bill imposes (i) an additional retail sales and use tax in any county or city that is a member of the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission at the rate of 0.385 percent; any county or city that is embraced by the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority but that is not a member of the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission at the rate of 0.615 percent; and any county or city that is a member of the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission at the rate of 0.2 percent; (ii) a retail delivery fee in the amount of 20 cents upon each retail delivery, defined in the bill, made in any county or city located within the Northern Virginia Transportation District or the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission; and (iii) a regional highway use fee on all vehicles in the Commonwealth that are subject to the existing highway use fee.
Zoning; development and use of accessory dwelling units. Requires a locality to include in its zoning ordinances for single-family residential zoning districts accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, as defined in the bill, as a permitted accessory use. The bill requires a person to seek a permit for an ADU from the locality, requires the locality to issue such permit if the person meets certain requirements enumerated in the bill, and restricts the fee for such permit to $500 or less. The bill prohibits the locality from requiring (i) construction of new dedicated parking for an ADU in most instances; (ii) setbacks for the ADU more than five feet from the property line; (iii) conditions for ADUs that are more restrictive than those for single-family dwellings within the same zoning area with regard to height, rear or side setbacks, lot size or coverage, or building frontage; or (iv) consanguinity or affinity between the occupants of the ADU and the primary dwelling. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2027.
Eminent domain; condemnation of public waterworks systems; determination of lost profits. Requires the body determining just compensation in a condemnation proceeding initiated by a locality for the taking of a waterworks system to consider in its determination of lost profits the difference between the rates, fees, and charges for water service provided by (i) the condemning locality or authority and (ii) the owner on the date of valuation. The bill requires, upon the petition of any party or upon the request of the court, that such determination of lost profits be commensurately reduced to the extent that the body determining just compensation and the court find to be just and reasonable.
Time zone; permanent Eastern Standard Time in the Commonwealth. Provides that the Commonwealth shall observe Eastern Standard Time year-round upon the District of Columbia and the State of Maryland enacting legislation providing that United States Eastern Standard Time shall be observed in all parts of the respective district or state year-round.
Surplus real property; prioritization of disposition for affordable and middle-income housing. Requires the Department of General Services to determine whether, following an offer of surplus property to the chief administrative officer of the locality within which the surplus property is located, as well as to any economic development entity for such locality, such surplus property is suitable for the development of affordable housing, as defined by the bill. If the Department so determines, the bill provides that such property shall be offered for at least 90 days exclusively to eligible organizations, as defined by the bill, for the purpose of developing affordable housing, provided that the terms of the disposition include a recorded covenant to provide affordable housing for at least 30 years. The bill also requires the chief administrative officer of each locality to prepare and maintain an inventory of all real property within its jurisdiction to which the locality holds fee simple title and that the locality has determined to be feasible for the development of affordable and middle-income housing. If the governing body of a locality chooses to dispose of such a property, such property shall be offered for at least 90 days exclusively to public or private entities, for the purpose of developing affordable and middle-income housing, through purchase, lease, exchange, or donation in return for a recorded covenant to provide affordable housing for at least 30 years.
Time zone; permanent daylight saving time in the Commonwealth. Provides that the Commonwealth shall observe Eastern Daylight Time (Eastern Standard Time, advanced one hour) year-round upon the enactment by Congress of a law allowing states to observe Eastern Daylight Time year-round.
A BILL to amend the Code of Virginia by adding sections numbered 2.2-1500 through 2.2-1545, relating to government efficiency; agency reporting requirements; healthcare financing reform; Interagency Health Financing Task Force; managed care organization performance review; housing regulatory review; procurement reform; technology consolidation; real property management; personnel efficiency; federal funding contingency; establishment of the Joint Subcommittee on Government Efficiency; data integration and transparency.
Authority of school division to request motor vehicle registration numbers. Provides that any school division may request the vehicle registration number of a vehicle owned or operated by any person using the services or facilities of the school division.
Mutual aid agreements; public safety radio equipment. Requires localities that have entered into certain public safety mutual aid agreements to provide access to the information necessary to program the public safety radio equipment owned or used by such locality, such as radio frequencies and security and encryption keys.
Artificial Intelligence Chatbots Act established; prohibited practices; penalties. Creates the Artificial Intelligence Chatbots Act, which prohibits an operator from making a companion chatbot, as those terms are defined in the bill, available to a user in the Commonwealth unless the companion chatbot is incapable of certain actions specified in the bill. The bill also requires an operator of a companion chatbot to include a disclaimer to users of all ages that a companion chatbot is not a human via a static, persistent disclosure and notify a user via a pop-up that he is not engaging with a human counterpart at specified intervals. The bill makes it unlawful for any operator of a companion chatbot to operate or provide a companion chatbot to a user unless such companion chatbot contains a protocol to take reasonable efforts for detecting and addressing expressions of suicidal ideation or self-harm by a user to the companion chatbot. The bill also includes certain data privacy and transparency requirements. The bill provides that a violation of its provisions constitutes a prohibited practice under the Virginia Consumer Protection Act.
A BILL to amend and reenact §§ 16.1-264, 18.2-51.1, 18.2-57, 18.2-60.3, 19.2-152.8, 19.2-249, 19.2-56.2, 19.2-59.1, 19.2-81, 19.2-81.3, and 65.2-102 of the Code of Virginia, relating to authority of fire marshals.
