Virginia Board of Education Business Meeting 7/31/25

001[Music] [Applause] So that piece um on a landscape um for those of you aren't up on your uh Native American Puma uh language loosely or doesn't loosely translate but it translate to salt river basin. So, if you're familiar with the southern part of Arizona, there's a Salt River that flows through uh the southern portion of that. Um, and that's where you find the Puma tribe. Um, that is a favorite location of um the inspiration for that piece, which is a notable guitar conductor from Arizona, his good buddy, the composer of the piece, decided he would dedicate a piece forward based on some of his favorite landscapes. And so we're keeping the idea of landscapes and rivers. What better way to actually play something about rivers if you're going to do an afternoon than to do

002an arrangement of Shannidor. We hope you enjoy it. Thank you. [Music] [Applause] Thank you so much to everyone for um the beautiful performance that we had this morning. Um, just wanted to reiterate that we had some techical technical difficulties this morning um and had just a few minutes of our meeting that were not able to be livereamed. Those those few minutes will be are recorded and will be posted um on the board's website as soon as possible. If not now, they might be up. Those those recordings might be up. Um, but as we proceed in our meeting, we will begin public comment. And as stated in the board's bylaws, it's the pleasure of the board to accept public comment on all matters related to public education in Virginia. Before we begin public comment today, I

003wanted to share a few comments about the manner in which public comment will be conducted. I ask that you model professionalism, dignity, and respect for others as you share your thoughts today. As adults, it's important that we model respectful civil public discourse for students and the children who are either in attendance today or may be watching in our live stream now or in the future. When you begin, please provide your name, your role or affiliation, and where you live in Virginia. All remarks must be directed to the chair, not to any other individual. Speakers will have three minutes to share their remarks. You'll notice the uh timer on the green screen over here. It will begin green with three minutes. At one minute, the screen will turn yellow and the screen will turn red when

004your time is up. At that point, please close your remarks promptly. Speakers may provide copies of their comments to Mr. Joe Crook. Joe, would you mind raising your hand? Thank you. Joe is the department's regulatory and board coordinator. All written comments received during the public comment period will be collected and provided to the board as soon as possible after public comment. You may also email a copy of your remarks to the board at be.vergirginiapeldout.gov. Um and with that I will call Scott Braybrand first followed by Lan [Music] President Cesy, Superintendent Gullixson, and members of the board of education. My name is Scott Bray Brand. I'm executive director for the Virginia Association of School Superintendent, and I live in Lynburg, Virginia. First, I want to on behalf of VAS extend a warm welcome to Mr. Monk

005and Mr. Green. Uh, welcome, and we thank you for your service to the Commonwealth of Virginia. Bass also wants to thank state superintendent Emilianne Gullixson for her continued communication and collaboration with superintendent, especially around advocacy for federal funding. We appreciate her and Governor Yncan's efforts to secure a full release of those federal title funds for this year. Their continued advocacy for federal funding is very much appreciated. Today, we're also pleased to see the continuing support of school construction projects through the literary fund. We're glad to hear about the continued expansion of the child care subsidy program that helps expand labor force participation, which remains a key issue as we face teacher vacancy challenges. We also appreciate the updates around increased flexibility for small and rural school divisions around school transportation alternatives. We welcome the first

006review of the highquality work-based learning implementation guide. This is a key document for school divisions and we will fully review it and offer any necessary feedback as we work to implement the experiences this year. However, one initial piece of feedback VAS respectfully requests and ask for one year of transition to implementing this guide so that schools can properly set up these six new highquality work-based experiences. Please provide the flexibility especially for the 2526 graduating class of seniors who did course selection in January or February before this requirement was fully defined. We look forward to uh the support and resources of VDOE to help school divisions implement this work-based learning experiences this year. The new accreditation framework you're approving today will move, although it's already in Virginia code, will move more of the responsibility of the

007certification of key accreditation measures to principles. We have many new principles in Virginia, as you know, and training and support for this accreditation verification will be key. I'm certain that VDOE will provide that support. Finally, as the 2526 school year begins, we remain very interested in updates to this uh so standard setting process and ask for the board to remain committed to extensive review and communication around that process for the benefit of all public education stakeholders. As always, VAS looks forward to continuing to work with you on all of these important issues. Thank you very much and have a great day today. >> Thank you, Lwanda Travis, followed by Kakee Fun. Good morning, President Cesy and members of the Virginia Department Education Board and community members. My name is Lwanda Travis and I stand before

008you today from King and Queen County Public School Systems located an hour from Richmond. I am a concerned parent, grandparent, lifelong citizen, and currently serve as the sergeant- first class in the United States Army. We are we all want what is best for our students. But I'm here to say clearly, this school system is failing our ch children and failure starts at the top. I will be direct, the school board has failed to hold our superintendent accountable for the educational conditions in our school systems. We des the students deserve to be taught by highly qualified teachers yet there are none. This is isn't a small issue but one that racks many communities and despite the lack of accountability we have the highest paid superintendent in the state of Virginia. Meanwhile, basic processes such as legal

009rights for parents, foyers being violated, and also due process for parents and students in the school system. The community lacks memorandums of agreement with local community partners, which is our police department, social services, the fire department, and other community organizations, which are vital to our school systems with helping make sure our students are safe, our teachers are safe, as well as our staff. As a member of the community, I'm here today because silence has gotten us nowhere. We ask today that the board of education would at least try to assist us with a forensic investigation on our school board as well as help assist us with getting the protections of the students, the community uh I'm sorry, let me repress with helping the community, the students, the school board get things put back to basics

010so that our children are being serviced. by days and not hours because they're missing critical instructional time with doing hourly which we went to at on COVID. It should be back on days. I know some of this stuff because I'm a f fellow educator. Um I have a child actually three that are currently being serviced by the sped department and we have recently gone to total electronic. I will tell you it does not work for all students. I have a child that is uh autistic, so he uses books to as a texture and some of those things are vital, but I ask for your assistance and help and we'll be looking for you all later. Thank you for your um consideration. >> Thank you, Kake Fun, followed by Kevin Vigil. Good morning to the board,

011the superintendent and the chair. Uh my name is Kim Fun and I'm an educator living in Chesterfield, Virginia. I wanted to come here today to ask for an answer to a question that I have asked at the beginning of the year to a VDOE representative about the CILA by literacy. To begin, I would like to express my gratitude that the CIA literacy is on the new updated CTE credential list as an in- demand credential. This is a great opportunity especially for multilingual learners. The question that I wanted to have answered is that in my experience working with multilingual learners, there have been conflicting interpretations of the criteria to earn the seal of literacy with different areas of Virginia. As VOE states, the seal of literacy needs two pieces of criteria to be awarded the seal.

012One is to pass all end of all required end of course assessments in English reading and writing at the proficient or higher level. And two, be proficient at the intermediate mid level or higher in one or more languages other than English as demonstrated through an assessment from a list to be approved by the superintendent public instruction. The second criteria is clear and understood. The question I have is for the first criteria. In one area of Virginia, I've been told that students can use a locally awarded verified credit from SL scores lower than 400 to meet the English proficiency requirement. However, in other regions of Virginia, I've been told that locally awarded verified credits based on the SL score lower than 400 cannot be used and only passing SOS scores approved substitute tests in the writing

013local performance assessment can be used to demonstrate per seems to be inconsistencies if students can graduate in one area of Virginia from being awarded a seal by literacy as a CTE credential with a reading or writing LEVC but not other areas of Virginia. Therefore, due to these conflicting messages, I would like to receive an official answer from VOE to clarify if LAVC's can or cannot be used to meet the English proficiency part for the syllabus literacy as it will greatly assist in my advocacy and work for the success of all students and especially multilingual learners. Thank you. Kevin Vigil followed by Bo Dickinson. Hello, my name is Dr. Kevin Vhill and I live in Springfield, Virginia. I currently serve as the vice president for the Virginia Guitar Directors Association, which is a section within the

014Virginia Music Educators Association. I also serve in a national role as the guitar chair for the National Association for Music Education. So, I handed I gave these handouts. This is just for the first minute and then I have something else to talk about. But basically, I just wanted to share this report that you may or may not be familiar with, but it's a statistics on the effects of fine arts education with truency. And basically there's a positive correlation uh stating that um students that are engaged in fine arts classes uh have a lower uh rate of truency. So it's a very in-depth study. So it's something I'd like for you to take a look at sometime. And also uh just kind of following up with that, there's a single sheet of paper here. And this

015was a proposal from the um uh from the fine arts um the f the Virginia coalition for fine arts education and basically to propose uh I'd like to support a Virginia diploma of educ I mean sorry uh department of education fine arts diploma seal uh for our graduates uh of course that gives a carrot at the end of the stick right and then of course the kids would stay in a little bit more so even lower the truency rate uh so that's there's I think there is a correlation there. I'd like to change gears to guitar. We had this incredible guitar ensemble that was here today. Um, and uh advocate uh I would like to just point out a few things. So, first of all, in the Virginia Standards of Learning, fine arts standards, uh,

016guitar does exist. There's three levels uh in middle school, four levels in high school, but that's not the case across the state. um even though the standards are there not these classes are not always implemented. Now most of these students are from Lowden County public schools um where in Lowden County you have two levels in in uh middle school and four levels in high school uh not three like band, orchestra and choir. Um but then across the state it's even more dispersed. So uh in Fairfax County for example they just have it in high school. There are three schools I think that have middle school programs. Um, in Chesapeake County and Virginia Beach, I believe, uh, though there's usually just like a oneyear class, maybe a semester class sometimes. Uh, it's just very inconsistent. You

017couldn't imagine having a band program that was just one semester or one year. Um, so what I would like uh, the board to consider and advocate toward is including guitar at the same level as everybody else. Thank you very much. Bo Dickinson followed by Dan Zacharias. >> Thank you, Chair Casi, Superintendent Gullixson, and members of the board. My name is Bo Dickinson, and I serve on the executive board of the Virginia Social Studies Leaders Consortium, otherwise known as the VSSsLC. Personally, I'm from Harrisonenburg, Virginia in the Central Valley. I'm here to express concern about any proposal to require world geography as the advanced coursework for social studies in the eighth grade. This change would not only contradict the standards approved by this board in 2023, it would also reverse the compromise that many school divisions

018have relied upon in good faith. The 2023 history and social science SOS clearly state that course sequencing is a local decision. That guidance gave school divisions the flexibility to focus on what matters most right now. And of course that is implementing the standards with fidelity. That should be our focus without distraction. Most divisions have decided to keep civics and economics in eighth grade and world geography in high school where that is a high school verified course and credit. Mandating a new sequence at this stage after adoption, after staffing, and after budgeting decisions have been made would unfortunately cause serious disruption across the Commonwealth. It would require shifting licensed high school teachers in some cases to middle school, purchasing new instructional materials, and redesigning a high school level course for younger middle-aged learners. Even more concerning

019is the domino effect of pushing civics down to seventh grade. And I want to be sure that the board is fully aware of just how complex the logistics of that would be. Okay. to avoid depriving an entire cohort of students of civics. An entire grade level of students uh should not have to miss that course. So in shorter in order to ensure that school divisions would need to offer the course to both seventh and eighth grade students during a one-year transition. That would mean doubling the number of civics teachers, doubling the number of textbooks, and doubling the number of classroom re resources, all to accommodate a single year of scheduling overlap. And when you consider that this change would impact more than half of all school divisions across the Commonwealth, we are talking about thousands

020of teachers, hundreds of thousands of students, and millions of dollars in added costs. all for a change that is unnecessary and misaligned with the flexibility promised in the standards. If the goal is to increase rigor in eighth grade, we suggest offering a civics's honors option. This approach preserves local flexibility. It strengthens an already impactful course and it upholds both the language and the intent of the approved standards. Thank you for your time and your support of history and social science education. Thank you. >> Dan Zacharias, followed by Kennedy Wells. >> Good morning, Madam President, members of the board and new members. Welcome. >> Um, my name is Dan Zacharias. I'm the executive director of the Old Dominion Association of Church Schools. I live in Timberville, Virginia, just a few miles north of the previous speaker

021and the north fork of the Shannondoa flows right through Timberville. So when I think of the words, oh Shenandoa, I long to see you, it means to me, I love to visit Richmond, but I want to go home. That um the story that I'm about to tell you ends well. Uh it begins two months ago. I addressed this board on the issue of safety in child care settings, presenting data that demonstrate that religiously exempt centers statistically are significantly safer than license centers, which is counterintuitive to many people. Bad incidents are rare in both settings. So, we don't uh try to portray license centers as unsafe. Uh but we our message is that we are safe. After the uh later in the day, I was able to sit down with Jenna Conway have a private talk

022about some of our concerns about overreach that some of our church run daycarees are experiencing. That same day, uh the daycare at my church, Valley Baptist Church in Edinburgh, received their annual religious exemption letter, which sought to prohibit them from using their daycare building that they've been using for many years. and which DOE has acknowledged the use of for many years was not an oversight. Um, uh, there was no legal or safety basis for the omission. So, they asked me as a member of ODAX to come to bat for them. So, I drafted a letter to the licensing officials and copied it to officials here in Richmond requesting that the that the change be made. Um, somehow we touched a nerve. The fix was simple. And thankfully in in a few days the simple fix

023did occur, but somebody at the Department of Ed forwarded my letter to the AG's office and somebody in the AG's office sent an email, copied me warning Valley Baptist Daycare that Dan Zacharias is posing as an attorney, even though he's not licensed to practice law in the Commonwealth of Virginia. I've never been to law school, never taken the bar, never presented myself as an attorney. So why something with a simple fix touched that nerve, we don't know. We could only guess. Um but it's just another instance of overreach. Thankfully, the local inspector, she responded well on a Monday uh in a couple hours with a flurry of phone calls between her and our pastor and the building inspector. The the issue was resolved. But our churches are still on high alert about overreach. That continues

024to happen from time to time with licensing inspection. So, thank you for your time and I'll address you again with more information in the future. >> Kennedy Wells followed by Monica Mason Massen. Good morning. My name is Candy Wells and I'm a rising sophomore at Woodrove High School in Priscal, Virginia. I want to take a minute to share with you why guitar education and the Pavon summer regional governor school program are important. I've grown up around guitar and I know that the guitar I know the guitar community of Northern Virginia my whole life. I've seen dozens if not hundreds of concerts both professional soloists and ensembles to middle school ensembles. I can tell you that Paban is one of the one of the truly inspiring musical experiences of my life. While this was my first

025pavon, I thoroughly enjoyed the creative aspect of the program with the emphasis on exploration and coming up with original musical ideas that were they eventually were guided, shaped, and morphed into complete musical concepts by our um amazing faculty. I enjoyed the opportunities of Pavon provided me uh with meeting being able to meet other guitarists that share the same interest and passion in guitar. In general, I enjoy sharing the music, making experiences of being in an ensemble with others, just rehearse uh with others students. But Pavon showed me something more that music is in the moment and can be spontaneous and alive, not just rehearsed and performed. Music is to be shared. The Pavon program showed me what true creativity and exploration are all about. I ask that you please continue to support music education and

026guitar education endeavors across the Commonwealth of Virginia. All students should have access to the summer program like Pavon to experience and inspire. Thank you for Thank you for your consideration of my thoughts and time with you today. >> Thank you Monica Mason. Monica Mson, sorry. Good morning, Madame President, members of the board, fellow parents, and community members. My name is Monica Mason, and I'm from Ashurn, Virginia. And I'm here today not just as a parent, but as a witness to the life-changing impact of arts education with programs such as Pawan on my child. When my child Samra, who was part of the ensemble earlier, picked up the guitar, it wasn't just about learning chords or music theory. It was the first time I truly saw her light up. And if you know Samra, she's a

027very quiet child. So, it was a a wonderful thing for me as a parent. She found her voice without having to say a word. In a world that can feel overwhelming, especially to our kids, these programs give them something rare. confidence, purpose, and belonging. Through Pawan, she has learned discipline, expression, collaboration, and resilience. The kids find mentors. She's found mentors who believe in her. Classmates who inspire her and a sense of identity. I urge the board not to think of these programs as extras or luxuries or electives that we can trim when the budget budgets gets tight. These are lifelines for so many students not just as artists but the quiet kids, the anxious kids, the ones still finding their way. For some of them, this is the reason they come to school and enjoy

028their summers. Please, let's invest in full potential of our children. support programs like Pawan keep the arts alive in our schools because when we nurture creativity we just don't make better students but we make better human. Thank you for your time and hearing a parents heart of today. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um we have come to the end of our sign uh signup sheet for public comment. If there are any other um members of the audience who would like to speak today, you may line up in front of the microphone. Is there anyone who would like to speak? >> Hi, my name is William Hartwells. I am the proud director of guitar at Harmony Middle School in Priscal, Virginia. I'm actually speaking on behalf of someone today. Um, Mrs. AJ Vanzant is the director

029of the Pavon Summer Regional Governor School um in Northern Virginia, but she was unable to be here today. So, she prepared a statement that she would like for me to share. The Pavon Regional Summer Governor School for the Arts extends its sincere gratitude to the Virginia Department of Education for over 40 years of unwavering support. Your commitment has enabled generations of young artists to explore their creative potential in a rigorous yet inspiring environment. Participation in the arts cultivates discipline, empathy, communication, and confidence. Skills that serve students well in any academic or professional path they pursue. One participant this year wrote, and I quote, "The teachers are able to figure out how to keep things productive but fun. They are very good at figuring out how to get each of us past our comfort zone so

030we can grow while at the same time making us feel safe. Everyone was so supportive of each other. End quote. So whether our alumni continue in the arts or apply their creativity elsewhere, the impact of this experience endures. Thank you for investing in a program that nurtures both talent and the human spirit. Thank you. >> Thank you all very much. Is there anyone else who would like to speak? And with that, I will close the public comment section of the meeting. Um, we do have some jumping around to do on our agenda today. Um, we will hear from the joint legislative audit and review committee later on in the afternoon as well as our presentations from our governor's student advisory board. Um we are going to move into the consent agenda for the board's information

031and following along. So um with that I would like to ask if there's a motion to wave first review and approve the items on the consent agenda. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. Any discussion? Dr. Acriman. >> I Mr. Green. >> Hi, >> Dr. Northern. >> Hi, >> Mr. Hansen. >> Hi. >> Is Miss Ashton with us at this time? Yes, Miss Ashton. Are we able to hear her response over the I'll wait for the next one while you guys work on that. Uh Mr. Monk >> I >> and chair votes eye. >> Okay. Um additionally, we will have an executive session, but we will do that later in the afternoon as well. Um and so that moves us to action and discussion items, which will be I guess item K. Is that right?

032Okay, Dr. Howins. Good morning, Superintendent Gullixson, President Cesy, and board members. I'm Samantha Holland, the deputy superintendent for special education and specialized populations, and it's my pleasure today to bring an item back to you for first and final review. Item K, the first and final review of school connected overdose parent notification guidelines. These guidelines codify guidance that's updated due to bipartisan legislation during the 2025 general assembly session. If you look through the materials associated with this item, you'll see the rigorous amount of both public feedback and updates that have been made to this guidance document based on the passage of this legislation, which required adding definitions and clarifications throughout the document. There has been sufficient and extensive feedback received from a variety of both public hearings as well as communications received by the board and

033department, which you'll see captured in the item boilerplate. Based on the extensive feedback reviewed, there were no substantive changes to the proposed guidelines that are required in order to align the proposed guidelines to the existing guidance on addressing school connected overdoses. As you can see through your redline version of the document, there were added definitions that were required and clarifications throughout the document to ensure the correct divi um guidance to divisions with model policies to provide timely transparent communication in the event of a school connected overdose supporting the safety of students throughout expanded family and community awareness. The superintendent of public instruction recommends that the Virginia Board of Education wave first review and approve amended guidelines for school connected overdose policies, response, and parental notifications. >> Thank you. Are there any questions for Dr. Hollands

034on this item? >> I'm just looking for the red line. Sorry. >> Oh, I'm It's uh the item attachment. >> It's attachment one. >> Oh, it's attachment. Okay. I just wanted to know the language around confirmed overdose. Is that still in there? >> Uh the language reads both suspected and confirmed overdoses are required for the notification protocol. >> Okay. And the suspected is not has to be um uh confirmed by a police agent or um law enforcement. >> Um I think the language superintendent Gullixson has highlighted there denotes the difference. Yes, ma'am. Further questions, Dr. Northern. No further questions. Okay. Anyone else? Okay. Uh with that uh is there a motion to wave first review and approve the amended guidelines on school connected overdose policies response and parental notification? >> So move >> second. Any

035discussion? >> Dr. Arian >> I. >> Mr. Green >> I. >> Dr. Northern >> I. >> Mr. Hansen. >> Hi. >> Mr. Monk. >> Hi. >> Miss Ashton. >> I. >> Yes. And chair votes I. Thank you. Um, okay, Dr. Howland, you have another item. Dr. Howland is uh presenting early in this agenda today because she has another uh commitment this afternoon. So, thank you for having us move all of these things around to ensure that our staff is able to continue to represent us well. So, please go ahead with item N. >> Thank you so much. Yes, ma'am. Thank you, President Cesy, and I really appreciate the board's flexibility. Item N uh is a first review of guidelines for policies on concussions. As you can see throughout the boilerplate, this is a required action

036that is to be brought by the board for uh bianual updating. And so this information not only condenses a variety of sources including updated legislation as well as an extensive practice of feedback from both the field and experts in the field of both concussions and traumatic brain injury. And so the red line item that's also attached to this version updates the guidelines for policies on concussions and students which provides guidance to school divisions on the development and implementation of concussion policies that align with the code of Virginia. Um we've also captured the stakeholder group members that were such an integral part of updating this information. You'll see those collected in the front of the guidance document. The department is also pleased to continue support ongoing professional development related to concussions and traumatic brain injury, including

037the TBI team in training, which will kick off the summer and continue throughout the year to ensure timely professional development and technical assistance to school staff who are working to support students and families. In summary, these guidelines aim to ensure that all school personnel are equipped with the knowledge and resources necessary to effectively manage concussions and students in order to foster a safe and supportive environment for their recovery and ongoing academic success. The superintendent of public instruction recommends that the board of education receive for first review these proposed revisions to the guidelines for policies on concussions and students. >> Thank you very much. Um, we will accept this item for first review and unless there are any questions or comments here, uh, we will see you in August. >> Thank you so much. >> Okay.

038Um, so that takes us to scroll back up. Item D, Mark Jennings, is you. Good morning, President Cesy, Superintendent Gullixson, and board members. I'm Mark Jennings, the executive director for the Office of Accountability at the Department of Education. And today, I'll be requesting for final review Virginia's school accreditation report for school year 2425. This is available for the public as well and it's item D attachment one. At the June 18th board meeting we presented and requested first review of this report and since then based on stakeholder feedback we have both clarified and condensed some items where data is currently collected. The redline version of this report is available as item D attachment 2. At this time I will provide an overview of the report in the presentation noted as item D presentation. And I know

039you have available to you the slide deck as well. Now, this is very similar to the slide deck that we used previously and I know we do have some new board members. So, I'll go rather quickly, but definitely we'll pause for any conversation or questions. Uh slide two is important. It shows Virginia's bifurcated system as we've talked about before. On the right side, you see Virginia's accreditation system. Uh that is rooted in state statute and then spelled out more in our standards of accreditation. That leads to one of three accreditation designations. Fully accredited, conditionally accredited, or accreditation denied. That then leads us to public reporting and support for those schools based on the findings. On the left side, you see our Virginia school performance and support framework. This is our cohesive accountability system that aligns

040both state and federal accountability into one. And today again, our purpose is to talk through the accreditation system. Now on slide three, you see as I referenced the standards of quality. This is state statute that spells out uh what the board uh is asked to do regarding the regulations for accreditation. There's eight of them listed there. And then as we go into slide four, you see the purpose of these standards of accreditation. Uh to provide effective educational programs. It's an essential foundation again to apprise the improvement of school programs to raise student achievement, foster public confidence in our schools, provide transparency, assure the recognition of Virginia's public schools by other institutions of learning. We do use those results, and then establish a means of determining the effectiveness of schools. Now, on slide 5 through 10,

041what you're going to see is verbatim from the Code of Virginia, the regulations the board has passed, section 300, that walks through the accreditation report. And so on five, you see the overall language there. And then as we get down into B, you see the language of the principal of each new or existing school. And the division superintendent shall annually document these items. Again, this is not new language. Goes back to 1970. Uh, and then it spells out the items which have adjusted here and there. Uh but the these 2024 regulations, there was only one change from the 2017 in regards to these areas. And so you see on slide six there, we've got four of them listed. And on slide seven, 5 through 8. And then on slide eight, we've got two others. They're

042broken out 9 A and B regarding school improvement plans and providing them to the public, making sure they're on the website. Slide nine uh discusses for identified schools. And slide 11 discusses if a school was out of compliance that it address those matters. I move to slide 11 which is again walking through our flowchart. Again based on those findings, a school will receive one of three designations. And then you see that broken down for you on slide 12. Fully accredited. All evidence is submitted to the department and is satisfactory and approved for compliance. conditionally accredited. Any piece of required evidence is submitted but is unsatisfactory or non-compliant. And then accreditation denied requires that a school that's conditionally accredited after sufficient time to improve has not and that would have to come before the board. Uh

043there's extra steps that are taken there as well. And so I turn to next steps. I want to show you uh on slide 14 you see the original report that was used last year because this was embedded previously for superintendents in our standards of quality compliance report and now we've broken it out. And so you see on the right side of your screen the revised version that we offer to you today based on stakeholder feedback. We're showing where the data may already be collected to being turned into the department. Uh you see how we've articulated the code. It's not new, but we tried to really provide where these items are. Those links take you specific to the code uh to help inform the public. Now, on the next slide, you'll see there on slide 15

044is a preview of the report. And this is what superintendents will receive next week if the board adopts this. Uh and it's through this uh survey form. Uh each superintendent would receive a customized form for them. And if they do select no for any of the items, they're asked to provide an explanation, any sort of corrective action. Uh, and then provide the schools where that has not occurred. And then I want to finish here with slide 16, the summary. I want to be clear that for school year 2425 in this current iteration, again, the expectation is for division superintendents to complete this. Moving forward, we're very excited to bring back to the board uh soon uh after working with some stakeholder groups, the superintendent association and principal groups what accreditation will look like 2526 and

045beyond. Again, this is very specific. This is just for 2425. We're excited to partner with these organizations and talk through uh what accreditation can look like in the future, maintaining the code, but also thinking through the lens of making sure principles understand, superintendents understand, and we're being very thoughtful in what we're asking them to do. And some other items there of importance. Again, we used uh the JARK study that was published in 2020 to talk about how the department could do better in collecting information from schools and making sure they're following compliance and making sure we're in alignment with the board's guidelines. And at this time, I will end and ask that the Superintendent of Public Instruction recommends that the board approve Virginia's school accreditation report for school year 2425 and delegate authority to the

046department to make any technical revisions as necessary. Are there any questions or comments here? >> You have questions? >> I don't. >> Okay. Uh, all right. Is there a motion to approve Virginia school accredititation report for the school year 2425 and delegate authority to the department staff to make any technical revisions? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Is there any discussion? I >> Dr. Acriman, >> I just want to comment that I appreciate that the voices were heard on the this next upcoming year um not having some of the um issues that may arise from it being new. So that's all. >> Thank you, Dr. Northern. >> Yeah, I just wanted to get a little bit more information on the new requirement that's for the comprehensive and support improvement schools. Can you talk a little

047bit more about what that new requirement entails? So that requirement uh it was already used in in the previous regulation, but what it's intended to do is to satisfy again both state and federal law. So federal federal law requires for comprehensive support and improvement schools and additional target support improvement schools that they look at their resources to make sure they're using them wisely. It's called resource allocation review. And so what this is doing here in the accreditation is to ensure that's happening, looking at those resources and looking to see is improvement being made. >> So what we're going to look look to do is is the data supporting it? Are you on a track to exit within three years? Because that's the expectation under federal law. And so we're aligning both federal and state here

048to see are those schools making the gains they're expected to be gained. And if so, we can move them to fully accredited. If not, they'll remain conditionally because it's showing the resource allocation review is not happening as it's intended to do. >> Thank you. That's great. Okay. Um so we have a motion um that's been made and seconded. Any other discussion? Dr. Mr. Arian, >> I >> Mr. Green, >> hi. >> Dr. Northern, >> hi. >> Mr. Hansen, >> I >> uh Miss Ashton >> I, >> Mr. Monk, >> I >> and chair votes I. Thank you. Okay. Um item E, final review of the revisions of the model policy concerning internet safety. Good morning, esteemed members of the board of education. On behalf of the Office of Educational Technology and Classroom Innovation, we're grateful

049for the opportunity to present the proposed updates to the model policy concerning internet safety. These revisions reflect our ongoing commitment to protecting the educational comm community and aligning it with the goals outlined in the Virginia Education Technology Plan. To maintain alignment with best practices and encourage continuous improvement, the agency solicits ongoing feedback from school divisions, professional associations, and educational organizations. The policies and resources are reviewed annually as part of our broader initiative support the development of a safe and healthy learning environment for schools. The original Internet Safety Advisory Council was established from legislation in 2022 and was active until July 1st of 2024 and that served as the foundational framework for promoting the safe and use safe use of media and technology in public schools with the Commonwealth. The council which was appointed by the

050superintendent of public instruction was tasked with fostering internet safety for students and educators. In 2023, the policy was further enhanced to promote collaboration with law enforcement agencies, criminal justice entities, and experts in child online safety and human trafficking prevention. While the statute has expired, its objectives and the valuable stakeholder feedback gathering during its implementation continue to inform the development of the current policy that you have in front of you. Since this May meeting, the one we just had, May, we have um worked with additional groups as requested by the board of education and have followed up, further enriching our outreach efforts. The current policy revision under consideration reflects what we have gathered over the last 12 months and what we have had and sustained stakeholder engagement, making sure that there is diverse perspectives and field

051expertise meaning shaping this proposal. Since first review in May, in our efforts to enhance the policy, we have engaged in key stakeholders. You can see the long list there. But we've also included the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, the organization called Children and Screens, the Virginia Teachers of the Year, and the VDOE's AI Advisory Committee. This collaborative approach helps us ensure our policies are informed, balanced, and responsive. We are very excited to introduce several key enhancements with this model policy. Starting with the guiding principles, we are proposing the additional and crucial safeguard of technology use, including artificial intelligence. This means empowering divisions to define what authorized AI tools are, making sure students are protecting their PII, and integrating AI skills into content areas, making sure they're still prepared for the future. To support our

052educators in this evolving landscape, the policy encourages school divisions to be sure they provide well-vetted professional development about the responsible use of AI tools. We are also expanding the essential skills of mitigating fishing threats, which will significantly strengthen the personal information and institutional security for our schools. Furthermore, we've updated that there are new laws related to the alignment of the to the alignment of internet safety um such as the take it down act and then also making sure that school boards acknowledge that it's really important to keep up with executive actions. A cornerstone of this policy which is kind of old and new all at the same time is when we access the internet kids should probably get trained before they do that. Uh the training needs to uphold the school standards of acceptable internet

053use, ensure compliance with SIPA's -ate requirements, and promote core values of digital citizenship. We believe the training should be introduced at age appropriate language, ensuring that all students before they use the internet understand and acknowledge their responsibilities. We also believe our suppliers need to do a better job of having data privacy agreements in place before they give it to children. We also propose refining how internet safety instruction is delivered. We think classroom teachers are very important, but school librarians and ITRTs can really lead the way in how we do internet safety in our schools instruction. This would make a more collaborative effort tailored to grade specific outcomes. This approach not only strengthens the consistency of digital safety education but also empowers students to recognize and avoid threats like fishing emails and suspicious links before they

054compromise their personal information. When students are using the internet, the updated model policy is clearly reflective of alignment with other laws such as anti-bullying, anti-discrimination, and other protections that are adopted by our local school boards. This helps ensure students understand not only the technical aspects of online safety, but also the social implications of their digital actions. Designing internet safety with emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, requires that we think about additional safeguards. We're encouraging school divisions to take proactive steps by defining what AI tools are authorized, securing students data with data privacy agreements, and embedding AI literacy into the academic content. We envision that educators are receiving professional development on how to use these internet safety connected internet connected tools responsibly, but then also that students are being taught how to recognize modern online risks like

055fraud and deceptive content. Partnering with industry experts will also help ensure students stay ahead of the safety challenges in their neighborhoods. Instruction should be designed also around digital wellness. Internet safety isn't just a how to use a computer, but how do we use it well, which encourages balance. We want to have elementary school students have a better structured guidelines on when screen time is and having clear limits and frequent breaks. These policies will be informed by wellness standards from the state and national medical authorities and aim to promote a healthy balance between technology use and well-being. After you have adopted the policy, we will continue to review and refine. Senate uh bill 905 which was passed in 2025 establishes or reestablishes the internet safety advisory council under the supervision of the superintendent of public instruction.

056We will have 12 appointed members. That council will continue to review the model policy and also maintain and update the digital hub of internet safety resources for our school divisions, giving educators access to the best instructional resources. And finally, we will submit a report to the general assembly in October about what we've been doing and how effective it is. We look forward to our creating a safer, more transparent, and legally sound educational environment for all. We look forward to your insights and continue collaboration as we ensure the policy stays uh in supportive of our excellent education in Virginia. If there's anything I can do to help you with this policy, please let me know. Thank you for your time. Calypso, thank you so much for the extensive work that you did at going back again

057and again and again and again and probably again after that to really solicit feedback, to be responsive and collaborative in that feedback um solicitation. Um to really hear all of the groups that that you talked to. Um and thank you for working so diligently even seeking feedback from those within the department to just look over and over and over um this work. Um it is something that is interestingly um one of those things that's just constantly changing and um you know you're very aware of that and so I'm very appreciative of the really hard and very diligent work you did on this this policy. So, thank you so much. >> You're welcome. >> Anybody else have a comment or a question here before we move on? >> Just want to echo those thoughts, especially around

058the uh safeguarding of the PII and professional development for teachers uh in that way. >> Thank you. >> Favorite part. I love hanging out with our teachers, >> Dr. Northern. >> Um I too see a lot of um positive improvements made in the document. um especially appreciate the additions around screen time and this may have been in there. I was trying to read through all the all the red lines. Um I think my continued concern is an over reliance on online uh instruction in schools. I feel like in many cases when I go into classrooms I see so much like we kind of went from one to the other, right? We're using um so much online instruction. So, I don't know if there's some kind of um sentence in there that just maybe just foreshadows

059that um we don't expect uh teachers to use online instruction to substitute real time feedback from a human being and human interaction. I find that many time kids are like hungry for that interaction with their teacher again and not so much with with the computer. So um the concern again that we might be isolating students and reducing active participation by overrelying on technology um which I think you know could not be a good thing. So is there anything that sort of touches on that? >> Yeah. So I think that's coming probably not in the internet safety policy because we want to, you know, keep that super broad and it is a model policy. But in our AI training for our educators and leaders, we really talk about how it used to be like adult autonomy

060was here with prek and then as kids progress through school, autonomy would go down and then increased use of technology would go up. So kids so go adult autonomy to kid autonomy, right? Well, we would argue that with AI, adult autonomy actually needs to become the most important thing because humans have to stay in the loop, but also our little ones are using technology more on the first day of school. We need them to because >> they're going to be in a digital world for their their jobs. So, we actually kind of need to rebalance that that because children have this really awesome tool of AI and digital literacy skills and computer science skills and we're leveraging that for good instruction. Now there should be more time for relationship with the teacher and the teacher

061now again >> they're leveraging technology so their kids are learning on their own personalized pathways project-based learning but then that gives the teacher more time to have those robust relationships and uh like I really went back after our our meeting in May to talk about like cheating and what is cheating and really dove into how is AI changing the way we teach >> student parent teacher relationships are going to be more important now than ever because AI is going to take away some of those utilitarian tasks that teachers have to do. So, I mean, I'm just thinking about every day when I was a classroom teacher and I'd come in and the first thing I'd have to do is take attendance and I'm like, I can't wait till the AI agent takes attendance for me.

062It's going to be so great. And so, uh, so that's what I would say it's not necessarily in this policy, but as we are doing our training with our teachers, as we put out more messages, leveraging technology is the key. not utilizing it. It's about designing it. Um not just here's all these things and we're going to go on the screen for 18 hours a day because that's the way we deliver instruction, >> right? I would argue that it I'm sorry. I would argue that it is a safety issue, you know, just because the kids are getting more isolated and it actually hurts their, >> you know, health. So, um, but thank you so much. >> But yeah, we we will be sure that when we have our internet safety advisory council, we will include

063a behavioral health person to help us with that rebalancing of the internet safety part of it, but also wellness, not just keeping kids safe from the bad people, but also how do we know it's safe for them to use in a good way. >> Yes. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> Absolutely. >> Any other Okay. Uh, any other comments or questions here? Okay. Um, is there a motion to approve the revisions of the model policy concerning internet safety with the accompanying instructional resources? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any uh discussion here? >> Okay. Dr. Arian, >> I. >> Mr. Green, >> I. >> Dr. Northern, >> I. >> Mr. Hansen, >> hi. >> Miss Ashton, >> I. >> Mr. Monk, >> I. >> And chair votes I. Okay. Thank you so much. >> Thank you.

064All right, Mr. Chapman, I think you have the next two items. Yes. Thank you, President Cesy, Vice President Hansen, members of the board, and Superintendent Gullixson. Um, item F is the final review of the board's uh unified regulatory plan for fiscal year 2026. Um, the unified regulatory plans came about as a result of Governor Yncan's executive order 19. And the purpose of the unified regulatory plans is really to provide a a basic level um year-long projection for members of the public to view on the Virginia regulatory town hall of the types of regulatory actions that an agency, in this case the state board of education, um, expects to take up over the course of the fiscal year. Um, in at the last meeting in June, staff brought a a uh version to the board for

065first and final review that the board requested to be brought back in July so that we could add a projected dates and recome for a couple of actions that may not need regulatory action such as SJ21, which directed um the joint legislative um audit and review commission uh to study removal of certain books. Upon review, staff removed a few more actions from the URP as the board's uh as the the agency's legislative implementation plan uh became available and in the process of reordering some dates, a few um others got moved around. For example, a couple of the items on like concussions for this month we had expected to come in December. Staff had the items ready, so we moved them up and they're now listed in July. We have included a red line um version

066of this which I I apologize because when you move so many items around it shows up in in different colors um but it does show the the items that were were removed from the the uh URP. Um and in addition what kind of dates were changed um but again this is a you the office of regulatory management describes this as a living document. So there are changes to be made uh to be available and of course the board is not bound to act on the timelines. It's really just a a projection for the public, but the recommendation from the superintendent is that the board approve uh the URP for fiscal year 2026. Are there any questions here for Mr. Chapman on this item? Okay. Hearing none, is there a motion to approve the unified regulatory

067plan for fiscal year 2026? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion on this item? Dr. Mr. Arian >> I >> Mr. Green >> I >> Dr. Northern >> I >> Mr. Hansen >> I >> Miss Ashton >> I >> Mr. Monk >> I >> and chair votes I and item G. >> Thank you so much President Creasy. >> Item G is part of the board's regular cadence at this point. We are asking for on first and final review that the board close out some of the periodic reviews of regulations. And um you know for some of the newer members who are uh on the board for the first time or or within the last few months um the agency is required every four years to review regulatory chapters to make sure that they um

068still have authority uh to promulgate those chapters to make sure that they they make sense that there's no um updates that are needed because of changes in circumstance. Um the board had never done periodic reviews before 2023. Uh and I'm going to be very excited to bring some numbers to the board but in around the November December meeting of exactly how much uh this board has accomplished in terms of periodic reviews. Um as a reminder this action is solely to close out the periodic reviews. We are making recommendations in these periodic reviews about regulatory actions um to come. But all of those will be the subject of a future action that will come before the board where we will specifically give you the text um and ask for those for those revisions and um ask

069for the board to approve changes to the regulatory um to the regulations in the administrative code. But the results of this particular um set of periodic reviews, chapter 450, the regulations governing professional development, um the recommendation is going to be that this chapter gets repealed um in large part because this was uh promulgated um around 1988 and the the board now um handles things like professional development in chapter 23 of the administrative code and has a very large guidance document governing um those types of uh the types of things that teachers need to do in order to maintain their license. So, we think that this one has simply just fallen out of step uh with with other regulations. Regulations uh chapter 650, which is the regulations governing the determination of critical teacher shortage areas for

070awarding the Virginia Teacher Scholarship Loan Program. Um we will have some small recommendations for amendments, which is really to keep track with with some of the statutory changes that have occurred since the last time that this uh this chapter was um was amended. the regulations governing the the scoliosis screening program in 690 we recommend being retained and really no no changes to the regulations proper. Um however we do think that it would be better suited if we combined this chapter with uh chapter 250 which is the regulations governing the testing of sight and hearing of pupils because the same end users within school divisions really um look at both chapters and we think consolidating them will ease administrative burden um for the board over the long term. And finally, chapter 840, which is the Virginia

071Child Care Provider Scholarship Program. Um, the recommendation is this chapter be repealed because we believe it is exempt um as an agency action pertaining to the grants of state or federal funds and property and so therefore does not need to be subject to the administrative process act. We think uh turning this program over um to the board without the administrative process act will allow for a lot more flexibility in changes to the scholarship program. The board will still of course retain authority over the scholarship program. Um but we think it would be it'll be more nimble and better able to respond to changes. The uh the recommendation from the superintendent is the board first review and approve the closing of these periodic reviews. >> Okay. Are there any questions for Mr. Chapman on this? >>

072Dr. Northern, I just want to thank you. Um, Jim, I mean, honestly, this is not very exciting work. Digging into all of these regulations, reading them, seeing if they're still relevant. Um, cleaning up our books. I mean, this is just I mean, this is just honestly, it's it's such a huge task and I appreciate your diligence through this entire process. Um, and bringing really rolling up your sleeves and making sure that what was on the books makes sense. Um, and it's working as well as it could be. Um, and we're just keeping up to date, not let stuff just lie around that shouldn't be lying around. So, thank you. Other questions, comments? Okay. Is there a motion to wave first review and approve the closing of the periodic reviews on the regulatory chapters identified in

073this item as presented to the board? >> So, moved. >> Any um discussion on this item? Dr. Acriman. I Mr. Green >> I >> Dr. Northern I Mr. Hansen >> I >> Miss Ashton >> I >> Mr. Monk >> Hi, >> and chair votes eye. Thank you very much. And we are moving to item H. Miss Conway. Good morning, uh, Chair Cesy, Superintendent Gullixson, and members of the board. I am Jenna Conway. I am the chief of early learning and specialized populations and I'm here to present for you a set of revisions to the child care subsidy regulations. Um for those of you who are new to the board want to take a brief step back and explain the context of how the board of education oversees work related to our childcare subsidy program. So

074in 2020 a law was passed after extensive stakeholder engagement to move oversight of all birthto five care and education out of the home to the department of education. That includes programs that are very familiar to you like state prek known as Virginia preschool initiative early childhood special education but it also includes uh the child care subsidy program which is a childcare voucher program that serves kids birth through age 12. The majority of those kids are birth to five as well as the mixed delivery program. And these is uh child care or early childhood care and education offered in private settings whether that is family child care, child care, faith-based child care, it is a parent choice uh program. Uh as part of that effort and across multiple administrations um we have in response to parent

075demand and choice seen significant increase in growth in demand for these programs. Um, we've seen uh more kids added to state prek, including four-year-olds, more children with special needs and three-year-olds, and we've seen tremendous growth in the demand, particularly from Virginia's low-income working families, for child care subsidy, which are these vouchers, uh, and the mixed delivery program. Uh, we saw a huge growth coming out of the pandemic. Virginia uh was one of the states that saw the biggest drop in parental workforce participation particularly among working mothers during the pandemic and rebounded significantly to new rates of historic workforce participation particularly among working mothers and in large part made possible um by these programs. Um, in response to that, the state created a early childhood care and education commission, which is a bipartisan group that comes

076together and looks at issues related to early childhood financing. This group recognized as we uh uh in their work in calendar year 2024 um that there was so much demand um measured to the tune of weight list which as you see in your boiler plate was 13,000 children uh uh including um uh 60% birth to five kids last month alone. um and called for compromises thinking about how do you maximize the dollars dedicated towards early childhood care and education to serve as many kids as possible. In response, they proposed a set of common sense policy shifts that the governor embraced uh in his building blocks for Virginia families his proposed budget and that were then um accepted by uh the general assembly and put into the budget that um uh went into effect on July

0771st. When you have a budget action that shapes how the department runs a program, we take that action, but we also have to go back and reconcile the regulations um to make sure that the law, the budget, and the regulations align. And that is the exercise in front of you today. So, what these changes to these regulations do, and again, as noted, these are in effect, but we'll we'll fasttrack this to make everything line up, but basically slightly adjust the amount of co-ayments that parents are responsible for um uh up to 5%, which is for families that are above the poverty line and $5 a month for families um at or below the poverty line. It is a considered a reasonable or affordable contribution. the federal benchmark is 7% of of household income towards co-ayments.

078Uh so this is a a parent contribution and then the state pays the rest. Um and prioritizes working families. So the federal law requires that parents that receive a voucher have some form of activity whether that's work, job training or school. It allows you to receive a voucher while you're looking for work because it's really hard to get a job if you don't have a place to put your child while you're interviewing or training or doing that. But it also time limits it, right? Because we have these 13,000 kids on the wait list. It says we've got to give you a reasonable opportunity to find that job, but if not, and you can stay home with your child, we have to prioritize a a family that is working right now. So these are the two

079common sense shifts that go into effect. It frees up several thousand slots. So that's families that will come off weight lists in FY26 and will benefit from our early childhood care and education system. For those of you that are also new, um we also know where every one of those dollars go. So last year was the first year in Virginia's history where every dollar was accounted for state prek, childcare voucher, and mixed delivery. And every dollar is measured. So, every single program that participates in any of these uh programs in addition to the federal Head Start program is required to be measured under VQB5. Those results are published each fall and it was 3,121 sites last year. It'll be closer to 3,400 this year. But that quality information in addition to that health and safety

080information is available to all parents. So when you make these changes, you are serving more kids and you can have confidence out of the board that those uh kids and those parents are going to choose among quality experiences. So with that summation and noting that this is again a fasttrack action because it is already in effect, uh on behalf of the superintendent, I recommend that we go through first and final review. >> Uh superintendent Gixson. >> Thank you, President Casey. Jenna, just given we have some new board members, can you just remind them about the families served by state and federal money and the ranges? >> Sure. Sure. So, um we uh have the for each of the programs there is a focus on need and so these are families that otherwise could not afford

081child care. So for our child care subsidy programs for households that are uh have birth to five children, it's up to 85% of the state median income. So it is incomes tested or means tested rather in addition to um uh to having that that work requirement. Um it is sliding scale so it is much more affordable for very very low-income families and then parents contribute a little bit more as you go up the income spectrum. That also means that there's less of a a a benefits cliff because we can kind of go all the way up to 85% of Smi for state prek and for mixed delivery about 200% of the federal poverty level. So all of these are means tested programs and families that are at with with children who are at greater risk

082of not coming in kindergarten ready. We know that kids in in low-income households are uh much less likely to come in ready. Um and uh uh that there is they would not otherwise be able to afford childcare and work. Any questions or comments here? Okay. Uh, is there a motion to wave first review and approve the proposed regulatory action concerning 8VAC 20-790 and delegate to the Virginia Department of Education staff the authority to make any changes necessary to comply with the Administrative Process Act or Virginia Register Act? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Dr. Arian. I >> Mr. Green. I >> Dr. Northern I. Mr. Hansen. I >> Miss Ashton >> I >> Mr. Monk >> I >> and chair votes I thank you Miss Conway appreciate it >> Dr. Williams. >>

083Good morning, everyone. >> President Cesy, members of the board, and Superintendent Gullixson, thank you for allowing me the opportunity to present to you this morning. Industry of Trade Association certification examinations, professional licenses, and occupational competency assessments are continually being revised or discontinued to stay current with the needs of business and industry. Our proposed list of 2025-26 industry certifications, occupational competency assessments, and professional licenses includes 301 board approved credentials listed in one or more CTE program areas in our student catalog representing over 520 individual uh industry, trade certifications, licenses, and competency assessments. Many of these credentials are part of a suite made up of multiple examinations that are stackable and a and enable our students to continually progress and achieve advanced certification. The proposed list includes one addition. House Bill 2360 of 2025 requires the board

084of education to include on its list of industry workforce credentials its diploma seal of biiteracy and to consider such seal to be a high demand workforce credential for the purpose of satisfying graduation requirements. It is important to note that the addition of the seal of biiteracy for the purpose of satisfying graduation requirements does not satisfy the requirement for 3D readiness and CT state and federal credential reimbursements. Credentiing providers have retired 24 previously approved credentials. uh uh four deletion from the agricultural education program area, four from business and information technology, three from family and consumer sciences, and four from health and medical sciences, one from marketing, one from technology and engineering education, and seven from trade and industrial education. Just as some other general context that's in the agenda item, uh majority of these credentials were

085from uh NTI, which is a uh company organization uh that creates end of course assessments. We recommend the board approve the one credential edition and the 24 deletions to be approved on the student list. Technical revisions. The following technical revisions have also been made to the proposed list. three credential title updates and this was also as a request of the vendors. Cross identification of credentials which align to courses in multiple program areas and the addition of high demand designation to a credential appearing in two program areas. Uh just looking ahead as far as our future work, uh we're working very very closely with the Virginia Office of Education Economics and the Virginia Community College System to align our credentials with credentials of value and the VCCs fast forward credentials. Uh we hope to have uh

086that final well that first review to you all sometime in early fall. The superintendent of public instruction recommends that the board of education wave first review and approve the revisions to the 202526 board of education approved industry credentials, occupational competency assessments, and professional licenses for implementation in the 2526 school year. >> Okay. Are there any any questions for Dr. Williams here? Comments? Mr. Monk? >> Thank you. Just quickly, I know you mentioned in through uh review as well removing some of those. Can you speak to the work that was done to identify replacements or is that just a merger that Noctti did and the removal of of many of those? >> So, we came at the request of the vendor. The vendor is no longer offering those credentials that have been identified for dilution. >>

087Mr. >> Understood. But was there a replacement looking you know look uh medical assistant knowing that's a high demand there. Um were there efforts to find other replacement credentials from a different vendor who was finding those I guess is the question. >> That is a great question. Our credential collection window has been closed uh since late 2024. So these were technical edits that we made at a time where we needed to add the seal of biiteracy. So there were no additions outside of the seal of biiteracy to this list of credentials. You will see in the fall update the strategic change when we actually identify industry credential and we work and collaborate with Bowie and the Virginia Community College System. >> No problem. >> Other questions or comments here. Okay, Dr. Northern. So, can you

088just remind me how this works with our support framework again because I know we're doing tiers where you get a certain amount of points, right? And is that just um the additional points for high demand or is it also high wage? I'm kind of forgetting how we tiered those things. >> Yes. So just high demand. So now uh a student who completes a CTE sequence is the sequence of CTE courses paired with an industry recognized credential identified as high demand. So this list that you all have before you, there's a third column that identifies what credentials on that list are identified as high demand. >> Is there a reason why? Just a followup that we did not um go I mean I remember there you had several conversations with stakeholder groups. Is there a reason

089why we dropped the high wage? >> There was background around the wage categorization uh that I do not believe we had enough data to be able to stand on that. We wanted to be able to uh consolidate our efforts with that of Virginia Works and other workforce agencies. And so that as a result of that, Bowie is now developing the credentials of value list which will be presented to you all in early fall >> which includes wages. >> Okay. Okay. Great. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Dr. Northern, you good? >> Mr. Monk, you good? >> Yes. >> Okay. Anybody else? Okay. Is there a motion to wave first review and approve the high school diploma seal of literacy? um to meet the board's requirements for one graduation effective with the students who entered the 9th

090grade in the 2018 2019 school year and beyond and two remove the 24 credentials that are no longer offered by the providers and amend the list to reflect the renamed credentials and assessments. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion of this vote? No. Okay. Dr. Aerman. >> Mr. Green. >> I. >> Dr. Mr. Northern >> I, >> Mr. Hansen. >> Hi, >> Miss Ashton. >> I >> Mr. Monk, >> I >> and chair votes I. >> Thank you, Dr. Williams. >> Miss Ba. Good morning, President Cruzie, members of the board, Superintendent Golixson, Christina Berto, chief operations officer for the Department of Ed. Today, I am here to share with you first and final review of the provo proposed revisions to the Virginia public school bus specifications to align with the 2025 acts of assembly.

091During the 2025 legislative season, the general assembly passed and the governor subsequently signed House Bill 1993 revising the Code of Virginia permitting any local school board to display decals, posters, and stickers on the sides and the rear of the school buses to advertise the hiring of school bus drivers in local school divisions. provided that the local school board is responsible for the cost of said decals, posters, and stickers, and that no decal, poster, or sticker obstructs the name of the school division and the school bus number. The complete Virginia public school bus specifications document is included in your board item with the proposed revisions that are reflected in section 49 based on this legislation. In addition, the general assembly passed and the governor subsequently signed House Bill 2720 permitting school boards that govern school divisions

092with a total fall membership enrollment of fewer than 4500 students to pursue certain flexibility with regard to student transportation alternatives for the next two school years. This bill provides the needed flexibility to assist rural and small school divi divisions that struggle with providing traditional transportation services due to budget constraints and school bus driver shortages. This bill permits the use of vehicles with capacities of less than 10 passengers and smaller capacity school buses ranging from 11 to 15 passengers that comply with the federal motor vehicle safety standards for school buses and the state school bus specification requirement for student transportation services. Any vehicle designated to carry more than 10 passengers that is used to transport students to and from schools or school related activities that does not meet the required school bus requirements are not approved

093for student transportation services. This information is reflected in the guidelines in chapter 70 as well and we will be providing guidance to local school divisions on these two changes. Um, these will be communicated in an upcoming newsletter once approved by the board as well as on any upcoming communications that our director of transportation will have with school divisions in a training capacity. I am happy to answer any questions you may have at this time. Any questions for Miss Bura on this item? Excuse me. Okay. Um, is there a motion to wave first review and approve the proposed revision to the Virginia public school bus specifications as described in the item presented to the board and its attachments? >> I'll move. >> Second. >> Okay. Uh, any discussion? >> Dr. Arian, >> I, >> Mr. Green,

094>> I. >> Dr. Northern, >> hi. >> Mr. Hansen, >> hi. >> Miss Ashton, >> I >> Mr. Monk, >> hi. and chair votes I thank you so much. Um we are going to jump back to item uh or I'm sorry we're going to move to item P and then jump back to item 11. So if you all can follow me on this one. Miss Navatrol is here for us this morning. Cre superintendent Gullixson and members of the board. I'm Amanda Nevetrol, director of the office of advanced learning at the department. As you heard yesterday during the work session, the New River Valley Governor School is a proposed half-day academic year governor school focused on serving gifted and advanced students in Southwest Virginia with an emphasis on the arts and humanities. The school would operate

095on the campus of Radford University and include the following participating school divisions, Giles, Montgomery, Floyd, Radford, and Palasi. A planning committee consisting of division superintendent, parents, schoolboard members, and Radford University faculty have been meeting regularly since August 2023 to gather stakeholder feedback and plan a program to meet the needs of gifted and advanced students in this area of the Commonwealth. Their proposal documents the existence of an active planning committee, the designation of a fiscal agent, the overall mission goals and objectives, the proposed program administration, the proposed student selection criteria, and the proposed site location. The document provides descriptions of the program's curricular focus on arts and humanities and offers letters of support from business, industries, higher ed, and community leaders. It is aligned with the updated procedures for initiating an academic year governor's school. Subject

096matter experts at the department have reviewed and provided feedback on the proposal and additional stakeholder engagement has occurred at the local level. The superintendent of public instruction recommends that the board wave first review and receive this item for final review. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Um, and obviously after our presentation yesterday and in talking with other members, we are super impressed with this application and certainly don't want to hold up any progress that could be made between now and our our next meeting. So I um I think we're all uh in agreement that we want to go ahead and move on this. So is there a motion to wave first review and approve the new new river valley governor school proposal? >> So moved. >> Second. Any discussion? >> Dr. Northern, >> I

097just want to say hooray. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Yeah. Anyone else? >> Okay. Dr. Arian, >> I. >> Mr. Green, >> I. >> Dr. Northern I. >> Mr. Hansen. >> Hi. >> Miss Ashton. >> I. >> Mr. Monk. >> I. >> And chair votes I. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Um, okay. So, we're gonna jump back to item L. Sorry, we're jumping around today. Dr. Wallace. Good morning, President Greasy, Superintendent Gullixson, and members of the board. I am presenting today the board of education approved courses to satisfy graduation requirements for the standard advanced studies and modified standard diplomas in Virginia public schools document. This document outlines um uh proposed uh substitutions. It's a it's a running document that we have been bringing before the board for many many years. um we bring it to the

098board only when there are proposed changes and I think you've seen some of you have seen this over the last year a couple of different times. The changes within this document today include technical edits made to the background information on page one. We have added on page four students seeking the advanced diploma to complete algebra 2 before taking data science. This is not a change. It is just a notation of a recommendation and we're making it more public by having it in the board approved document. This was already a recommendation for schools and it's just being a little bit more prominent. So that's really not a change. It's just a kind of an editorial change. Um the next item is on page 14. We were missing a SCD code which is the coding system our

099schools use to identify courses. And this was for health and physical education grade nine, which is not the driver education course. And so that was missing. We added that. And then probably the largest change is adding to the code of Virginia citation for the graduation requirement of economics and personal finance. This is to clearly outline um the substitution that can be made for those classes. and then updated the language to explicitly include IB economics and IB business management as courses that can count for the graduation requirement of economics and personal finance provided that the standards are incorporated into that IB course curriculum as outlined in the code of Virginia. Um, so I at this time would recommend uh the superintendent for public education recommends that the board receives this these updates for first review. >>

100Thank you so much. Are there any questions here? If not, we will accept this item from for first review and see you in August. >> Thank you. Okay. Um, item N. Mr. Chapman, am I right, Mr. Chapman? Item in. >> Okay. Just want to make sure I wasn't off here. Yeah. Thank you, President Cesy, Vice President Hansen, members of the board, and Superintendent Gullixson. What we have before you in item N is the followup on the periodic reviews that were closed over the last couple of months. Um so those periodic reviews we've already posted um and closed on the Virginia regulatory town hall at least as far as the the the board and the department are concerned and we now have some um uh recommendations for actions that we are bringing to you as a

101result of those periodic reviews to actually affectuate the regulatory changes. Um these are again fairly modest in line with the results of the periodic review. Um, chapter 580, the regulations for the school breakfast program, um, we believe does not need to be an independent chapter, but can be streamlined under 8BAC20-720, which is the regulations governing local school boards. Um, which we think will enhance clarity and it's going to reduce a number of the board's regulatory chapters, which are subject to periodic review. Um, the underlying statutory requirements in 580, um, that are not duplicative of of statute or federal regulation, where we would just retain them in 720. um chapter 620, which is the regulations governing school guidance and counseling programs in schools of Virginia. Again, this is a very very modest change. Um the the

102regulation currently still refi refers to guidance counselors in schools and that term has fallen out of favor in the statute to refer to school counselors, which we think is better. Um the statute statutory position is better reflects the range of services that they provide. We're really just amending that um that one one word and that is it. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chapman. We will accept this item for first review and see you in August. Dr. Williams, we're knocking all of them out early today. All right. Good morning again. Thank you for the opportunity to present on the CTE highquality work-based learning implementation guide. Historically, the VOE has annually revised the technical content of its guidance to school divisions. This year, the CTE highquality workbased implementation guide is centered around principles of the 3E readiness framework

103and is a complete overhaul of previous versions. If you can recall the previous version, just to add 180 plus pages that we have now condensed to less than 30. In December 2024, we presented to the board of education measurable and clearly defined highquality work-based learning experiences to integrate into Virginia's 3E readiness framework. In February 2025, the board approved a new definition and criteria to include six highquality work-based learning experience types: clinical experiences, entrepreneurship, internship, registered apprenticeship, school-based enterprise, and select emerging agricultural experiences. The six high quality work-based learning experiences establish clear rigorous criteria for the types of work-based learning experiences included in Virginia's 3E readiness framework and graduation requirements and is defined as a school coordinated experience within the workforce that includes sustained engagement with industry professionals in high demand fields in which students apply

104course coursework learning to a real world setting while at the same time building critical thinking, collaboration, communication, creat creative thinking and citizen citizenship skills. Students practice their technical skills and durable skills on a sustained basis. And these experiences accelerate learning toward the goal of earning a national certificate of completion, industry recognized credential, and or obtain post-secary credit while receiving feedback and guidance through mentoring and supervision from industry professionals. The CTE high-quality workbased learning implementation guide with thorough stakeholder consultation incorporates Virginia's new direction in shaping the the workbased learning landscape. It is designed to support educators, administrators, and business and industry partners in affecting CTE highquality work-based learning programs across Virginia. By leveraging the principles of the 3D readiness framework, the guide creates cohesive and impactful learning experiences to prepare students for success in their chosen

105career pathway. Each high-quality work-based learning experience will go through a certification process to ensure that it meets the criteria for high quality. School divisions will submit evidence that aligns to the criteria identified in the highquality work-based learning checklist through an online form for approval by the Office of Career and Technical Education. The high-quality work-based learning checklist will be used to certify experiences that qualify for 3E readiness and graduation requirements. During the May 2025 board meeting, we briefly discussed the need to consolidate the requirements for graduation in 3E as outlined on page six in the draft guide. In that checklist, just a brief overview of the criteria for high quality work-based learning experiences. Each experience must take place at an authentic work site. It should be connected to a high demand field as identified by the

106Virginia Office of Education Economics and be for a minimum duration of 90 hours. experience should apply to CTE completer sequences provide opportunities for students to apply the Virginia 5C's and and this is a point of clarification here uh students must earn a national certificate of completion industry recognized credential or post-secary credit uh I do want to pause there briefly uh when we consolidated the requirements for 3e and for graduation uh the requirement for 3e in our February ary approval uh required students to earn a national certificate of completion industry credential or post-secary credit. The option for graduation provided students the opportunity meaning it was not a requirement but that pathway should provide students with the opportunity. It provides more flexibility if we provide the students with opportunities to earn certificate of completions or credentials or

107post-secary credit. rather than stating that students must earn a industry recognized credential. Uh making that modification to provide opportunities for students also aligns with our criteria for 3e and the award of.5 points uh for high quality work-based learning experiences. So I do want to make that point of clarification as that edit was not made on this this document. And lastly, uh documented supervision uh from a mentoring and supervision from an industry professional. The following uh includes a brief summary of the remaining contents of the revised CTE highquality work-based learning implementation guide. The continuum of work-based learning experiences that support students in their enrollment, enlistment, and employment transitions. The work-based learning experiences build upon students interest to learn about work, learn through work, and learn for work. Uh these continuing of work-based learning experiences continue to

108stand at the forefront of career and technical education programs which could include uh mentorship, job shadowing, cooperative education, uh to name a few, as well as externships and service learning experiences. Guidance for developing rigorous work-based learning programs by school divisions. the role of business and industry partners, common barriers, potential solutions for work-based learning programs, and the responsibilities of the work-based learning coordinator design. We have a section that includes workplace safety and labor laws along with federal and state labor regulations and updates. Information on the federal family education's rights and privacy act, students with disability and English learners regulations and updates. And our appendix includes uh for easy access toolkit resources that includes the continuing of work-based learning and highquality work-based learning type overview forms, other required forms for high quality work-based learning and other resources

109school divisions can consider using in their implementation of their work-based learning program. The appendix the appendix links will also serve as the basis for a toolkit resource page that will uh be located on the VDOE CTE web page. This format will provide current information that's easily accessible for users. And this is the key that allowed us to condense uh this this guide from 180 to less than uh 30 pages. Since 2024, we've had the opportunity to engage a number of stakeholders in this process to include the Secretary of Education, Secretary of Commerce and Trade, Secretary of Labor, Virginia Workforce Development Board, Virginia College Partnership Lab Schools, Hampton Roads K12 Division Superintendent, Southwest Virginia K- through2 Division Superintendent, Virginia Association of Secondary School Principles, Virginia Community College System, Virginia State Council of Higher Education Leadership, Regional

110Manufacturers Association, Virginia Association of Career and Technical Education, Virginia Launch Team, Governor's Student Advisory Board, Virginia Career and Technical Education Advisory Committee, Virginia Association of Career and Technical Education Administrators, Board of Directors, and the Virginia Accountability Advisory Group. The Superintendent of Public Instruction recommends that following this first review, technical edits will be made before our final submission at the August board meeting. So, at this time, I would open it up to any questions or comments uh that you may have pertaining to this draft guide. >> Does anyone anyone have any questions for Dr. Williams? Mr. Monk, >> just quickly just want to thank you for your work uh since December around including uh SAEs as a component of it. So excited about that. Thank you. >> Further comments or questions, Dr. Northern. >> So, I

111just want to clarify what I think I heard you say. So, I'm on the uh workbased learning checklist in the guide. Um, and you said one change that was made was we went from the opportunities to to earn versus earning. And I wasn't tracking you on that because clearly we you're saying that the opportunity was um used to be in the graduation requirements and now it's in the 3E readiness or like how does how does the opportunity versus the earn change? Can you explain that to me again? Sure, I can. Uh, so in the February board uh item, we had two columns. One of the requirements were for graduation, which was a column, and then the requirements for 3E. >> That's right. >> And so at the December meeting, the board wanted a consolidated definition.

112Okay. And so we consolidated the definition in February, but we did not consolidate the criteria. >> And so what's before you now is the consolidated criteria. And when we consolidated that criteria, uh it's been brought to our attention through our uh public comment that for students to earn a national certificate of completion, industry recognized credential or post-secary credit is very very rigorous for them to do. And that's one of the requirements of highquality work-based learning. And in order for students to do that through the high quality work-based learning for 0.5 points for 3e, >> yep, >> it didn't necessarily align. I think the ultimate intent are to create pathways for students to have the opportunities through CTE coursework for post-secary education credit industry recognized credentials but not necessarily make it a requirement for students to

113take and pass an industry certification examination. If that is so the wishes of the board, uh we can modify that as appropriate. But we felt that having students having the opportunity towards credentials, post-secary credit provides more flexibility that aligns to the 0.5 points that are awarded in the 3E uh readiness framework. So just to clarify, the 0.5 will now be if you offer the courses that lead to the industry recognized credential and then you'll get like 75 if you actually get the credential. >> So 0.5 as approved would include a sequence of CTE courses >> paired with a highquality work-based learning experience. And what we're saying stating here is that the high quality work-based learning experience would provide opportunities towards an industry certification. Meaning that such student may not have earned that industry certification but

114that pathway will provide opportunities towards that industry certification. >> And so does the school I'm sorry to belabor this but this is kind of important. So is the school getting the points for offering the opportunity versus the student has to take the opportunity as a course? >> What we're saying is that the school will get the 0.5 points for providing the opportunity through this criteria along with these other items would satisfy the requirements for of a high quality work-based learning experience >> at the school level. And then every kid that takes that does that count towards the higher point value like you actually get an industry recognized credential? So >> yes and then that would be another point value. >> So at one point we're saying we have a school level measure and at the

115next one we have a student level measure. >> Is that right? Like we're changing at one point the.5 is at the school level. >> No that's that's student. We're still talking about the student. >> But aren't the opportunities offered at the school level? >> Well so let me clarify. >> Okay. Each student will need to satisfy the requirements in this checklist. 90 hours of high quality work-based learning at an authentic work site, >> access to CTE, sequence of courses, opportunities towards industry recognized credential, post-secary credit. So now we're looking at the sequence of courses and that alignment to industry recognized credentials and post-secary credit. and then documented completion of a structured mentorship. So those are requirements that each student are going to have to complete within the six workbased learning high quality workbased learning types

116at the school. >> No. >> Okay. So this was the discussion that you had pointed out in se several months ago that we want to give them credit for having the for taking the opportunity but also ensure that if they're getting the industry recognized credential that's a larger point value. So the opportunity and taking a course that may not be a completer >> remember we had the discussion about completers and that's where this point value has come from and been assigned to. >> What does it mean for a child to take the opportunity? >> So taking a course is that correct? >> Taking a course because being enrolled in the course provides access to the credentials the postsecary. >> All right. We might want to just change that to course because to me opportunity means

117that the school is offering the opportunity and that the points come for that piece of the puzzle come at the school level. >> Sure. Sure. >> Um because offering opportunity is not something a child does. >> Sure. >> So anyway, that's sorry that was that was all of my confusion. Yeah. >> Um sorry my second question. I'm really the history of workbased learning. How is that following into all of this? They take a course in the history of work. That was new to me. >> That's only providing history and context of the evolution of workbased learning in Virginia. >> So, it's a it will be a course that's offered. >> No, it's not a course. We're just providing the background within the implementation guide. There is no specific course. >> Great. Thank >> all right.

118>> Other questions or comments? >> Yeah, I got a quick I'm sorry, Creasy. Uh Dr. Whims, you may have mentioned it and may have went over my head. Um, my question is, um, when will the WBL guidelines go in effect for school divisions? >> Uh, this will currently be for the 2526 school year. >> Gotcha. >> Further question, Mr. >> Y. >> Okay, Mr. Monk. just quickly and I wasn't here in February but I'm looking through some of those documents and saw the meeting but around programs that are already involved um you know thinking about SAES or SBEEs does that change the calculation for kind of um I guess is the intent to provide additional um incentive for things that are already occurring because some of those some of that work is already occurring around

119credentials and and some of those pieces is that the intent of uh >> the intent is to ensure alignment across all highquality work-based learning experiences where we've identified that there were pockets that we could measure high quality through SAEs for example immersion SAEs uh but we wanted to ensure consistency for every student that participates in a work-based learning experience thus this the criteria was the outcome >> thank you >> further questions or comments for Dr. Williams thank you so much Dr. Williams, we will see you uh we'll accept this item for first review and see you in August. Thank you. >> Okay. Um moving along to item Centum. Good morning again. So today we bring for you the first review of the SC the expanded science high school standards of learning. Um the code of

120Virginia directs the board of education to establish a regular schedule of review of the standards of learning in all subject areas which shall occur at least once every seven years. The current science standards of learning were adopted by the board of education in 2018, but yet they were fully implemented in 2223. You might remember there was a big event that kind of prompted that delay um of the full implementation of the science standards of learning. So in developing the science standards of learning in 218 um the there were significant revisions already to the 2010 standards which increase the rigor and expectations for students. And so in preparation for the 2025 review of the science standards of learning the agency began gathering feedback from stakeholders in 2023. That process began with Dr. Anne Peterson who was

121over science at that time and is now the director of STEM. It has continued under Laura Casdorf's leadership and both of them are here today to take any questions and Laura will be presenting the overview of the revision process. Before she begins, we want to just reiterate to the board and to educators that the 2018 science standards of learning for kindergarten through the high school courses, which go through physics 1, will remain unchanged as teachers have reviewed these standards and are recommending that they are not changed due to the increase in rigor to the 2018 standards and due to the delay of the full implementation. This board will be reviewing recommendations for the expanded high school science standards of learning associated with courses that are commonly called by the field level two courses and what

122we are referring to as expanded high school science courses. There is also um one additional high school course than the uh list of level two courses. These are board approved courses which lacked formal standards of learning previously. rather the department had has um created content guidelines for these courses that schools use to help guide what they teach in the classroom. They are referred to currently as guidelines since they are have not been previously adopted standards of learning associated with this course. And so I would like for you to look at the presentation that Laura is going to take you through. She'll walk you through the slide deck which clearly shows the process that's taking place and the revisions and and all of those details. Laura so good morning President Casey members of the board and

123superintendent Gullixson. I'm Laura Casdorf the science coordinator at DOE and I'm here to share with you the draft 2025 expanded high school science standards of learning. These standards are aligned to board priority one to set and help every learner meet high expectations. As Dr. Wallace outlined, these standards are for 11 board approved high school courses that can be used to meet science graduation requirements. However, these courses currently do not have standards. To prepare the field for the development of standards, the VDA developed content guidelines for these courses beginning in 2017. These guidelines were developed to provide content guard guard rails needed to inform consistent instructional expectations in Virginia with the intent of developing standards for these courses in the 2025 revision process. Also, as Dr. Wallace stated, the code of Virginia directs the board of

124education to establish a regular schedule to review the standards of learning in all subject areas, which shall occur at least once every seven years. The current science standards of learning were adopted by the board in 2018 but not fully implemented until the 2022 2023 school year. In developing these 2018 science standards of learning, there were significant revisions to the 2010 science of standards learning to increase rigor and reflect research-based best practices. As detailed on slide four, stakeholder feedback and educator committee input indicated that the existing 2018 science standards of learning are rigorous and reflect high expectations for students and should remain the same. Instructional guides will be provided to give clarity and specificity to teachers about the 2018 standards. Slide five describes the standards development process. These standards were developed using the Virginia Department of

125Education process for standards review. Educators completed an application to participate um as a committee member and were selected based on several factors including their content expertise, geographical representation, experience in teaching the courses being reviewed and superintendent recommendations. After the standards were drafted, VDOE sought stakeholder feedback. As you can see see on slides six and seven, feedback was gathered from a variety of stakeholders. This included the science education advisory board which includes parents, educators, institutes of higher education, military, nonprofit organizations and industry. Feedback was also gathered from teachers, school and division leaders, nonformal educators, professional organizations, and state and federal agencies. This stakeholder feedback was used to revise the draft standards and resulted in the documents presented to you today for review. On slide eight, the proposed draft 2025 expanded high school science standards of learning

126describe the Commonwealth's expectations for student learning and achievement in these 11 high school courses that are approved by the board of education but do not have current standards. These courses are environmental science and 10 level two courses in biology, chemistry, earth science, and physics. The expansion of the standards to include these 11 additional courses will provide for equal access and rigorous expectations and opportunities across the commonwealth in all board approved science courses. The standards being presented today for first review are a comprehensive set of standards achieved through the collaboration of many stakeholders including parents, K to2 educators, community and business members, national experts and faculty at institutes of higher education. These standards represent the best-in-class for all students in the Commonwealth. The proposed expanded standards will provide rigorous expectations to drive instruction and provide a

127coherent and vertically articulated set of expectations to educators and families. Instruction based on quality high quality standards will ensure that all students have access to educational opportunities that prepare them for success in the workplace, communities, and our democracy. Strong academic standards ensure readiness for all learners in successful postsecary pursuits. Slide nine outlines the guiding principles that were used to develop these standards. These include ensuring that the standards reflect accurate and current science content, that they prepare students for enrollment, enlistment, or employment. They use Virginia context to support instruction and convey high expectations for all students. Slides 10 and 11 give details about the timeline of the standards development process, starting with educator committees in the summer of 2023, continuing with feedback and additional committees in 2024 to presenting the standards today. As part of the

128state standards process, the superintendent recommends that the board of education receive for first review the attached proposed draft 2025 expanded high school science standards of learning. Upon receiving these standards for initial review, department staff will open a public comment period. Details about scheduled public hearings are given on slide 12. Comments can also be submitted using an online form or via email. Public comment will update will inform any updates to the science standards to be brought to the board for final review in September and of 2025. Thank you. And I'm happy to answer any questions. Are there any questions from board members on these um uh high school science standards? Dr. Northern, I have a few if you have some. >> Okay. Um so, as we all know, we have lots of industry coming into Virginia

129that is specifically science related. I do feel strongly about ensuring that we are getting quite a bit of that stakeholder input and engagement on these standards. We know from our previous standards uh adoption um that our our industry, our employers um and Dr. Williams will tell you they are very engaged and want to be engaged and want to be included as we talk about new standards and new opportunities for students. And so um that being said, have we talked to some of the big employers that have come to the region recently like LEGO? Have we asked someone from there to have some input here? Have we asked some of our pharmaceutical companies that are coming into the Commonwealth? have we engaged with them? I mean, even if even if there's no real engagement on their

130part, we're at least reaching out to those new or newer um companies and industry that's coming into Virginia. We want for those those businesses to know that we want them engaged in a in our educational process for their buy in in the Commonwealth. So um how much of that has been done and is there more that needs to be done and and can be done? >> So we have engaged some industry they were part of the advisory board. So some of the largest employers related to science and technology and engineering in the state Lego was not part of that because when the group was put together wasn't here yet but we can definitely include them and reach out to them specifically to get some specific feedback. And I will say additionally in many of the

131standards you'll see they're in attachment one. I didn't want to go through all of them, but in many of the courses, there are some sort of optional standards at the end to address local context so that teachers have some flexibility in say a genetics course or an anatomy and physiology course to deal with things that are interesting to students locally and can and work with local businesses. >> Yeah. I also just think it's a really awesome pipeline for our students to know what's in and around and available in the Commonwealth. And it also, you know, really um facilitates those relationships between um the locality, the students in that locality and the business. So if you guys could do something like talk to Astroenica, talk to Johnson and Johnson, those are some big ones that are

132either coming and have announced or are coming in the future. Um, so I think that that would be helpful because certainly if we have jobs that are ready and and available for our kids um to go into either outside of college or they can get that direction um moving into um their higher education time and uh that would be perfect. >> Yeah, we will definitely do that. >> Um also just um want to make sure that on the last slide uh certainly don't want to um insult any of our school divisions. it should be Chesapeake City Schools administrator building um if we could make that change. So that was just my input. Um Dr. Northern. >> Yeah, I would just encourage us to just continue to add more specificity. Um and I know when we've

133done this before, um you know, we've had resources added and links and we've given them in prints, we've given them EGs, for example, blah blah blah. Um, and we're just looking at page 24. Make quantitative and qualitative claims based on data. Like that's really broad. That just doesn't really help on on the specificity side. That could be in any science standard. Um, apply scientific ideas, principles, evidence to provide an explanation of phenomena. What scientific ideas? What principles? What phenomena? So, um, these just, you know, are many opportunities to take, uh, a very vaguely worded standard and give it more meat on the bones in terms of specificity. Um, I think this is what we often find with standards is they just lack um, you know, the additional um, specificity for teachers and the what we're

134expecting kids to learn uh, more discreetly >> and noted. Absolutely. But also we are we were planning to develop instructional guides to go to support these courses and some of those details live in the instructional guides. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. And like I said especially external resources and links and things like that that would be in the instructional guides. >> So Dr. Wallace, this is more of a question for you. Is there a reason why we're not conforming to the more recent um template in these standards? So in our other standards adoption, we've had a different view. Um so for for example we're working through those instructional guides um and we have those placements but is are we able to format it to look the way that we have recently formatted and adopted

135the other um content area standards? >> Yeah, we can we can look at that for sure. Um >> I just I want uniformity. >> Yeah. Um >> absolutely. Um, and I think too that you'll see a difference in the format with instructional guides versus just the list of standards themselves. But we'll go back and we'll make that change. >> Thank you. Other comments or questions on this item. >> Okay. We will accept this for first review and deter it to be determined when you will come back with uh some work to do. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Uhhuh. Um, okay. We are going to take a quick five minute break and then um the board is going to move into an executive session. We will come back from break and certify um or

136move into our close session process. Sorry. Five minutes. And um for our next item, the board will need to go into a closed meeting to receive legal advice. Dr. Northern, would you read our motion to convene in a closed meeting, please? >> Yes. I move that the Virginia Board of Education convene in a closed meeting for the following purposes. consultation with legal counsel employed by or retained by a public body regarding specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by such counsel pursuant to section 2.23711A88 of the code of Virginia and that legal counsel to Virginia Board of Education and Staff whose presence will aid in the board's consideration of this matter participate in the closed meeting. Is >> there a second? Second >> Dr. Arian >> I >> Mr. Green >> I >>

137Dr. Northern I Mr. Hansen >> hi >> Miss Ashton is not on right now Mr. drunk. >> Hi, >> and chair votes I. Okay, we will go into close session now. Thank you. back live and I would ask Dr. Northern to read us back into session, please. We convene today in a closed meeting pursuant to a recorded vote on the motion above and in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act section 2.23712 23712 of the Code of Virginia requires that the board certify that to the extent of each member's knowledge, one, only business public matters lawfully exempt from open meeting requirements under this chapter. And two, only such business matters as were identified in the motion by which the closed meeting was convened were heard, discussed, or considered. Any member who believes there was a

138departure from these requirements shall so state prior to the vote indicating the substance of that departure that and his or her judgment has taken place. The statement of the departure will be recorded in the minutes. Okay. Dr. Ari >> I. >> Mr. Green >> I. >> Dr. Northern I. >> Mr. Hansen is not here and not participating. Miss Ashton. >> Mr. Monk. I >> and chair votes I. Uh at this time we will take a lunch break until 1:30. Thank you. And we are back this afternoon. We have two um presentations or um two other agenda items before we end our meeting this afternoon. And so I would like to invite um those presenting from the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission to come up to the podium um and provide us with an update.

139Thank you. >> Good afternoon. My name is Joe McMahon. I'm a chief legislative analyst and project leader at the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission or JARK. I'm joined today out in the audience by Justin Brown, our senior associate director, who's overseeing the work I'll be discussing today. Also joining me are Kate Hopkins and Laura White, two both our analysts working with me on this study. Thank you, President Cesy, and members of the board for having us today. Uh I'm here to give an overview of the work we're conducted related to the new school accountability framework. Uh many of you are likely somewhat familiar with this effort because I reached out uh to each of you about the possibility of participating in an interview with our team as part of our research. So I can

140keep this overview relatively brief. Um Jark is a commission of the Virginia General Assembly and we're staffed to that commission. We conduct nonpartisan objective research and analysis of state agencies, programs, and policy areas. So, our commission has directed us to review the new uh school accountability system, the school performance and support framework. Um, our review is encompassing all aspects of the framework. We're evaluating whether in it includes the appropriate factors, whether it's being implemented clearly and effectively, whether it's based on sound methodology such as the waiting, measurement, and scoring that is being used. uh whether the results are presented in a fair and useful way and whether the framework successfully identifies schools for support and links them with those supports. So to answer those questions, we're conducting extensive research. Uh some of the primary efforts

141include meeting with the secretary and superintendent earlier in the year, reviewing ESSA and federal requirements, reviewing Virginia's prior school accreditation system and school accountability systems in other states, talking to state and national experts that specialize in school accountability generally and subject matter experts in specific areas such as student growth. We've been interviewing key education stakeholders across Virginia, including school division superintendent, principles and counselors, education associations and ad advocacy groups and local school board members. Um along with that, we're conducting a survey of all school divisions uh that will be completed by the their superintendent or their design. And then we're doing extensive data analysis on the results of the framework. And we plan to also update that analysis um once and incorporate the 2425 school year once that data becomes available in the fall. Um

142some specific efforts uh related to the board. Um we're watching recordings of all board of education meetings um where school accountability was discussed since 2022. We're reviewing all materials that were presented and discussed at those meetings. And like I said, we're also conducting interviews with current and for former board members who were involved in the the design and regulatory process. Um, we've already interviewed a few board members. Those have been really good and productive interviews and we've got a few more in the upcoming weeks that that we're looking forward to. So, our work's going to culminate in a written report and presentation to our commission of the general assembly that'll take place at a public meeting on Tuesday, December 16th. Our report will become public at that time. Um, it'll include our findings as well

143as any recommendations for changes to the framework as deemed appropriate by our research. And then lastly, our process will include an opportunity for technical review by the secretar's office and VDOE staff, which we used to make sure that um the report is accurate before it's released. Um, so that concludes my overview. I just want to quickly thank uh Superintendent Gullixson and VDOE staff. Um, in particular Susan Williams and Mark Jennings. um they have provided us with a ton of data and have answered many uh technical questions along the way and I sure we're gonna have some more. So that concludes my overview and I'm happy to take any questions about JARK or the study that we're working on. >> Are there any questions from board members about this particular study? >> No. Dr. Northern >>

144I've already >> Yeah, she's already had I I do think that I have my interview coming up next week, I think. Um uh I guess one question that I would just like to have clarified is are there are there experts in education that are doing this work for JARK and what what are their credentials in the field of education um to specifically understand the intricacies around the work that we do as educators. >> Yep. I think President Cesy uh the work will be conducted by Jark staff primarily and that's our study team and and we are generalists so we don't necessarily have a education background or expertise. Um but that's the main reason that we reach out to so many other experts and so many stakeholders and do all the surveys and try to get

145as many of those um expert opinions and diverse opinions that we can. And I will say too that just within our agency, we've now we've done half a dozen education uh K through2 education studies probably in the last five years. So we do have some internal um relevant knowledge to the topic. So >> are there any other questions or comments, superintendent? >> Well, thank you. We so appreciate uh the collaboration being able to support your work. Are you pulling any national experts? Yes. Um we're kind of we started out with a lot of the experts that you all heard from during the process. I'm gonna mess up all the groups off the top of my head. Excel and Ed and >> um groups like that. Um and then they give us suggestions to >> um

146their professional network. So we work work along with them too. >> And then secondly, when is your cuto off for information? it's top of mind since obviously the school performance and support framework will be live this fall with new outcomes. So just curious on what your cuto off point is for new information. >> Yes. Uh I got Justin smirking here. It there's always this tension where we have to try to finalize our product, do all the quality control, but we want it to be as recent as possible. Um we're fully planning for new results to be released in the fall. Um, I think October would be doable. As we start getting into November, it starts getting more dicey. >> Um, we're going to talk with your data staff this next week to start talking about

147the timing of all that. >> Thank you. Anything else? We appreciate you guys coming today. >> Thank you for having us. >> Thank you so much. >> Okay, so we're uh shifting and I would invite you all to stay if you want to see. Um this is sort of the highlight of our year. This is the second year that we have had a student advisory board. Um I can say that it is truly uh one of the best days that we get to have um here at the board of education in our one the best meeting of the entire year for sure. um because we not only get to hear from the year-long project that they've been um undertaking, but we also get to have some time with our stu with the student advisory board

148and get to ask questions about things that you know I mean we're kind of like in the position here at this time of year that legislators are listening to our board meetings trying to gather ideas about what kind of legislation needs to come in um the coming legislative session. And so what last year there were a couple of um bills that came at a student advisory committee and it was they were successful through the general assembly and with the governor's signature and so we're certainly looking forward to that opportunity again this year. Um we love hearing all of the ideas you have even outside of your your projects that you um do for us. So, superintendent, would you like to make any comments? >> Yes, we are so thrilled for the public. Um, there were

149dozens and dozens of applicants from all across the Commonwealth. And so, each of these, um, student advisory board members represents one of our eight superintendent regions and all had very different schooling experiences. And so we're so thrilled they spent the year talking to policymakers, evaluating executive actions, um, versus the appropriation act versus general assembly processes, board of ed actions, um, really getting to know a lot of Virginia's policy makers in action um, behind the scenes. And so they've now culminated their ideas on how we can make Virginia's education system even better. And so we're so thrilled. They have three very different concepts. and we'll kick it off with our first >> group. So, um I'd like to invite Ally Buckner to come up. Do you want to start them or would you like for would

150you like to call them up? So, we'll have three presentations today. Um and Ally, I'll let you. So, thank you, President Cesie and Superintendent Golixen and members of the board. Um, we have eight really awesome students here that are going to give three separate presentations as you mentioned. Um, so first up, I'll invite our dual enrollment and workbased learning group up. And as you guys come up here, if you all would introduce yourselves, um what superintendent region you are representing and then also what school uh you attend or attended. >> Thank you. Um good afternoon, President Cesy, Secretary Golixson, and members of the board. I'm Clint Wilson. I'm from Superintendent Region 7 and I attended Johns Battle High School and I'm currently attending UVA. >> Um, my name is Nicole Bala and I'm from District

1518 and I went to Appamatics County High School and I'm currently attending Central Virginia Community College. >> And this afternoon we will be we will be presenting on expanding access to industry recognized credentials to high school students. So, there is a growing need to modernize Virginia's high school dual enrollment system to better prepare students for both college and workforce success. Currently, access barriers such as cost and availability hinder high school students from obtaining industry recognized credentials before graduation. As a result, students struggle to find employment upon graduation or be prepared to enroll in future college. By partnering the Virginia Fast Forward program with the Uniform Certificate of General Studies Passport Program to offer a combined accessible dual enrollment option, we can give students a significant head start whether they choose to pursue higher education or

152enter the workforce immediately after graduation. This integration would not only expand educational and career opportunities for students across the Commonwealth, but also help address Virginia's workforce needs by producing skilled, job ready graduates earlier. Removing access barriers for students obtaining industry recognized credentials is essential to preparing them for the workforce or for college continuation upon graduation. Earning these credentials makes students equipped for practical skills that enhance both their employability and academic readiness. Research from Forom shows that students with industry recognized credentials often demonstrate increased college enrollment or employment probability. Overall, expanding the UCGs passport program to encompass certain industry recognized credentials will remove access barriers and better prepare students for either immediate employment or continued education upon graduation. The Virginia Department of Education Economics predicts a significant rise in careers in industry such as healthcare, automotive,

153culinary, and maintenance. Many of these careers can be obtained by having the necessary industry recognized credentials. By providing access to obtaining these credentials to more students, we can more effectively meet these rising workforce needs. So, several states have developed innovative programs to allow students to gain valuable skills, credentials, and pursue higher education without accumulating debt. Um, one example is Colorado's Career-Wise program allows students to engage in apprenticeships and earn credentials without accumulating any debt. Similarly, Louisiana's Fast Forward program allows students to earn a technical associates degree or universal transfer degree and opens apprenticeship pathways to students. Success for this program can be measured through credential attainment rates, employment outcomes, and regional program expansion with guard rails to ensure equity and labor market alignment. To implement the proposal, the board action policy lever will be utilized

154by requesting approval from the Virginia Board of Education to expand the UCGs passport framework to include eligible career and technical education certifications that would align with the Virginia Fast Forward program. amending existing board regulations or guidance documents to expand opportunities offered through the Virginia Fast Forward program to high school students by use of the UCGS Passport Program. Utilizing this lever ensures policy change is aligned with state education and workforce development goals. Virginia's current uniform certificate of general studies passport program effectively supports general education transfer across public institutions but lacks integration with IRC's limiting opportunities for students to graduate with transferable credits and workforce ready skills. This program recommends expanding the UCGS passport to include approved industry recognized credentials supported by the supported by Virginia Fast Forward. This aligns with the high this align with the

155Commonwealth's 3E framework of employment, enrollment, and enlistment. By embedding high value credentials into academic pathways, students will be better prepared for post-secary enrollment or immediate employment. Studies show that there are high demands for jobs in healthcare, culinary, machinery, and maintenance fields, many of which are obtainable by having the appropriate IRC's. States states such as Colorado and Louisiana have already taken access taken actions to allow students to obtain these credentials with little to no cost to them while in high school. Success will be measured through credential attainment rates, employment outcomes, and regional program expansion. And this policy shift offers a cost-effective, equitable, and workforce aligned evolution of Virginia's credentiing system, strengthening both economic development and student across. Thank you all. Do you all have any questions for us about our proposal? >> Are there any questions

156from board members? Mr. Monk, this is yours. >> Yeah, I geek out on career technical education and workforce development. So number one, thank you for a presentation around uh industry recognized credentials. Uh quick question around I there's probably in your research you've seen there's already some credentials in place within current technical education, but I noticed that a lot of these especially in the fastforward program seem to be a little bit more in depth as opposed to uh topic specific their generalist. Can you speak to kind of the difference between credentials that are already in place that folks might be familiar with and these more indepth uh type IRC's? >> So at my school we have a nurse aid program and students can get their their like I guess their degree to become a CNA. Um,

157and I feel like that's different from in agriculture you can get your certified pesticide license. Um, where I think the CNA is more pointed toward a job rather than um, the pesticide applicants and small engines is also one that you can get in doing agriculture and those are very beneficial, but I feel like some of the ones in the fast forward program are more pointed towards a career field. questions. >> Dr. Northern. >> Sure. Um, I'm just looking at this cool bar graph you guys have on high demand IRC's. Um, I've been studying it while you've been talking. >> Um, I'm just fascinated. Right. Did you guys dig into any of this data? The Virginia Office of Educ Education um, what was this? economist, um, economics, right? V O E, I guess, right? Bowie. Bowie.

158That's right. I know it as Bowie. Um, and what do you make, I mean, of some of these? We've got physical, occupational, physical therapy. I mean, what do you guys make of some of these areas? Why do you think they may be growing in Virginia? Do you have any theories about that? I mean, we've got these cooks that are kind of off the bar chart as well. Did did you were you able to get context behind what was driving these forecast? >> Well, um so I did do a lot of the research for the for Voy. Um but >> I believe a lot of these may have links to expanding populations or um populations of different ages coming into Virginia. Um because really a lot of these fields whether like they are in healthcare, automotive,

159culinary or maintenance, these are the fields that really drive the Commonwealth. >> Um they are essential no matter where you go and that's why I believe that um maybe population trends might contribute to this. >> Mr. >> Thank you. I'm going to try to be brief. Um so many questions swirling but this one and you mentioned it. I think you were getting there as well. healthcare, automotive, culinary, HVAC, um, industrial mech. There seems to be a hands-on component and I know there's, you know, a lot going on in the world with data and information. U thoughts around what that looks like and and from a job market perspective, those seem to be the jobs that show up on Indeed and and those type of things. So, um, these IRC's, how do you think that might

160help translate to a career um, you know, from day one when students get out of those programs? Well, um I think a lot of these credentials are very applicable to the workforce. For instance, um the CNA certification through healthcare, I know that can be very very beneficial for someone looking to go become a nurse. And this way they can go and obtain that job right out of high school. And um I guess a big reason for this program is to meet these big rising workforce needs that are presenting themselves in these fields. >> And I would like to add even if the credential doesn't get you the job like a CNA won't get you to be a nurse, but it'll get you where you're in the right field to keep pursuing your education to find

161out if you like it. Anything else? Okay. Thank you all so very much for your presentation. >> Thank you all for your time. >> Thank you, President Cesy and Clint and Nicole for that presentation. Um, next up we're going to have the present presenters presenting on school counseling on pathways. Come on up. too many persons. Sorry. Good morning, President. Good afternoon, President Greasie, Superintendent Golixson, and and board members. Today, we will be presenting on school counseling, especially regarding pathways and student input. So firstly, I think it's very important to understand that school counselors are some of the most overworked school officials that exist and most of students problems with them such as delays in their email responses that can even reach weeks or months after an email is sent. comes from this lack of free

162time that they have and from all of the additional responsibilities that are given to these counselors. So our first recommendation to the board is the creation of a statewide opportunity outreach database which would serve the purpose of reducing some of the workload from counselors when students come asking for opportunities. These would include everything from summer residential governor schools to regional governor schools, CTE programs, local internships, and even programs such as the governor student advisory board that we serve on. We would uh the VDOE would work with each superintendent's region in order to accumulate these um opportunities and name database stewards or so to speak that would essentially gather local opportunities and add them to their database. We think that each superintendent's region these database stewards in order to implement the database locally. We believe that

163the link to the aforementioned database would be located on each school's homepage in order for ease of access to students sort of as a self-service guide to students looking for more advanced opportunities in their area. Now for more details regarding the implementation, we believe that this could be created through notion for ease of use or create and creation or through Google Docs as an initial phase and then we would pilot a website and have um a full system with FAQs under each uh under each opportunity as well as with search filters and a comprehensive system for use by students. The database we believe ought to be promoted through every single school through town hall style events which would allow students to access this information more easily than meeting with their counselors individually. >> Our second

164recommendation looks at student connections within their counselors and the counselors that are at their schools. Um we understood and as we were kind of in the beginning phases of this um we looked at across our three different um areas that we represent that our counselors primarily specifically since COVID were really focused on our academic side but there was a big deficit in our emotional and personal growth which they're also responsible for and so to take some of those kind of you know responsibilities at hand and we understand that all of those are super important to our success as students we propose that um we develop a framework counselors move up with their students um throughout their school years. So, if you were to start as a freshman, you'd have the same counselor who represents that

165specific grade level all four years. So, this would allow them to be proactive and engage in student academics with their career planning and just foster a seamless transition to opportunities postgraduation. So, to implement this, we would suggest there would be a statewide framework for counselors. Um, and so some different focus areas would look at college and career exploration, social emotional learning, and mental health support as well as that academic piece as we know it's super important. Um, we could propose different professional developments, which we know there's already plenty of those, but um, we could do different training. So, if you are representing nth grade that year, you're not coming back to that for four more years. So, you would just get briefed before that school year on just any new updates to 9th grade and

166what you need to know um, prior to that. This um idea would also allow uh clear communication between teachers, parents, and students. And we'd hope that within each different locality, you could hostformational sessions, send newsletters, or just updates about school events um that that specific counselor would be responsible for. And to track this, we would look at graduation rates, college enrollments, and just social emotional well-being to evaluate the impact of the program over time. >> Hi, uh my name is Kot. Um I'm from superintendent region three. Uh I graduated from Colin Forge High School which is located in Stafford, Virginia. Um my third uh the third recommendation is um personalized counseling portfolio. What this is is basically students um get get a time to sit down uh as a group or alone and basically they

167reflect on their previous year and their previous year and what they did basically like um like if they did shadowing internships anything like that they would go back write about it and reflect and what they thought about it. This way, um, as a student is doing this, the counselor can have like, um, like a one sheet thing to look at to really get an idea of what the student dislikes and likes. This way, it doesn't take like two to three years to build a relationship with the student. It's on a paper and you can just like take a look at it and you'll kind of get an idea the type of student you're working with. Um this I I would say this uh this should be it should be mandatory to make it easier on

168the counselors but I know students don't like writing or reflecting. So you could do this on like a Google form format where you have options rather than in like a comments at the end or you could have it like um like a Google Docs template where they like insert all what they did and what they thought about it. For example, I know I did an internship in the beginning of January. It was a oneweek long internship. It was 40 hours. Um, and I did write about it and then it came back up and like uh I wrote on my resume and stuff. So, it's kind of like a profile for both the student and the counselor to quickly look at and get an idea of what the student is like without spending three years. So,

169yeah, that's uh yeah, thank you for your time and thank you for listening to our recommendations. >> Thank you. And would the other two students please introduce yourselves as well and let us know what superintendent region? >> My name is Lander Bell and I live in Runner, Virginia and I recently graduated from Salem High School and I represent region six. >> Thank you. >> And my name is Virginia. I represent region 2 and I recently graduated from Warwick High School and the New Horizon's Governor School for Science and Technology. Thank you. Any board members have questions or comments? Mr. Green >> got a question at Is it Mr. Verde? >> Verde. Well, I'm Mr. Green, so Yep. No, I ain't nobody caught that, but uh uh fortunately um but with respect to your proposal uh

170for a statewide database, are there currently other states that have a similar database? >> I don't believe that there are. Okay. >> This would be a pretty novel undertaking. >> Gotcha. >> From our understanding. >> All right. Okay. Yeah, that was that was something I was wondering. And if it was going if it's not if it wasn't the first or you know was it what would your uh database how would your database be different from other states but you've kind of clarified it that it would be the first. >> There are local level databases I believe but yeah which is where we got the idea. There's definitely one in Stafford, Virginia um where there's one coordinator that coordinates with all the um connecting um businesses or internships and uh the coordinator has it on a

171spreadsheet and there's like links to apply and then it will tell you if it's unpaid or paid and then under what category it would fall like there's automotive, there's medicine, there's um physical therapist and all all the categories. Yes. >> And then there'll be like little descriptions of what it is and what you'll do. >> Okay. So what he's proposing is to go from local just a universal statewide. Awesome >> essentially. Yes. And I also got the idea from my governor's school which has a mentorship coordinator who looks for local internships specifically in the sciences. I for example worked at Jefferson Lab for a year >> uh in nuclear physics. So, I think that having something like that that is statewide and subdivided into regions would be really helpful, >> especially if it includes more

172information because I've personally spent a fair amount of time in high school, probably hundreds or thousands of hours looking for opportunities. >> Good stuff. And I think, you know, I mean, if we had a statewide database, then let's say your grandparents lived in Northern Virginia and you could spend the summer with them or, you know, whatever. Um, that would provide you more opportunities that might be available in a different field that you have interest in as well. Mr. Monk, >> thank you, Madam President. Uh just touching on the database again, it's something that is is offered locally, but one of the challenges that our workforce coordinators talk about is the time and so appreciate um you know potential of statewide there the filters and and regionals as president Kasi talked about. Can you elaborate a

173little more on your vision for how and you talk about business and industry, how folks might submit ideas to that and then I think the time concern comes into vetting those things like is that something that is a good opportunity for students? What would that vetting process ideally look like? >> Yeah, of course. So we've already had similar conversations about the security of the database with state officials and what we think would be a good good system would be having the form to submit ideas online publicly for businesses and then these database stewards who are granted authority by their region's superintendent would have the ability to approve or deny every single request. And if the superintendent of that respective region puts their faith in these so-called stewards, I think that the entire commonwealth could trust

174them. >> Dr. Northern. Um I think the role of a guidance counselor or counselor in general has been really come under scrutiny in the past five even ten years because on the one hand they're supposed to be you know providing uh academic and career and college guidance right kind of laying out your options. On the other hand they're supposed to be sort of like a mental health support system. Um those are two very different things. So I guess I'm wondering um I mean how do you guys see those two and you talked about it you know in your first slide that it's kind of difficult um how do you see those roles um playing out I mean what ideally should they both should they be responsible for both those things should they not be like

175how do you see the I mean because part of the problem is is in this kind of weird job description they have >> so I think this is a great question because when you look at a student they're more than just your academics and I think especially after co there were so many academic discrepancies that you had to focus on the academic side. Um, I know in my school we have kind of the availability to meet with a mental health counselor, but she's so busy, you know, focusing on those crisis situations that even if you have something minor stress, you can't get in with her. But then your actual academic counselor is focusing on academics all the time. And even though, you know, they're a generalized counselor, the academics come first because you're at school.

176And so I think having the ability to talk to counselors and kind of have those connections and have those conversations about what made you want to become a counselor, you know, did you want to focus on the academic side? Did you want to focus on the, you know, what happens to a student after they graduate and those post-graduate plans or did you want to work on the the mental health side, you know, the connection sides? And I think those conversations will give a clear answer to that question. Um, I do believe though that, you know, if we can get kind of some of these things under control with with counselors that they'll have the availability to work on the academic side as well as focus on the student and who they are as a person

177as well. >> Any other questions or comments? Thank you so much. We appreciate it. Thank you, President Cesy, and thank you to Kynot, Rasban, and Landry for that presentation. And last, but certainly not least, we'll have our presentation on civic learning and civic readiness. Good afternoon board members, secretary and president Cesy. I am Connor Maddox. I am a recent graduate from Alt Vista High School in the Central Virginia Governor School and I represent Superintendent Region 5. And we are going to be giving you a presentation on the recommendations we have for civic readiness. So for a brief overview of why we think civic readiness is so important is because currently we think that there's an epidemic of high schoolers not being connected to their local state and national government. And as we know with civic

178readiness comes a lot of privilege. But we want to emphasize the obligations of citizenship and what we need to know to be able to properly exercise our votes. So, we really targeted some key values of looking at that 18 to 24 year old range when looking at voter turnout because this is ultimately the biggest call to action of being able to exercise your duty to vote. Um, and then talking about how civic readiness is important for students to be informed voters and engaged community members. So when looking at our approaches to improving civic civic readiness, we have about three main concepts here about educating and supporting our students about the voting process and alongside that misinformation that we have to be able to navigate within a modern age and then additionally promoting civic engagement through

179community service and service learning alongside um government programs within the local and state le level specifically within shadowing. So when looking at the educational side, we have to be able to understand that voting turnouts are extremely low within this 18 to 24 year old group. And this is why we see this as such an important thing. So we're really targeting in on how does Virginia equip its young voters to be able to succeed within voting and then ultimately how can we promote civics dialogue across all of these borders. So diving into our first topic, we're talking about voting readiness and civics dialogue. So, so many students are given the opportunity to be able to register to vote within their government class. This is something that's mandated across Virginia. But something that we see as a

180discrepancy within our government class is that we are not giving a step-by-step process when navigating how to vote. There's many systemic barriers that many students face and they see voting as very intimidating. So, we don't offer them a more more curriculum that is able to give them that step-by-step process. And we actually found that New Hampshire had initiated this. They had given a step-by-step walkthrough of what does a ballot look like? What is your polling station going to look like? Who are the people that you're going to interact with? And they found that voting actually increased following that. So, we want to talk about how the quantity of voting within this age group is so closely tied to our education. when you were freshly graduated and you were going into your midterm season as you

181are right now um and going to be voting specifically within like the Virginia governor's election, it's important that our educational systems are giving us that multifaceted approach to be able to be equipped citizens that can make the right choice to vote. So then following directly after that, we are talking about um political misinformation. So something that Virginia was actually able to do um was employ digital citizenship classes across the state and we found this actually really useful within the topics that are currently discussed. But something that we think we face within the modern age is political misinformation across social media. So we are actually asking that within that digital citizen citizenship course that we are already mandated to take on that there be a political misinformation module because politics is so fueled by social media

182and navigating this is crucial to being able to understand the candidate before you and alongside that all the multifaceted approaches that candidates are using to be able to put out their information and how that is spun within media in different digital applications. All right. Now going into a way that we can promote civic engagement through community service and service learning. So to start I would like to highlight VDOE's distinction between community service and service learning. So um community service is an established need voluntary assignments and activities and service learning is student development of a project that meets a need usually with structured activities inside the classroom. Um so community service and service learning is a way to for students to learn the skills they need to um for civic responsibility. The civic missions of schools

183which is a standard provided by the national council of social studies outlines the requirements for students to become effective citizens and one of these is participate in communities. So traditional civic curricula doesn't allow for students to participate in their in their communities has them sitting in classrooms being taught right. But if we um integrate community service and service learning into the curriculum, we can get that core part of being civically responsible and learning to be an effective citizen. It's also a way for um students to receive even more benefits from civics education. They get that critical thinking, that real world application and that interdisciplinary education from actively being working their communities. Um, you can see on your screen there is a graphic from the Academy of International Business and it compares different learning approaches. Community

184engaged service learning is experiential, reflective, hands-on, has extensive deep community involvement as compared to traditional learning which has limited to none community engagement. And it basically is an entire different learning approach to get students engaged if the other ways of learning, traditional learning and problem based learning do not appeal to them as much. So, how do we integrate this into our curriculum? So, the Virginia Seal of Civics Education already has a framework for community service credit. It essentially outlines what counts towards the 50 service hours that can earn you the seal and that can be expanded and grown to encourage more even more community service. Um, another way to look at this is through larger integration of service learning as part of the curriculum. So, many people know this as embedded service learning. So, in

185Maryland, they require 75 service-based um, learning hours for graduation. And that can either be independent or embedded as part of part of a curriculum. Um, another example of someone who does embedded service is Fairfax County Public Schools up in Northern Virginia. Essentially, they have service learning programs for middle schoolers and high schoolers, and they have it where high schoolers complete 40 hours of service learning by the end of um their senior year. This is infused in their curricula so they can engage alongside learning materials in their community. Um, another way we can integrate community service and service learning is using the seat time flexibility that the board has been looking at. So, um, I was looking at the Delaware Volunteerism Act, which is an initiative. It's an act that passed where 90 hours of community

186service counts for one elective credit in Delaware. So, students can get can use their community service hours as elective credit, which would incentivize them to participate in their communities. Um, essentially it's it's a way to in it's a way to encourage students to get out of the classroom and work in their communities while also allowing the sea time flexibility that the board has been looking at. Good afternoon, President Cesy, superintendent and board members. My name is Tina Williams and I represent superintendent region uh one. Uh my topic is civic engagement through direct participation in government. So as my colleague said uh students from the age of 18 to 24 are most or least likely to vote. Um 33% of young adults have no intention of participating civically. This includes voting, volunteering, and engaging in their

187communities. And just from talking to peers and other students, I see that the reason why they don't want to participate is because they don't feel like they are being represented in their government. Um, and research suggests that there is a strong correlation between increased civic knowledge and engagement within government. So, students that are more knowledgeable about civics are more likely to be engaged in the future. You see, 66% with high civic knowledge are more likely to vote opposed to 44% with low knowledge that are uh projected to vote. And my solution for this is instituting local and state government programs. So local government is very important although um sometimes it can be a neglected branch of government um because local governments can uh influence the constituents directly. Um one of my programs that I um

188am proposing is model county government. It's an uh high school program where high school students shadow local government professionals. Um this includes roles like police officers, EMS, firefighters, and lawyers. Um students select who they want to shadow and this builds real world experience and career insight. Um this strengthens students connections with local government and civic life and this produces connections that they can keep throughout their life. Um and this is already instituted in counties like Chesterfield. Um now state government programs, state government programs are very important because um although local government programs uh can be good, there are certain counties that are more rural or don't have as many resources um and it's important so that all students in all over the Commonwealth can have access to the uh people that are representing them. So

189uh one program that I uh propose is we the people. It stimulates a governmental setting with mock congressional hearings in which Virginia elementary, middle, and high school students participate. This program aims to educate and familiarize students with the United States Constitution with competitions on the state and national level. Um, another program that I propose is Virginia YMCA Youth in Government. Uh, Virginia high school students act as legislators, lobbyists, and reporters in a mock legislative process. Um, and then Project Citizen allows Virginia students from middle to high school and college to directly participate in influencing public policy in their community. Again, I would like to um really emphasize that these uh government programs are very good at the state level because to kind of bridge that gap between rural and um less uh resourced uh counties.

190And then finally uh the importance of civic readiness is not only through academics but also fostering an environment in which students can actively participate in their democratic processes. They can make lifelong connections that isn't just about um getting a grade or isn't just about writing a paper. It's about truly making sure that they understand the foundational principles of our democracy to become um contributing me members in our nation, state and local governments. Please excuse me for forgetting to introduce myself. I got so excited about civics and community service. I just had to go right into it. Um, my name is Isabella Fiaowski. I'm the representative for region 4. I live in Persville, Virginia, and I went to Woodrove High School. >> Thank you all so so much. Uh, you know, this last presentation is near

191and dear to my heart as a former civics and government teacher. So, uh, this is this is my my area here. Uh, anyway, um, what kind I love the presentation. I'm interested in hearing from you all in what kinds of experiences you have been able to engage in. That was part of your presentation. So, you know, I used to teach we the people, loved it. Um, did you all have experience there with that program? um or what are some other opportunities that have been afforded to you outside of the one that you're using to present to us with today um that really spark your interest in this particular content? Um, so I participated in the YMCA youth and government program and went all the way up to the national level and I found that to

192be like very interesting. But like the ultimate like kickstarter for my love for civic readiness and also just kind of like policy in general is I had the opportunity to serve not only as a town planning commissioner but then a liaison um for our town planning commission within Alta Vista and then being able to be in that seat and understand the like levers and mechanisms of policy and then ultimately like participating in um like civic duties and being able to understand our local government has so much importance um in our day-to-day life like um Can a high-rise condominium go be built beside your house or is it a single residential family sector within your town? Um, and being able to be participated in both like a mock program alongside the real the real world um,

193and affecting real people was really able to like lodge me into this sector and kind of like help me find my passion. >> Uh, I participated in the uh, model county government program on the local level. Um, I think it was great really bridging that gap um between local officials and uh students. Um, something I also want to really emphasize is I think that Virginia already has great programs in civics. I think the thing is just making that more accessible to I was reviewing the civic seal on the diploma the other day uh in preparation for this presentation and I think that um my peers can also attest to this but we didn't even know that the civic seal was a thing um until researching um it for this presentation and I think um let

194alone the uh community service piece that's a a requirement or a criteria for that seal. So I think just making it more accessible to everybody. >> So perhaps that goes into the database piece too where you're getting more depth and breadth of information that services students in our in our schools across the Commonwealth for what they may be interested in or need to know about the SEALs on diplomas. Didn't mean to interrupt. Go ahead. >> I personally haven't participated in any model county like government programs or anything. What really sparked my interest in civics was um journalism. Being part of school newspapers and things like that um really got me into interested in local politics and then turning to my civics classes and learning about um it from there. And then also just volunteering in

195the community realizing that we can all be part of the change if we learn how to be through civics education. So that's really what sparked my interest for civics. >> Anyone else? Mr. Green. >> Absolutely. >> Um just curious. Uh are do they still in high schools today? I knew we did it when I was in high school my senior year. I remember taking government and I remember being elected president of my MK Congress. Do they still do MK Congress and government and at all? Oh, because I knew for me that was was kind of piqued my interest in civic uh service etc. community engagement. I know for certain programs like we the people they do a mock um congress but I don't think it's like a school by school basis. >> Oh interesting. >>

196Yes. >> Gotcha. And I got a question for you Mr. Maddox. uh you mentioned a modular um is that incorporated into government class or is that separate from >> um so the two different educational components that I'm pretty much bringing about um within the different topics I'm discussing is adding a module within the digital citizenship citizenship course because the way that's structured um if I'm correct is that it's different modules that you take on one by one um within a singular class period um and then on the flip side of that talked about that step-by-step understanding of voting. Um, that could be just an additional segment after offering to register to vote because government teachers are mandated to offer to help us to register to vote. Just giving a more thorough process. Um, and that

197would be up to the Virginia Department of Education to set that curriculum standard and interpret that as they wish. >> Any other questions or comments? >> Mr. Monk. >> Thanks. Uh you talk about the data showing um voter turnout and you share that maybe one of the reasons is people aren't as knowledgeable about the voting process. Do you think as well that maybe the candidate information they don't know how to research candidates or best can you speak to that a little? >> Yes. So um something that I hear especially locally is that people refuse to vote because they don't think they have the right information or they become overwhelmed with information. Um because if we are being truthful, much of my generation will scroll on social media and that's where they're finding their information. They're

198relying on that. So when they're hearing that both candidates are demonic aliens and they're just going to ruin the world, um they're not going to turn out to voting. And that's why I really think political misinformation modules would be able to help us navigate that and really establish that because um the school system is much different than 20 years ago. And alongside that, the digital application of what it means to be a citizen. So living in a modern age, we have to answer modern issues. And this is a modern issue that we need to be able to take on within the educational system to better equip our students to be citizens. Anyone else? Okay. So, um, do we want to I know Superintendent Gixson has some comments that she would like to make. Um but

199before I let her speak, I think that it >> it is just amazing the amount of effort um time and just the commitment of yourselves to this project and to spending the last year um on this advisory board. and we are so thankful for the work that you did and the um collaboration with uh Ally and with the secretar's office with the governor's office. Um we are thankful for your service to the commonwealth and so thank you so very much. >> Yes, sure. >> Superintendent Gullixson. >> All right. Well, thank you uh President Casey and to our board members. Incredible job. Rabbi, the pleasure of meeting you um in your first session and assistant secretary Buckner, you should be very proud of uh where they have landed on viable policy solutions. Uh we meet every

200other week with the other uh education and workforce, labor secretariates and agency heads. And so you better believe I will have my collateral in hand of your presentations when we meet Monday morning. uh to be able to share as we're trying to bridge across workforce and education. Um and I've been pinging my team making sure everyone's tuned in and paying attention uh to your presentation. So, thank you for bringing us viable uh proposals to continue to better our schools off of your own lived experience. Um we're very excited. So many of you are going to be staying in the Commonwealth in your higher ed journeys. um and hope that you won't be shy with the board and our agency so that we can continue to adapt and modify and modernize our agency to better meet

201your needs um as students of 2025. So, thank you for all of your time and and concepts. We will definitely be uh furthering the conversation after today. >> Uh I think we probably want to get a picture. So, um, but if if you all wanted to go stay here, we're getting ready to finish our meeting, that's fine. Um, and so I guess what I'm moving to at this point in our meeting since we've jumped around so much today. I'm so sorry for all of that. Um, are there any current issues that need to be discussed by board members this afternoon? Superintendent Gllixson, it's all you. Okay, great. I will take 60 seconds. Uh I just want to note that since our last board of education meeting, uh Virginia has been a national leader uh for

202other uh departments of education, governors, education policy adviserss, legislative staff, and just other entities around the country. Um many many opportunities to present what's working and what's working well and how we've helped to make some transformational change. um just in the last 30 plus days since the last board meeting. So we have been spotlighted in multiple settings on our early childhood care and education birth to five public private marketplace. One of our amazing assistant superintendent is up in DC right now with all other agency heads talking about both our quality and our public private options that are based on parent demand. We have been spotlighted for our school performance and support framework and the work we've really done to raise expectations cell phone free education and the impacts one year in of bell to bell.

203We have some amazing new data getting spotlighted that's coming out that it's working. Uh so tune in for more information on that and then really proud of the team's work at the department in partnership with our educators on allin Virginia. We are just entering the third year of uh the $418 million from the general assembly and Governor Yncan and we are being spotlighted across the country for the impact we've made on chronic absenteeism. Uh we have really leaned in on the all handson deck approach and it's working from our health community with pediatricians and our school nurses um to our employers and industry uh to our teachers, our guidance counselors, our attendance specialists, our transportation directors, superintendent, principles, the list goes on. Um we have really done a collaborative and personalized focus on students. We

204were just spotlighted in two national reports with Virginia as the top leader for decreasing absenteeism. One to know um and meeting yesterday for one of those national spotlights uh so that other um local, state, and national leaders could really learn from us here in Virginia. And that's just in one month. So um I know we've had action-packed agendas, but it's working and it's impacting students. it's impacting our school communities um and parents. And so I just wanted to give a plug because our um agency's been on turbo mode and uh others are are tuning in and wanting to hear more on how it's working to date. That I seed my time. >> Thank you very much. Anyone else have anything that they'd like to add today? Uh once again, we'd like to welcome our two

205new board members. Um and we look forward to uh working with you all as we move to the future here. So um without anything further, I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right. All those in favor? >> I we are adjourned. >> Okay.