On January 23, the Senate Finance Committee unanimously reported a substitute for legislation that would have required local school boards to employ one full-time equivalent licensed behavior analyst or licensed assistant behavior analyst per five schools within a local school division. Licensed Behavior Analysts try to teach students more effective ways of behaving and making changes to social consequences of existing behavior. VACo had previously expressed concerns over the bill.
SB 1258 (Dunnavant) was altered at the request of the patron to merely add licensed behavior analysts and licensed assistant behavior analysts to the list of student support positions in the Standards of Quality, which does not have negative impact fiscal impact to localities. This change in language was identical to SB 1134 (Favola), which was incorporated into SB 1258 by Senate Education and Health Committee on January 10.
VACo thanks the patron for her willingness to make changes to eliminate the fiscal impact of the bill to localities.
VACo Contact: Jeremy Bennett