Use of restraints on juveniles in court prohibited; exceptions. Prohibits the use of instruments of restraint, as defined in the bill, on a juvenile appearing before the juvenile and domestic relations district court unless, upon motion of the attorney for the Commonwealth or on the court's own motion sua sponte, the court makes a finding that (i) the use of such restraints is necessary (a) to prevent physical harm to such juvenile or another person, (b) because such juvenile has a history of disruptive courtroom behavior that has placed others in potentially harmful situations or presents a substantial threat of serious harm to himself or others as evidenced by recent behavior, or (c) because such juvenile presents a substantial risk of flight from the courtroom and (ii) there are no less restrictive alternatives to such restraints that will prevent flight of or harm to such juvenile or another person, including court personnel or law-enforcement officers. The bill provides that the juvenile shall be entitled to an attorney prior to a hearing on the use of instruments of restraint. The bill also requires the court to provide the juvenile's attorney an opportunity to be heard before the court orders the use of instruments of restraint, and the juvenile's attorney may waive the juvenile's appearance at such hearing. Lastly, the bill requires the court, if such restraints are ordered, to communicate to the parties the basis of the decision either orally or in writing. This bill is identical to SB 1255.

Public elementary and secondary schools; student discipline; reports of certain acts to law enforcement and parents; failure to make required reports prohibited; penalty. Makes (i) the failure of any principal to report, in accordance with applicable law, incidents involving certain school-based offenses to (a) law enforcement or (b) the parent of any minor student who is the specific object of such an incident a Class 3 misdemeanor and (ii) any subsequent conviction under the provisions of the bill or any conviction for a substantially similar offense under the law of any political subdivision of the Commonwealth, any state or territory of the United States or any political subdivision thereof, the District of Columbia, or the United States a Class 2 misdemeanor.

Public utilities; certificate of convenience and necessity. Provides that, if a public utility has already received a certificate of convenience and necessity to furnish service within its territory, such utility may construct, enlarge, contract with, or acquire and operate facilities for the generation and distribution of electric energy solely to a specific customer or customers located on the same tract of land as existing facilities without obtaining another certificate of convenience and necessity, provided that all costs associated with the new facilities shall be borne by the specific customer or customers.

School-connected overdoses; policies relating to parental notification and response; requirements. Expands current law relating to school-connected overdose parental notification and response policies by, in addition to requiring the Board of Education to establish guidelines for school-connected overdose response and parental notification policies, requiring (i) each division superintendent or his designee to notify the parent of each student in the local school division of any suspected school-connected overdose, with school-connected overdose defined as any verified overdose that occurs on school premises during or after regular school hours or during school-sanctioned activities whether on or off school premises, within 24 hours of learning of the suspected overdose and requiring such notification to include as much information as is known about the circumstances surrounding the suspected overdose, to the extent that the disclosure of any such information is not prohibited by any applicable laws, rules, or regulations relating to the disclosure and protection of a minor's personal, confidential, or otherwise sensitive information, and (ii) each local school board to adopt, implement, and maintain policies consistent with the provisions of the bill and the guidelines developed by the Board of Education.

Discretionary sentencing guideline midpoints; violent felony offenses. Adds to and removes certain felony offenses from the list of violent felony offenses for discretionary sentencing guideline midpoints. Offenders with prior convictions for violent felony offenses receive "enhancements" on the guidelines that increase the recommended sentences for those offenders. The bill contains technical amendments.

Preservation of existing trees during development; certain localities. Allows a locality with a population of at least 75 people per square mile or a locality located within the Chesapeake Bay watershed, when assessing the adequacy of existing trees identified by the developer during the development process to be preserved or in assessing the overall impact of the development on existing trees, to require, by ordinance, the developer to (i) submit a survey or map detailing the location of critical root zones on the subject property, including any roots from mature trees that have grown over the subject property line to the abutting property or property adjacent to the subject property, or (ii) provide other information reasonably calculated to assist the locality to determine if such trees are sufficient to meet all or part of the tree canopy requirements.

Placing swastika on certain property with intent to intimidate; penalty. Makes it a Class 6 felony for any person or persons, with the intent of intimidating another person or group of persons, to place or cause to be placed a swastika on (i) the private property of another without permission or (ii) a highway or other public place in a manner having a direct tendency to place another person in reasonable fear or apprehension of death or bodily injury.

Electric utilities; controlled environment agriculture facilities; time-of-use. Requires electric utilities, upon the request of a controlled environment agriculture facility, as defined in the bill, to advise such facility of available time-of-use rate structures for such facility based on its expected electricity usage patterns.

Issuance of writ of vacatur for victims of human trafficking. Amends the procedure that allows victims of human trafficking, defined in the bill, to file a petition of vacatur in circuit court to have certain convictions vacated and the police and court records for such convictions expunged. This bill was incorporated into HB 2393.

Health insurance; prescription drug formularies. Requires health insurance carriers to provide coverage for a generic drug or a biosimilar when the carrier provides coverage for the brand drug or product and the generic drug or biosimilar has a lower wholesale acquisition cost than the brand drug or product with more favorable cost-sharing, including actual out-of-pocket costs, relative to the brand drug or product. Additionally, the bill requires carriers to publish an up-to-date, accurate, and complete list of all covered drugs on its formulary, including any tiering structure that it has adopted and any restrictions on the manner in which a drug can be obtained, in a manner that is easily accessible to plan enrollees, prospective enrollees, and the general public.

Display of POW/MIA flag by localities. Requires localities to display the POW/MIA flag on public buildings on designated days.

Standards of Quality; standards of accreditation; measurement of student educational performance and academic achievement; calculation of proportionality score required. Directs the Board of Education (the Board), in consultation with the Department of Education (the Department), to establish and implement standards for determining and recognizing student educational performance and academic achievement in the form of a weighted proportionality score for each school, to account for no less than five percent of such school's accreditation rating score or metric under the current school accountability system, for the purpose of identifying, accounting for in determining accreditation ratings, and addressing disparities in access to educational resources across racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups in public schools in the Commonwealth. The bill requires the Department to (i) develop a metric for calculating the weighted proportionality score for each school using certain variables calculated by the Department; (ii) develop a metric for calculating the improvement of a school's proportionality score received year over year; (iii) assign for each school based on such school's proportionality score a proportionality designation of "highly proportional," "proportional," "somewhat disproportional," and "highly disproportional"; and (iv) require any school board that contains within the school division a school assigned a proportionality designation of "highly disproportional" to develop and submit to the Department a remediation plan detailing the actions such school board will take to reduce disparities in access to education resources. The bill directs the Board to (a) amend its regulations to include as a school quality indicator the weighted proportionality score developed in accordance with the bill and (b) submit to the U.S. Department of Education within 90 days of the effective date of the bill any amendments necessary to its state plan pursuant to the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as amended, that are necessary to implement the provisions of the act. Finally, the bill requires its provisions to be implemented beginning with the 2025–2026 school year.

Elections administration; duties of local electoral board; certification of election; grounds for removal; civil penalty. Provides that the certification of the results of an election is a clear ministerial duty of the local electoral boards and that a member of the local electoral board who neglects or refuses to perform such duty in accordance with law shall be subject to removal proceedings by the State Board of Elections and assessed a penalty not exceeding $1,000. The bill also authorizes the State Board of Elections to intervene and carry out the duties related to election certification in the event a local electoral board fails or refuses to do so.

Right to farm; minimum area requirements; animal husbandry practices. Changes the standards under the Right to Farm Act allowing a locality to adopt minimum area requirements for land on which any agriculture activity occurs by restricting a locality from adopting minimum area requirements for agricultural operations involving an animal inconsistent with and more restrictive than standard animal husbandry practices.

Department of Medical Assistance Services; state pharmacy benefits manager. Requires the Department of Medical Assistance Services by December 31, 2025, to select and contract with a third-party administrator to serve as the state pharmacy benefits manager to administer all pharmacy benefits for Medicaid recipients, including recipients enrolled in a managed care organization. The bill enumerates requirements for the Department's contract with the state pharmacy benefits manager and prevents the state pharmacy benefits manager from having a business conflict of interest with any Medicaid provider or vendor. This bill was incorporated into HB 2610.