Employment of school protection officers in public schools. Permits any local law-enforcement agency to employ in any public elementary or secondary school in the local school division, pursuant to an agreement with the local school board, a school protection officer, defined in the bill as a retired law-enforcement officer hired by the local law-enforcement agency on a part-time basis to provide limited law-enforcement and security services to public elementary and secondary schools in the Commonwealth. The bill requires each such school board and local law-enforcement agency to enter into a memorandum of understanding that sets forth the powers and duties of school protection officers. The bill requires the Department of Criminal Justice Services to establish compulsory training standards for school protection officers and requires the collection of certain data relating to the activities of such officers.

Driving Decarbonization Program and Fund created. Creates the Driving Decarbonization Program and Fund to assist private developers with non-utility costs associated with the installation of electric vehicle charging stations. The bill provides that a private developer is eligible to receive grants of 70 percent of such non-utility costs for electric vehicle charging stations installed in a historically economically disadvantaged community or a rural community, as those terms are defined in the bill, and 50 percent of such non-utility costs for electric vehicle charging stations installed in any other area of the Commonwealth. The bill caps the total amount of grants awarded in any fiscal year at $20 million.

Virginia Retirement System; enhanced retirement benefits for 911 dispatchers. Allows local governments to provide enhanced retirement benefits for hazardous duty service to full-time salaried 911 dispatchers. The bill provides that such enhanced retirement benefits apply only to service earned as a full-time salaried 911 dispatcher on or after July 1, 2025, but allows an employer, as that term is defined in relevant law, to provide such enhanced retirement benefits for service earned as a full-time salaried 911 dispatcher before July 1, 2025, in addition to service earned on or after that date. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2025.

Health insurance; coverage for diabetes. Requires that each insurer providing coverage for diabetes shall include benefits for FDA-approved insulin, continuous blood glucose monitoring, and regular foot care and eye care exams in addition to equipment, supplies, and self-management training and education. The bill allows for such self-management training and education to be provided either in-person outpatient or through telemedicine. Under the bill, such coverage for self-management training and education shall include up to three outpatient visits upon an individual receiving an initial diagnosis of diabetes and up to two medically necessary visits to a qualified provider upon a significant change in the patient's symptoms or medical condition. The bill also repeals certain provisions of law related to cost-sharing for insulin and provides that the coverage required by the bill shall be exempt from any deductible or cost-sharing payment requirement. The provisions of the bill apply to insurance policies, contracts, and plans issued for delivery, reissued, extended, or amended on and after January 1, 2025.

Elections; political campaign advertisements; advertisements sponsored by a person or political committee that is not a party committee. Prohibits any person from printing or circulating unofficial sample ballots unless they (i) are not printed on white paper, (ii) include the words "sample ballot," (iii) include the statement: "Paid for by [Name of the sponsor as defined by § 24.2-956.1]," and (iv) include the statement "Authorized by [Name of political party]" or "Not authorized by a political party."

Constitutional amendment (first reference); marriage between two individuals; repeal of same-sex marriage prohibition; affirmative right to marry. Repeals the constitutional provision defining marriage as only a union between one man and one woman as well as the related provisions that are no longer valid as a result of the United States Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644 (2015). The amendment provides that the right to marry is a fundamental right inherent in the liberty of persons and prohibits the Commonwealth and its political subdivisions from denying the issuance of a marriage license to two parties contemplating a lawful marriage on the basis of the sex, gender, or race of such parties. The Commonwealth and its political subdivisions are required to recognize any lawful marriage between two parties and to treat such marriages equally under the law, regardless of the sex, gender, or race of such parties. The amendment provides that religious organizations and clergy acting in their religious capacity have the right to refuse to perform any marriage.

Elections; conduct of election; ranked choice voting; locally elected offices; report. Allows elections for any local or constitutional office to be conducted by ranked choice voting. Under current law, only elections of members of a county board of supervisors or a city council are allowed to be conducted by ranked choice voting. The bill also clarifies requirements for conducting elections using ranked choice voting and requires results for elections conducted by ranked choice voting to be reported along with other results reported on election night, except that such results must clearly be identified as preliminary and based on the first rankings in a ranked choice voting election. The bill provides that final tabulation for an election for a local or constitutional office that is not shared by more than one county or city is required to be conducted on the same day as other results are canvassed by the local electoral board and that final tabulation for and election for a local or constitutional office that is shared by more than one county or city is required to be conducted at a centralized facility under the supervision of the Department of Elections. The bill specifies that ranking data is required to be made publicly available by the Department and requires the State Board of Elections to provide standards and to approve vote tabulating software for use with existing voting systems in elections conducted by ranked choice voting. The bill also limits a risk-limiting audit of an election conducted using ranked choice voting to the first choice rankings reported on voting systems. Finally, the bill directs the Department to review the testing and approval framework for voting equipment in the Commonwealth and submit a report of such review no later than the first day of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly.

Veterans and active duty members of the Armed Forces; teachers; credit for service. Requires each local school board to give any veteran or active duty member of any of the Armed Forces of the United States or the Commonwealth who it employs as a teacher in the local school division credit for any time served in any such forces in determining such teacher's step on the local school division's teacher salary scale.

Commonwealth Mass Transit Fund; Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority; budget; operating assistance. Provides that payments and obligations arising from or related to any contract pertaining to employee compensation and work conditions under the normal operation of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) may be included in the calculation of a WMATA budget increase for purposes of the cap of such budget increase. Current law provides that any payment or obligation of any kind arising from or related to legal disputes or proceedings between or among WMATA and any other person or entity shall not be used in calculating a WMATA budget increase.

Virginia First Manufacturing Incentive Program. Directs the Manufacturing Development Commission (the Commission) to develop a budget and business plan to establish a Virginia First Manufacturing Incentive Program (the Program). The bill provides that the business plan shall identify existing manufacturers in the Commonwealth that are potential candidates for reshoring, near-shoring, or in-shoring manufacturing jobs and capital investments. The bill directs that the Program focus on expanding and recruiting manufacturing operations that produce products identified as critical infrastructure by providing discretionary incentive funding for trade adjustment assistance. Finally, the bill requires that the Commission present the budget and business plan to the Secretary of Commerce and Trade and the Chairmen of the House Committee on General Laws and the Senate Committee on General Laws and Technology by October 1, 2024. 

Electric utilities; data center demand; allocation of costs among customer classes. Directs the State Corporation Commission to ensure that any plan, petition, or proposal from a utility to meet demand associated with data centers considers generation, transmission, and distribution system costs so as to meet such demand at the lowest aggregate reasonable cost. The bill also directs the Commission to initiate a proceeding, on or before December 31, 2024, (i) to determine if the current allocation of costs among customers and the different classifications of customers of electric utilities results in customers that are data centers receiving unreasonable subsidies from other customers or classifications of customers and (ii) if it determines unreasonable subsidies exist, to amend such allocation of costs.

Reduction of local law enforcement budget prohibited; exception. Provides that no local governing body shall approve a budget that will reduce the total funds appropriated for local law-enforcement purposes from the preceding fiscal year except by unanimous vote of all members elected to the governing body.

Department of Education; model policy on student cell phone use during instructional time; local adoption. Requires the Department of Education to develop, adopt, and distribute to each school board a model policy whereby public elementary and secondary school students are prohibited from possessing or using personal cell phones or other personal handheld communication devices during instructional time at school. The bill requires the Department, in developing and adopting such model policy, to seek to balance the interests of students' academic achievement, cognitive development, safety, and general well-being and permits the Department to include appropriate exceptions in extraordinary circumstances such as emergency situations or situations involving the need to contact the student's parents. The bill requires each school board to develop and adopt a policy that is consistent with such model policy adopted by the Department.

Health insurance; limit on cost-sharing payments for prescription drugs under certain plans. Requires each carrier that offers a health plan in either the individual or small group market to ensure that at least 50 percent of all health plans offered by the carrier, or at least one health plan if the carrier offers fewer than two health plans, in each rating area and in each of the bronze, silver, gold, and platinum levels of coverage in the individual and small group market conform with the following: (i) a plan that offers a silver, gold, or platinum level of coverage limits a person's cost-sharing payment for prescription drugs covered under the plan to an amount that does not exceed $100 per 30-day supply of the prescription drug and (ii) a plan that offers a bronze level of coverage limits a person's cost-sharing payment for prescription drugs covered under the plan to an amount that does not exceed $150 per 30-day supply of the prescription drug. The bill provides that such limits apply at any point in the benefit design, including before and after any applicable deductible is reached. The bill requires that any plans offered to meet its requirements are (a) clearly and appropriately named to aid the consumer or plan sponsor in the plan selection process and (b) marketed in the same manner as other plans offered by the health insurance carrier. The provisions of the bill apply with respect to health plans entered into, amended, extended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2025.

Public institutions of higher education; tuition and financial aid; dependency override application form. Requires each public institution of higher education to develop, maintain, and post publicly on the financial aid page of such institution's website informational materials relating to the dependency override application process and to review and update such materials as necessary to reflect current federal law and guidance on such process. The bill requires such informational materials to include, in a language and format accessible to students enrolled at and potential applicants for admission to such institution, (i) an explanation of the purpose of and eligibility requirements for a dependency override, (ii) an explicit list of the circumstances on which a student may base a dependency override application, (iii) an explanation of the dependency override application process at such institution, and (iv) links to relevant federal guidance on the dependency override process.