Virginia Code 23.1-2904: State Board; duties
In addition to the duties of governing boards of public institutions of higher education set forth in Chapter 13 (§ 23.1-1300 et seq.), the State Board shall:
Terms Used In Virginia Code 23.1-2904
- Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
- Career and technical education: means the training or retraining under public supervision and control that is (i) given in school classes, including field or laboratory work incidental to such training or retraining, exclusive of those career and technical education programs provided and administered by or through the public school system and (ii) conducted as part of a program designed to fit individuals for gainful employment as semiskilled or skilled workers or technicians in recognized occupations. See Virginia Code 23.1-2900
- Comprehensive community college: means an associate-degree-granting public institution of higher education governed by the State Board that offers instruction in one or more of the following fields:
1. See Virginia Code 23.1-100
- Council: means the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. See Virginia Code 23.1-100
- Dual enrollment: means the enrollment of a qualified high school student in a postsecondary course that is creditable toward high school completion and a career certificate or an associate or baccalaureate degree at a public institution of higher education. See Virginia Code 23.1-100
- Local community college board: means the board established to act in an advisory capacity to the State Board and perform such duties with respect to the operation of a single comprehensive community college as may be delegated to it by the State Board. See Virginia Code 23.1-100
- Process: includes subpoenas, the summons and complaint in a civil action, and process in statutory actions. See Virginia Code 1-237
- Public institution of higher education: includes the System as a whole and each associate-degree-granting and baccalaureate public institution of higher education in the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 23.1-100
- State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-245
- state agency: means the same as that term is defined in § Virginia Code 1-206
- State Board: means the State Board for Community Colleges. See Virginia Code 23.1-100
- System: means the Virginia Community College System. See Virginia Code 23.1-100
1. Be the state agency with primary responsibility for coordinating workforce training at the postsecondary through the associate degree level, exclusive of the career and technical education programs provided through and administered by the public school system. This responsibility shall not preclude other agencies from also providing such services as appropriate, but these activities shall be coordinated with the comprehensive community colleges;
2. Report on actions that comprehensive community colleges have taken to meet the requirements of § 23.1-2906 in its annual report to the General Assembly on workforce development activities required by the general appropriation act;
3. Prepare and administer a plan providing standards and policies for the establishment, development, and administration of comprehensive community colleges under its authority. It shall determine the need for comprehensive community colleges and develop a statewide plan for their location and a time schedule for their establishment. In the development of such plan, a principal objective is to provide and maintain a system of comprehensive community colleges, as that term is defined in § 23.1-100 to make appropriate educational opportunities and programs available throughout the Commonwealth. In providing these offerings, the State Board shall recognize the need for excellence in all curricula and shall establish and maintain standards appropriate to the various purposes the respective programs are designed to serve;
4. Establish policies providing for the creation of a local community college board for each comprehensive community college established under this chapter and the procedures and regulations under which such local boards shall operate. These boards shall assist in ascertaining educational needs and enlisting community involvement and support and shall perform such other duties as may be prescribed by the State Board;
5. Adhere to the policies of the Council for the coordination of higher education as required by law;
6. Develop a mental health referral policy directing comprehensive community colleges to designate at least one individual at each college to serve as a point of contact with an emergency services system clinician at a local community services board, or another qualified mental health services provider, for the purposes of facilitating screening and referral of students who may have emergency or urgent mental health needs and of assisting the college in carrying out the duties specified by §§ 23.1-802 and 23.1-805. Each comprehensive community college may establish relationships with community services boards or other mental health providers for referral and treatment of persons with less serious mental health needs;
7. Develop and implement, in coordination with the Council, the Department of Education, and the Virginia Association of School Superintendents, (i) a plan to achieve and maintain the same standards regarding quality, consistency, and level of evaluation and review for dual enrollment courses offered by local school divisions pursuant to § 23.1-907 as are required for all courses taught in the System and (ii) a process and criteria for determining whether any dual enrollment course offered in the Commonwealth that meets or exceeds such standards is transferable to a public institution of higher education as (a) a uniform certificate of general studies program or passport program course credit, (b) a general elective course credit, or (c) a course credit meeting other academic requirements of a public institution of higher education;
8. Prepare and administer a plan to standardize across all comprehensive community colleges the courses offered and the quality and content of such courses, as well as to standardize the application and registration process at all comprehensive community colleges. Such plan shall allow for a comprehensive community college to provide additional courses, beyond the standard class content offered across the System, that meet specific regional interests and needs. Regional courses shall be subject to the standards of quality applied to all courses offered in the System;
9. Develop and implement a plan to standardize across all comprehensive community colleges the courses offered for health care-related degree, credential, or licensure programs, excluding any registered nursing programs. Such plan shall include procedures and criteria for (i) standardizing such courses by name, curriculum, coursework, quality, academic rigor, and standard of evaluation; (ii) awarding credit toward the completion of any such health care-related program for any student enrolled in a comprehensive community college; and (iii) standardizing the manner in which academic and clinical hour credits are awarded for such courses to ensure that they are stackable and transferrable across the System; and
10. Develop and implement accountability measures to periodically, but in no case less than every three years, review the performance of each comprehensive community college to ensure that all standards established by the Board are being met, with a goal of ensuring a consistent quality of education and opportunity across the System. If it is found that such standards are not being met at a particular institution, the Board shall develop a plan for corrective action specific to the issues presented at that institution.
1966, c. 679, §§ 23-215, 23-218, 23-220, 23-221; 1977, c. 413; 1996, cc. 134, 486; 1998, cc. 111, 396; 2001, c. 483; 2002, cc. 586, 625; 2004, c. 146; 2006, c. 337; 2013, cc. 49, 606, § 23-219.1; 2015, cc. 63, 86; 2016, c. 588; 2018, cc. 787, 832, 845; 2023, c. 542.