The Virginia Board of Education (Board) is seeking nominees for a vacancy on the Board’s Advisory Committees, including the Early Childhood Advisory Committee, State Special Education Advisory Committee, and Virginia Advisory Committee for Advanced Learning. A full list of open seats is available on the VDOE website.    

Please note that, by state or federal law or regulation, some of the vacancies on advisory committees require specific categories of expertise, qualifications, or geographic representation (map of the VDOE Superintendent’s Regions).  

Members of advisory committees do not receive compensation for their service but may be reimbursed for travel expenses in accordance with state travel guidelines set forth by the Department of Accounts.    

Educators, parents, administrators, and other individuals are invited to apply by completing this nomination form by 5 p.m. on Friday, July 25, 2025.    

On June 18, 2025, the Board of Education approved updates to Procedures for Initiating an Academic Year Governor’s School. This document provides interested stakeholders with information and guidance about developing proposals for the establishment of new Academic Year Governor’s Schools.   

Notable updates include compliance with Section 22.1-26 and 8VAC20-281-20, addition of expectations for technical support from the Department, and updated requirements for the administrative procedures section of the proposal to align with best practices.  

Additional information about Academic Year Governor’s Schools can be found here.  

The Virginia Department of Education is proud to celebrate the success of “Virginia Roots: A Journey into Appalachian Music”. Virginia Roots is a co-production of Blue Ridge PBS, PBS Appalachia/Virginia, and the Virginia Department of Education. The series has received the Emmy Award® for Informational and Instructional Long Form Content by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences National Capitol Chesapeake Bay Chapter. 

The goal of the series is to help music educators find a place for including traditional Appalachian music in the school curriculum. VDOE staff who worked on the project are Kelly Bisogno, Fine Arts Coordinator, and Sherry Hatton, Fine Arts Specialist.  

The series consists of five short videos that focus on the history, culture, and structure of old-time and bluegrass music. The episode guide, available on the Music Instruction page of the VDOE website, contains resources to accompany the media including a description of the video, discussion prompts, and alignment to the 2020 Music Standards of Learning. The episode guide content was created with a team of Virginia music educators. 

In celebrating both the rich heritage of Appalachian music and its integration into Virginia music education, "Virginia Roots" serves as a valuable resource for inspiring future generations of Virginians. 

VDOE and VLP are excited to welcome newly hired K-8 Reading Specialists for the 2025–2026 school year! To fulfill the requirements of the Virginia Literacy Act, VLP will host one-day, in-person training sessions focused on evidence-based literacy instruction aligned to science-based reading research for all new K-8 Reading Specialists.  

Please review the following eligibility guidelines:  

• Only newly hired Reading Specialists should attend. 
• Reading Specialists must have a primary role working directly with students to be eligible. 
• If a Reading Specialist is transitioning between grade levels (e.g., from elementary to middle school) and has already completed a previous in-person training with VLP, they are not eligible to attend again.   

School divisions are responsible for arranging travel, hotel accommodations, and covering any related expenses for their attendees.  

Training capacities were determined based on projected staffing numbers submitted by division leaders last spring. We appreciate your support in ensuring that only eligible, newly hired Reading Specialists are registered so we can accommodate all who need the training. Registrants will be directed to one of the following locations and dates according to the division they enter in the survey: 

Item 125, Paragraph B.30, of the Chapter 2 budget for the 2024-2026 biennium requires school divisions to report to the Department of Education on the use of their federal ESSER (i.e., Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund) formula funds since 2020 and on their use of the state ALL In Virginia initiative $418 million funds they received in FY 2024 with a focus on tackling learning loss. The Department of Education must provide a report of this information to the Governor and Chairs of the House Appropriations and Senate Finance and Appropriations Committees by October 1, 2024, 2025, and 2026. To meet the requirements VDOE has developed a survey to collect the data required to fulfill the reporting requirements. 

An online survey was created to collect the data from divisions needed to meet this reporting requirement. In the survey, divisions will provide amounts obligated and expended across various use of funds categories presented through June 30, 2025 (FY2025). School divisions will also report how these funds address learning loss in Reading and Mathematics Achievement and support preparation and implementation of the Virginia Literacy Act.  

The Department will compile the survey data submitted by school divisions and submit a summary report to the Governor and the Chairs of the House Appropriations and Senate Finance and Appropriations Committees by October 1, 2025, as required.  The reporting requirement reoccurs in October 2026, so updated data will be collected again next year for fiscal year 2026.   

To assist divisions in completing the survey, a webinar will be hosted on Wednesday, July 16, 2025, at 10:00 AM with reoccurring office hours for the next three Wednesdays at the same time (July 23, 30 and August 6, 2025).  Coordinators should expect individual emails to be sent with additional information, including responses from last year’s survey.  

Thank you for your work on this collection.  If you have any questions or run into any technical issues, please contact Roland.Coleman@doe.virginia.gov or Staci.Logest@doe.virginia.gov.

The Virginia Department of Education is pleased to announce the release of the Advancing Computer Science Education (ACSE) FY26 Request for Proposals (RFP). The 2024 Appropriation Act has allocated $1.35 million to support K-12 computer science education. Funding is available across four project types: 

• Professional Learning & Instructional Resources (up to $75,000 per award) 
• Student Experiences & Engagement Programs (up to $75,000 per award) 
• Implementation and Sustainability Efforts (up to $75,000 per award) 
• Advanced Placement Computer Science Microgrant (up to $50,000 per award) 

This competitive grant opportunity supports the implementation of the 2024 Computer Science Standards of Learning, and provides funding to develop high-quality instructional resources, professional development, student experiences, and expand access to advanced computer science learning opportunities. A pre-proposal webinar will be held Thursday, July 17, 2025, at 9:00 am. Registration is required.     

More information may be found on the VDOE Computer Science webpage. Please contact Keisha.Tennessee@doe.virginia.gov, Computer Science Coordinator, for questions.  

The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA) is designed to increase transparency and improve the public’s access to federal government information. FFATA requires that subgrants awarded to sub-recipients of $30,000 or greater be reported for all federal grants that meet the reporting conditions as set forth in the grant award terms. Subgrant data and executive compensation data for sub-recipients must be reported by VDOE as the prime grant awardee. Only subgrants made by VDOE as the prime awardee to first-tier sub-recipients are reportable under FFATA. VDOE reports the required data on subgrant awards it makes to school divisions on their behalf from existing information in its financial records.  

To consolidate reporting for school divisions related to Executive Compensation, we are requesting one certification per state fiscal year that will cover all subgrant awards funded by the U.S. Department of Education or other federal agencies and awarded to your school division by VDOE.   

The Reporting Subgrant Data and Executive Compensation Data for Sub-recipients as required under FFATA, completed using this document, describes the requirements and includes instructions to complete the annual certification related to Executive Compensation in your school division for FY 2026. School divisions must complete and return this document to VDOE by September 16, 2025, via mail to the VDOE Office of Finance or via email to VDOEFinancialReporting@doe.virginia.gov.  

The purpose of this update is to notify superintendents of the final division awards for the Science, Technology, and Mathematics Teacher Recruitment and Retention Incentive (STEM TRRI).  

Newsletter 2025-17-218 announced the 2024-2025 division awards for the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Teacher Recruitment and Retention Incentive (STEM-TRRI). Funding was appropriated to attract, recruit, and retain high-quality diverse individuals to teach science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) subjects in Virginia middle and high schools experiencing difficulty in recruiting qualified teachers. School divisions were required to verify recipient eligibility by submitting a verification report through the Single Sign On for Web Services (SSWS) system by May 14, 2025.  

Based on the verification reports, our records indicate there are unspent balances in the STEM TRRI account (project code: APE61027) for fiscal year 2025. As a result, the unspent balances will be removed from the designated accounts and returned to the Virginia Department of Education. The final 2024-2025 award amount per division can be found here. Questions related to the 2024-2025 STEM-TRRI award may be directed to Ahmad Saidi, Grants Manager, at (804) 790-8697 or Ahmad.Saidi@doe.virginia.gov. 

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) in partnership with VDOE is hosting two webinars to provide school division staff information concerning the identification and management of hazardous wastes schools may generate.

School generate different types of hazardous waste such as spent aerosol cans, spent fluorescent lamps, chemical wastes from science classes, discarded pharmaceutical wastes, older gymnasium floors being replaced, and discarded exterior paint, and are safely managing such wastes. From inspections DEQ has conducted, all public schools have not been identifying or properly managing these wastes as hazardous waste.  

We recognize hazardous waste regulations are complicated for facilities/generators such as schools. These webinars will help school staff better understand these regulations, avoid costly mistakes, and also provide organizational outlines and tools helpful in identifying and managing hazardous wastes more cost-effectively, and in compliance with existing regulations.  

As part of these webinars, DEQ seeks to incorporate questions from school division staff concerning the identification and management of hazardous wastes. Please send your questions to Jim O’Leary from DEQ at James.OLeary@deq.virginia.gov. 

To accommodate staff schedules, two identical webinars will be held on: 

• Tuesday, July 29, 2025: 9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
• Wednesday, August 6, 2025: 1:00 p.m.- 2:30 p.m.

Beginning next Monday, July 14 through Friday, July 25, all sites, including public schools, that participated in VQB5 during the 2024-2025 year will have the opportunity to preview their quality profiles prior to results being posted publicly this fall. Data Verification provides sites with the final opportunity to verify information, review VQB5 rating results, and request corrections. At the conclusion of the data verification process, VDOE will review changes to quality profiles as necessary before finalizing and sharing publicly in the fall of 2025.

Site administrators should review the information below to prepare for data verification.  

• Data Verification Resource Guide/Spanish  
• VQB5 Quality Ratings User Guide  

A successful pilot isn’t possible without you. VKRP would love for your division, schools, and teachers to collaborate with our team on this exciting effort. Participation is voluntary and may include only some schools within a division or some teachers within a school.   

Please review this flyer for more information and reach out to Kelly Hughes (kac5y@virginia.edu).  

Virginia Connects for Kids (VAConnects) is an integrated data system that brings together three state data collection systems, Virginia Language & Literacy Screening System (VALLSS), the Virginia Kindergarten Readiness Program (VKRP), and LinkB5.  VAConnects is managed by the University of Virginia’s School of Education and Human Development and funded by the Virginia Department of Education. 

VAConnects was launched in the 2024-2025 academic year; educators in every division have been using VAConnects for data entry and reporting for VALLSS. Next academic year (2025-2026) the system will expand to include VKRP and LinkB5 in one platform with a one-stop log-in for all three systems.