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_ 187 Item Details($) Appropriations($) ITEM 125. First Year Second Year First Year Second Year FY2025 FY2026 FY2025 FY2026 for the federal free lunch program with a pupil-teacher ratio range of 18:1 to 10:1, depending upon a school division's combined failure rate on the English and Math Standards of Learning, is included in Remedial Education Payments (C 9). b. No actions provided in this section signify any intent of the General Assembly to mandate an increase in the number of instructional personnel per 1,000 students above the numbers explicitly stated in the preceding paragraph. c. Appropriations in this Item include programs supported in part by transfers to the general fund from the Public Education Standards of Quality/Local Real Estate Property Tax Relief Fund pursuant to Part 3 of this Act. These transfers combined together with other appropriations from the general fund in this Item funds the state's share of the following revisions to the Standards of Quality pursuant to Chapters 939 & 955 of the Acts of Assembly of 2004: five elementary resource teachers per 1,000 students; one support technology position per 1,000 students; one instructional technology position per 1,000 students; and a full daily planning period for teachers at the middle and high school levels in order to relieve the financial pressure these education programs place on local real estate taxes. d. To provide flexibility, school divisions may use the state and local funds for instructional technology resource teachers required by the Standards of Quality to employ a data coordinator position, an instructional technology resource teacher position, or a data coordinator/instructional resource teacher blended position. The data coordinator position is intended to serve as a resource to principals and classroom teachers in the area of data analysis and interpretation for instructional and school improvement purposes, as well as for overall data management and administration of state assessments. School divisions using these SOQ funds in this manner shall only employ instructional personnel licensed by the Board of Education. e. To provide flexibility in the provision of reading intervention services, school divisions may use the state Early Reading Intervention initiative funding provided from the Lottery Proceeds Fund and the required local matching funds to employ reading specialists to provide the required reading intervention services. School divisions using the Early Reading Intervention Initiative funds in this manner shall only employ instructional personnel licensed by the Board of Education. f. To provide flexibility in the provision of mathematics intervention services, school divisions may use the state Standards of Learning Algebra Readiness initiative funding provided from the Lottery Proceeds Fund and the required local matching funds to employ mathematics teacher specialists to provide the required mathematics intervention services. School divisions using the Standards of Learning Algebra Readiness initiative funding in this manner shall only employ instructional personnel licensed by the Board of Education. g. Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection H 1 of § 22.1-253.13:2 of the Code of Virginia, each local school board shall employ, at a minimum, one full-time principal in each elementary school. h. Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection G of § 22.1-253.13:2 of the Code of Virginia, school boards may employ other staff such as reading coaches or other instructional staff who are working towards obtaining the training and licensure requirements necessary to fulfill the reading specialist staffing standards. 8.a.1) Pursuant to § 22.1-97, Code of Virginia, the Department of Education is required to make calculations at the start of the school year to ensure that school divisions have appropriated adequate funds to support their estimated required local expenditure for the corresponding state fiscal year. In an effort to reduce the administrative burden on school divisions resulting from state data collections, such as the one needed to make the aforementioned calculations, the requirements of § 22.1-97, Code of Virginia, pertaining to the adequacy of estimated required local expenditures, shall be satisfied by signed certification by each division superintendent at the beginning of each school year that sufficient local funds have been budgeted to meet all state required local effort and required local match amounts. This provision shall only apply to calculations required of the Department of Education related to estimated required local expenditures and shall not pertain to the calculations associated with actual required local expenditures after the close