Fairfax County Public Schools, Office of Government Relations

Final Report - School Board/Governance 

This report describes all School Board/Governance related legislation considered during the 2024 General Assembly Regular and Special Session.  Bills are listed as “Passed”, “Failed” or “Continued to 2025”.

Passed legislation will go into effect on July 1, 2024, unless otherwise specified in the legislation itself.

Bills identified as Continued to 2025 are no longer active for the 2024 Session but can be picked back up by the continuing committee where they were left off in the legislative process during the 2025 Session.  While possible, it is rare for a continued bill to be picked back up. Typically, such legislation is simply reintroduced in the next Session.

UPDATED: 05/29/2024

School Board/Governance – Passed

Hate crimes and discrimination; ethnic animosity; penalties. HB 18 (Helmer) and SB 7 (Reeves) provide that it is the policy of the Commonwealth to safeguard all individuals within the Commonwealth from unlawful discrimination in employment and in places of public accommodation because of such individual's ethnic origin and prohibits such discrimination. The bills also add victims who are intentionally selected because of their ethnic origin to the categories of victims whose intentional selection for a hate crime involving assault, assault and battery, or trespass for the purpose of damaging another's property results in a higher criminal penalty for the offense. The bills also provide that no provider or user of an interactive computer service on the Internet shall be liable for any action voluntarily taken by it in good faith to restrict access to material that the provider or user considers to be intended to incite hatred on the basis of ethnic origin.

Vacancies in elected local offices; interim appointments; notice requirement. HB 69 (Bulova) requires the local governing body or elected school board making an interim appointment to fill a vacancy in the membership of such body or board to hold a public meeting at least seven days prior to making such appointment. The bill specifies that at such meeting, the body or board shall announce the names of all persons being proposed for the interim appointment and shall make available for inspection each person's resume and any other materials required by the body or board.

Department of Education; learning needs dashboard. HB 131 (Convirs-Fowler) requires the Department of Education to continue to maintain until July 1, 2029, a learning needs dashboard that includes an interactive bar chart feature to compare annual pass rates and an interactive scatterplot feature to compare changes in pass rates between select years on history and social sciences, mathematics, reading, science, and writing Standards of Learning assessments on a statewide basis and for specific local school divisions, public elementary and secondary schools, and student subgroups.

Department of Education; resource document on supports and services for homeless students. HB 168 (Keys-Gamarra) requires the Department of Education to develop and make available to each school board a resource document containing guidance and best practices for providing the necessary supports and services to homeless students, including guidance and best practices relating to (i) decisions regarding whether and when such a student should remain enrolled in a school in a previous school division of residence, (ii) wrap-around supports and services for such students that include the parents when they are available and specific wrap-around supports and services for such students who may have experienced additional trauma prior to becoming homeless, and (iii) any other means by which such students can be best served and protected, particularly those homeless children and youths who are at risk of becoming victims of human trafficking.

Virginia Military Parents Equal Protection Act; Space Force; deployment. HB 194 (Martinez) adds members of the Space Force to the list of service members included in the definition of deploying parent or guardian for the purposes of the Virginia Military Parents Equal Protection Act.

School boards; meetings; public comment or citizen participation; enrolled students. HB 253 (Cole) requires each school board to permit any student enrolled in a public elementary or secondary school in the local school division who provides acceptable proof of identification, if requested, and who signs up in accordance with the sign-up procedures for the respective school board meeting to submit oral comments during any public comment portion of such meeting, subject to the same reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions imposed by such school board on the expression of any other citizen participant in such meetings.

Legal notices and publications; online-only news publications; requirements. HB 264 (Hope) and SB 157 (Boysko) provide that, where any ordinance, resolution, notice, or advertisement is required by law to be published in a newspaper, such ordinance, resolution, notice, or advertisement instead may be published in an online-only news publication subject to certain requirements specified in the bills. The bills set out a process by which an online-only news publication shall petition the circuit court of the appropriate jurisdiction to publish such ordinances, resolutions, notices, or advertisements and authorizes the court to grant such online-only news publication the authority to publish such ordinances, resolutions, notices, or advertisements for a period of one year. The bills also describe the process by which an online-only news publication may continue renewing such authority to publish in each successive year.

 Public education; community schools; Office of Community Schools at Department of Education; Community School Development and Implementation Planning Grant; state goal. HB 625 (Rasoul) and SB 608 (Aird) require the Department of Education to establish the Office of Community Schools as an office within the Department for the purpose of supporting the development and growth of community schools throughout the Commonwealth in accordance with the Virginia Community School Framework by collaborating with the existing VDOE interagency task force on community schools; administering state funds provided to school divisions to develop and sustain community school models; assisting school leaders in the application for federal grant funds for their community school models; and providing technical assistance to school personnel and contracted coordinators regarding effective practices and models for community schools and capital considerations relating to community schools, including site acquisition and building construction, renovations, and additions.

Public schools; certain local school divisions; youth and community violence prevention; Community Builders Pilot Program established; report. HB 626 (Rasoul) and SB 484 (Aird) establish the Community Builders Pilot Program for the purpose of reducing youth involvement in behaviors that lead to gun violence and increasing community engagement among public school students by providing to students who are entering the eighth grade and enrolled in Roanoke City Public Schools and Petersburg City Public Schools opportunities during the school year after regular school hours and during the summer months for community engagement, workforce development, postsecondary education exploration, and social-emotional education and development. The bills provide that the school boards of Roanoke City Public Schools and Petersburg City Public Schools shall be responsible for the administration of the Program and are directed to collect data and report to the Governor and relevant committees of the General Assembly by November 1 of each year on the progress of the Program. The bill has an expiration date of July 1, 2027.

Space Force; extension of certain benefits and privileges for persons serving in a branch of the Armed Forces. HB 738 (Sewell) amends several provisions of law related to certain benefits and privileges available to persons serving or having served in a branch of the Armed Forces to include the Space Force as an eligible branch. The bill also extends applicability of the bill’s provisions related to Space Force personnel to military medical personnel sections of the Code of Virginia. 

Enrollment of and provision of free public education for certain students; kinship care and foster care. HB 777 (Callsen) provides that in the event that a student in a kinship care arrangement moves into a different school division during the school year as a result of safely returning home, being emancipated, or transitioning to a new kinship care arrangement, such student shall be deemed to continue to reside in the previous school division of residence for the remainder of the school year for the purpose of tuition-free enrollment and attendance. The bill also provides that certain provisions of law relating to continuity of public school enrollment and attendance for students in foster care apply to a student who has transitioned out of foster care and whose custody has been transferred to the student's parent or prior legal guardian or who has been emancipated.

Virginia Freedom of Information Act; effective date of procedures for conducting meetings held through electronic communication means during declared states of emergency. HB 816 (Cherry) and SB 244 (McPike) provide that the provisions for conducting a meeting by electronic means due to a state of emergency stated in the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) are declarative of existing law since March 20, 2020, with respect to the Governor's declared state of emergency due to COVID-19. Under the bills, any meeting by a public body using electronic communication means occurring from that date until July 1, 2021, and any otherwise lawful action taken at it is validated with respect to FOIA if the body provided public notice, public access, and public comment commensurate with the requirements of existing FOIA provisions regarding electronic and closed meetings. The bills are a response to the case Berry v. Bd. of Supervisors (Va. 2023) and is a recommendation of the Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council. 

Virginia Freedom of Information Act; definitions of meetings and public business. HB 818 (Cherry) and SB 36 (Locke) exempt certain public meetings from the definition of "meeting" under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act to clarify that three or more members of a public body may appear and participate in such public meeting without violating the Act, provided that no public business is transacted or discussed. The bills also exempt members of a public body who attend a public meeting of a second public body without violating the Act, provided that no public business is transacted or discussed. Finally, the bills define "public business" as activity that a public body has undertaken or proposed to undertake on behalf of the people it represents. The bills states that their provisions are declarative of existing law.

Virginia Freedom of Information Act; electronic meetings. HB 894 (Bennett-Parker) and SB 734 (Marsden) amend the number of all-virtual public meetings that public bodies, with certain exceptions, may convene in a calendar year to no more than two times per calendar year or 50 percent of the meetings held per calendar year rounded up to the next whole number, whichever is greater. Current law limits the number of all-virtual public meetings to no more than two times per calendar year or 25 percent of the meetings held per calendar year rounded up to the next whole number, whichever is greater. The bills also provide that with respect to all-virtual public meetings, when audio-visual technology is available, a member of a public body shall, for purposes of a quorum, be considered absent from any portion of the meeting during which visual communication with the member is voluntarily disconnected or otherwise fails or during which audio communication involuntarily fails.

Virginia Freedom of Information Act; definition of "caregiver"; remote participation in meetings by persons with disabilities and caregivers; remote voting. HB 1040 (Bennett-Parker) and SB 85 (Favola) provide that for purposes of determining whether a quorum is physically assembled, an individual member of a public body who is a person with a disability or a caregiver, defined in the bill, and uses remote participation counts toward the quorum as if the individual was physically present. The bills also provide that the participation policy adopted by a public body, as required by the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, shall not prohibit or restrict any individual member of a public body who is participating in an all-virtual meeting or who is using remote participation from voting on matters before the public body. As introduced, the bills were a recommendation of the Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council. 

Department of Education; communication to local school boards; JROTC; legal obligations. HB 1231 (Higgins) requires the Department of Education to notify each school board of any obligation imposed on the school board or any public school in the local school division pursuant to any federal law or regulation relating to student eligibility to participate in Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) programs offered by any branch of the Armed Forces of the United States in public schools.

Public schools; transfer and management of scholastic records; disclosure of information in court notices; transfer of disciplinary records; requirements. HB 1317 (Cole) and SB 443 (Durant) require the superintendent of any school division to, upon receiving notification of the disposition in a delinquency case concerning a student who is not enrolled in such school division, forward such notification to the superintendent of the school division where such student is enrolled or where such student intends to enroll, as evidenced by the receipt of a request from the other school division for such student's scholastic records. Current law only permits the superintendent of any such school division to forward such notification to the superintendent of the school division in which the student is currently enrolled. The bills also require a copy of the complete student disciplinary records of any student transferring from one school division to another to be transferred to the school division to which such student is transferring, upon request from such school division.

Local government; standardization of public notice requirements for certain meetings, hearings, or intended actions. HB 1488 (Henson) and SB 413 (Head) standardize the frequency with which and length of time in which notices of certain meetings, hearings, and other intended actions of localities must be published. The notice provisions included in the bill are organized into three groups: (i) publication required at least seven days before the meeting, hearing, or intended action; (ii) publication required twice, with the first notice appearing no more than 28 days before and the second notice appearing no less than seven days before the meeting, hearing, or intended action; and (iii) publication required three times, with the first notice appearing no more than 35 days before and the third notice appearing no less than seven days before the meeting, hearing, or intended action. The bills also standardize descriptive information in such notices related to (a) proposing, amending, or repealing ordinances; (b) local budget adoption; and (c) zoning ordinances and planning-related actions.

Virginia Freedom of Information Act; exclusions from mandatory disclosure; purchase card statement. SB 340 (Salim) clarifies that the name of a public employee, officer, or official as it appears on a purchase card statement or other payment record and the description of individual purchases are not exempt from disclosure by the State Comptroller.

Board of Education; guidelines on school-connected overdose policies; response and parental notification. SB 498 (Carroll Foy) requires the Board of Education to establish guidelines for school-connected overdose response and parental notification policies to aid local school boards in the implementation of such policies. The bill requires such guidelines to include (i) a model action plan for each school board to follow in responding to any school-connected overdose, including communicating and coordinating with the Department of Education and the applicable law-enforcement liaison or the local law-enforcement agency that employs such school division's school resources officers, and (ii) criteria for issuing parental notification to ensure sensitivity to the privacy interests of affected individuals and compliance with any applicable law, rules, or regulations relating to the disclosure and protection of a minor's personal, confidential, or otherwise sensitive information. Note that while this legislation passed and will go into effect, an identical bill (HB 1504 Seibold) was vetoed by the Governor. 

School Board/Governance - Passed Bills with a Reenactment Clause

Bills in this category will not go into effect unless they are reenacted by the 2025 Session of the General Assembly.

Virginia Freedom of Information Act; charges for production of public records; report. SB 324 (Roem) would prohibit a public body from charging a requester for any costs incurred during the first hour spent accessing, duplicating, supplying, or searching for records requested in conjunction with the requester's first request. The bill would provide that for any additional time spent accessing, duplicating, supplying, or searching for such records, or for any additional record requests, the public body shall not charge an hourly rate for accessing, duplicating, supplying, or searching for the records exceeding the lesser of the hourly rate of pay of the lowest-paid individual capable of fulfilling the request or $40 per hour. The bill would allow a public body to petition the appropriate court for relief from the $40-per-hour fee cap upon showing by a preponderance of the evidence that there is no qualified individual capable of fulfilling the request for $40 per hour or less and requires such petition to be heard within seven days of when the petition is made, provided that the public body has sent and the requester has received a copy of the petition at least three working days prior to filing. The bill also would provide that in certain instances a hearing on any petition shall be given precedence on a circuit court's docket over all cases that are not otherwise given precedence by law and that the time period the public body has to respond to a record request shall be tolled between the requester's receipt of the petition and the final disposition of the court. The bill would prohibit a public body from charging a requester for any court costs or fees resulting from a petition. The bill directs the Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council to study whether public bodies should charge requesters pursuant to the bill and report on its findings by December 2024. The provisions of the bill, aside from the directive to the Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council to study whether public bodies should charge requesters, will not become effective unless reenacted by the 2025 Session of the General Assembly.

School Board/Governance – Continued to 2025 and Failed

Study; State Council of Higher Education for Virginia; public institutions of higher education in the Commonwealth; guaranteed first-year admission; report. HJ 21 (Seibold) would have requested the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia to study the feasibility of implementing a guaranteed first-year admission policy at each public institution of higher education for certain high school graduates in the Commonwealth and report its findings and recommendations no later than the first day of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly. This resolution was Continued to 2025 in House Rules.

Study; joint subcommittee; Dillon Rule; report. HJ 24 (Helmer) and SJ 18 (Hashmi) would have created a 13-member joint subcommittee for a one-year study of the Dillon Rule and its impact on Virginia's localities. HJ 24 was Continued to 2025 in House Rules and SJ 18 was Continued to 2025 in Senate Rules.

Study; Joint Commission on Health Care; impacts of cell phone possession and use on students in public schools; report. HJ 34 (Maldonado) would have directed the Joint Commission on Health Care to study the impacts of cell phone possession and use in public schools on student learning outcomes, including the quality of learning and the ability of students to retain and recall information, student attention and focus, and student mental and behavioral health. This resolution was Continued to 2025 in House Rules.

Study; Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council; charges for the production of public records; report. HJ 54 (Batten) would have directed the Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council (the FOIA Council) to convene a work group consisting of citizens of the Commonwealth, representatives of state and local government entities, broadcast, print, and electronic media sources, open government organizations, and other interested parties to study whether the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) allowing public bodies to charge requesters for the production of public records should be amended to make access to public records easier for requesters. The resolution would have further directed the work group to examine the current FOIA provisions on charges and make recommendations on ways to amend such provisions to make the assessment of charges by public bodies for the production of public records more uniform, more transparent, easier to understand, and less costly.

Advertisement of legal notices; website. HB 229 (Campbell) would have allowed a locality to advertise legal notices on the locality's website instead of, or in addition to, publishing such notices in a newspaper having general circulation in the locality.

Removal of public officers from office; petition requirements; procedure. HB 265 (Simon) would have required the signatures collected on a petition for removal of certain public officers to be collected within 90 days of the first signature being collected and provided that no signatures gathered after such period shall count toward the required number. The attorney for the Commonwealth would be required to request that the court dismiss the petition, and the court would be required to do so, if the factual or legal allegations made by the petition are not materially different than the factual or legal allegations set forth in a previously filed petition or litigated in a trial pursuant to a previously filed petition that was against the same subject and that was dismissed with prejudice or that did not result in the subject's removal from office at trial. The bill also provided that, in proceedings to remove a public officer from office, if the attorney for the Commonwealth who would be responsible for reviewing a removal petition and determining whether valid grounds for removal exist or for representing the Commonwealth at a removal proceeding has a conflict of interest or is otherwise unavailable, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia shall appoint an alternate attorney for the Commonwealth. Lastly, the bill provided that discovery shall not be permitted prior to a determination that the petition states valid grounds to proceed to trial. Note that HB 265 passed the General Assembly but was vetoed by the Governor. 

Vacancies in elected local offices; timeliness of special election to fill vacancy. HB 417 (Convirs-Fowler) would have provided that when a vacancy occurs in an elected local office that is subject to a ward-based or district-based residency requirement, the election to fill such vacancy shall be ordered and held within 365 days of the vacancy occurring.

Local government; standardization of public notice requirements for certain meetings, hearings, or intended actions. HB 443 (Williams) would have standardized the frequency with which and length of time in which notices of certain meetings, hearings, and other intended actions of localities must be published. The notice provisions included in the bill are organized into three groups: (i) publication required at least seven days before a meeting, hearing, or intended action; (ii) publication required twice, with the first notice appearing no more than 28 days before and the second notice appearing no less than seven days before a meeting, hearing, or intended action; and (iii) publication required three times, with the first notice appearing no more than 35 days before and the third notice appearing no less than seven days before the meeting, hearing, or intended action. The bill also would have standardized descriptive information in such notices related to (a) proposing, amending, or repealing ordinances; (b) local budget adoption; and (c) zoning ordinances and planning-related actions.

School board policies; parental notification; safe storage of firearms in the household. HB 498 (Cohen) and SB 225 (Pekarsky) would have required each local school board to develop and implement a policy to require the annual notification of the parent of each student enrolled in the local school division, to be sent by email and, if applicable, SMS text message within 30 calendar days succeeding the first day of each school year, of the parent's legal responsibility to safely store any firearm present in the household, risks associated with improperly stored firearms, statistics relating to firearm-related accidents, injuries, and death among youth, and other tips and strategies. The bills would have required each school board to make such parental notification available in multiple languages on its website.

Nonbinary sex or gender designation option. HB 502 (Cohen) would have required all forms or applications to offer any applicant the option of "male," "female," or "nonbinary" when designating the applicant's sex or gender. The bill contained technical amendments. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Appropriations.

Board of Education; open school enrollment policies; guidance on best practices. HB 659 (Ballard) would have required the Board of Education to develop and make available to each school board guidance on best practices relating to open school enrollment, including on several topics enumerated in the bill.

Virginia Education Success Account Program established. HB 667 (Freitas) would have permitted the parents of qualified students, defined in the bill, to apply for a one-year, renewable Virginia Education Success Account that consists of an amount that is equivalent to a certain percentage of all applicable annual Standards of Quality per pupil state funds appropriated for public school purposes and apportioned to the school division in which the qualified student resides, including the per pupil share of state sales tax funding in basic aid and any per pupil share of state special education funding for which the qualified student is eligible. The bill permitted the parent of the qualified student to use the moneys in such account for certain qualified expenses of the qualified student, including tuition, deposits, fees, and required textbooks at a private elementary school or secondary school that is located in the Commonwealth. The bill also contained provisions relating to program and account administration by the Department of the Treasury and a third party that serves as program administrator pursuant to a contract with the Department of the Treasury.

Sage's Law; minor students experiencing gender incongruence; parental notification of certain expressions and requests and parental permission for certain plans required; parental care. HB 670 (Freitas) and SB 37 (McGuire) would have required each public elementary or secondary school principal or his designee to (i) as soon as practicable, inform at least one parent of a minor student enrolled in such school if such minor (a) expresses to any individual who is employed in such school that such minor is experiencing gender incongruence, as defined in the bill, or (b) requests that any such employee participate in social affirmation of such minor's gender incongruence or the transition of such minor to a sex or gender different from the minor's biological sex while at school and (ii) request and receive permission from at least one parent of a minor student enrolled at such school prior to the implementation at such school of any plan concerning any gender incongruence experienced by such minor, including any counseling of such minor at school. Any such plan shall include provision for parental participation to the extent requested by the parent. The bill also clarified, in the definition of the term "abused or neglected child," that in no event shall referring to and raising the child in a manner consistent with the child's biological sex, including related mental health or medical decisions, be considered abuse or neglect.

Virginia Freedom of Information Act; public body; revenue from public funds. HB 671 (Freitas) would have added to the definition of "public body" any organization, corporation, or agency that received more than 50 percent of its annual revenue, within any of the three preceding years, from public funds.

Establishment of recovery high schools; authorization in certain Superintendent's regions. HB 696 (Tata) would have authorized any school board that governs a school division located in Superintendent's Region 2, 4, or 7 to establish a recovery high school in the relevant school division as a year-round high school (i) for which enrollment is open to any high school student who resides in the relevant Superintendent's region and is in the early stages of recovery from substance use disorder or dependency and (ii) for the purpose of providing such students with the academic, emotional, and social support necessary to make progress toward earning a high school diploma and reintegrating into a traditional high school setting. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in Senate Finance and Appropriations.

Travel expenses; local officials. HB 710 (Webert) would have provided that any travel expense of a local official, as defined in the bill, to be paid from public funds that is anticipated to exceed $2,500 shall be subject to approval in advance by a vote of the local governing body in an open meeting. If the final travel expense exceeds the previously approved amount, such expense shall be reported to the governing body and noted in the meeting agenda or meeting minutes within 60 days of the determination.

Legal holidays; Indigenous Peoples' Day. HB 743 (Krizek) would have replaced Columbus Day, the second Monday in October, with Indigenous Peoples' Day as a state holiday.

Public elementary and secondary schools; compulsory attendance policies and procedures; educational neglect defined. HB 767 (O’Quinn) and SB 619 (Pillion) would have revised the policies and procedures relating to addressing the nonattendance or nonenrollment of a child subject to compulsory education requirements by expanding the definition of "abused or neglected child" to include educational neglect and, therefore, requiring any teacher, attendance officer, or other person employed by such child's school, to report such neglect to the appropriate authority in accordance with pertinent law. The bill defined "educational neglect" as the failure or refusal to provide necessary education for a child who is subject to compulsory attendance in accordance with relevant law and is enrolled in a public school and has missed 10 percent or more of the academic year, including by (i) causing or allowing the child to become chronically absent, defined as any student who has missed 10 percent or more of the academic year for any reason, including excused and unexcused absences, or (ii) failing or refusing to enroll a child in any school who is not otherwise exempt from school attendance if (a) such failure or refusal to enroll continues after the school notifies and institutes proceedings against the parent and (b) the time elapsed between the institution of proceedings and the continued noncompliance to date exceeds 10 percent of the academic year.

Virginia Freedom of Information Act; closed meeting exemption; home instruction of children. HB 873 (Earley) would have created an exemption from the open meeting requirements of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act for discussion, consideration, or decisions relating to home instruction of children, unless objected to by a parent or guardian in an open meeting, that are exempt from disclosure pursuant to relevant law.

Department of Education; model policy on student cell phone use during instructional time; local adoption. HB 882 (Earley) would have required 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 would have required 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 would have required each school board to develop and adopt a policy that is consistent with such model policy adopted by the Department. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Education. 

Virginia Conflict of Interest and Ethics Advisory Council; staffing; annual audit of certain disclosure forms; lobbyist registration and reporting; civil penalties. HB 911 (Shin) would have provided for an annual audit of the Statement of Economic Interests disclosure forms filed by members of the General Assembly to ensure the completeness and material accuracy of the information disclosed. The bill would have directed the Virginia Conflict of Interest and Ethics Advisory Council to appoint and employ an executive director; currently, the Division of Legislative Services employs the executive director and provides additional staff assistance. Additional staff required pursuant to the bill includes at least one experienced lawyer and at least one experienced auditor or investigator. The bill also would have increased the civil penalty for certain violations related to filing such disclosure forms and prohibits any such penalty from being paid using funds contributed to or received by a candidate or his campaign committee or by any political committee. Lastly, the bill would have brought the reporting period and deadline for lobbyists' disclosures into alignment with the schedule for filing disclosures required pursuant to the State and Local Government Conflict of Interests Act and the General Assembly Conflicts of Interests Act.

Virginia Human Rights Act; prohibits discrimination on the basis of citizenship or immigration status. HB 954 (Lopez) would have added citizenship or immigration status to the classes protected from unlawful discrimination in the Virginia Human Rights Act. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House General Laws. 

Commission on Civic Education; model guidance on student participation in the work of local school boards. HB 958 (Lopez) would have required the Commission on Civic Education, in conjunction with such stakeholders as it deems appropriate, to create and provide to each local school board no later than July 1, 2025, model guidance on the inclusion and involvement of students enrolled in the local school division in the work of the local school board, including model guidance on a process and structure for adding a student representative to the local school board. Note that HB 958 passed the General Assembly but was vetoed by the Governor.

School board duties; appointment and employment of division superintendents; oversight. HB 979 (Keys-Gamarra) would have required each school board to appoint, employ, and provide oversight for a division superintendent and would have provided that nothing in the Code of Virginia or the regulations of the Board of Education shall be construed to prohibit the school board from providing such oversight.

Discharge plans; copies to public elementary and secondary schools. HB 1017 (Wilt) would have provided that prior to the discharge of any minor or individual who has been admitted to inpatient treatment and is a student at a public elementary or secondary school, a copy of such minor's or individual's discharge plan shall be provided to the division superintendent and the division safety official in the local school division in which such minor or individual attends such school.

School-connected overdoses; policies relating to parental notification and response; requirements. HB 1048 (Batten) would have required each division superintendent or his designee to notify the parent of each student in the local school division of any 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 overdose and to include in such notification as much information as is known about the circumstances surrounding the overdose. The bill would have required the Board of Education to establish guidelines for school-connected overdose response and parental notification policies, including (a) a model action plan for each school board to follow in responding to the overdose, including communicating and coordinating with the Department of Education and the local law-enforcement liaison or local law-enforcement agency that employs the school resource officers for such school division, and (b) criteria for issuing the parental notification to ensure sensitivity to the privacy interests of any affected individuals.

College partnership laboratory schools; Early College Model Program established. HB 1079 (Coyner) would have established the Early College Model Program whereby any public institution of higher education may establish a college partnership laboratory school in which each enrolled high school student earns, at no cost to the student, an associate degree or a bachelor's degree concurrently with a high school diploma. Under the bill, provisions of existing law relating to the establishment of college partnership laboratory schools would have applied to such schools established pursuant to the Program but with certain conditions and exceptions, including (i) requiring a college partnership laboratory school established pursuant to the Program to be administered and governed by the Department of Education and (ii) prohibiting any enrolled student from being charged tuition for the college courses in which the student is dually enrolled and requiring the college partnership laboratory school to receive the statewide average share of Standards of Quality per pupil state funding, including the per pupil share of state sales tax funding in basic aid, for each student enrolled in such school to support the instruction of each such student in the fall and spring semesters.

Unfunded mandates; delay of implementation. HB 1093 (Oates) would have allowed a county, city, or town, in its discretion, to delay implementing an unfunded mandate until the next fiscal year after the fiscal year in which any unfunded mandate became effective. The locality shall do so by ordinance that states with specificity the unfunded mandate that the locality seeks to delay implementing and the date on which the unfunded mandate shall become effective after the delay. The bill defined "unfunded mandate" as an act that imposes on a locality the responsibility of providing funding for new programs or increased levels of service under existing programs and for which the Commonwealth does not provide sufficient funding to cover the required costs of such new programs or increased services, whether by appropriation or other means. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Counties, Cities and Towns.

School boards; employment of counsel. HB 1148 (Cordoza) would have clarified that any school board, whether elected or appointed, may employ the attorney for the Commonwealth or other counsel to advise it concerning any legal matter or to represent it, any member thereof, or any school official in any legal proceeding to which the school board, member, or official may be a party when such proceeding is instituted by or against it or against the member or official by virtue of his actions in connection with his duties as such member or official.

Removal of elected and certain appointed local officers by courts; Governor. HB 1149 (Cordoza) would have allowed the Governor to petition the circuit court to remove from office any local elected officer or local officer who has been appointed to fill a local elective office due to certain issues related to neglect of duty or criminal convictions. Under current law, this process is initiated only by a voter petition.

Education Excellence for All Program established. HB 1164 (Scott) and SB 533 (Jordan) would have permitted the parents of qualified students, defined in the bill, to apply for a one-year, renewable Education Excellence for All Savings Account, defined in the bill, that consists of an amount that is equivalent to a certain percentage of all applicable annual Standards of Quality per pupil state funds appropriated for public school purposes and apportioned to the school division in which the qualified student resides, including the per pupil share of state sales tax funding in basic aid and any per pupil share of state special education funding for which the qualified student is eligible. The bill would have permitted the parent of the qualified student to use the moneys in such account for certain qualified expenses of the qualified student, including tuition, deposits, fees, and required textbooks at a private elementary school or secondary school that is located in the Commonwealth. The bill also contained provisions relating to program and account administration by the Department of the Treasury and a third party that serves as program administrator pursuant to a contract with the Department.

Public schools; guidelines and policies regarding school-connected overdoses; parental notification; response and prevention. HB 1218 (Higgins) would have directed the Board of Education to develop and distribute to each local school board guidelines on policies and procedures relating to school-connected overdose response and prevention. The bill would have required each school board to notify the parent of each student in the local school division of any school-connected overdose within 24 hours of such overdose occurring and permitted each school board to provide such notification through telephone, email, or other methods of notification, provided that such method of notification is consistent with the guidelines developed by the Board. Finally, the bill would have directed each school board to fully implement the provisions of the bill by the 2024-2025 school year.

Public elementary and secondary school students; parents' bill of rights established. HB 1260 (Higgins) would have established, consistent with § 1-240.1 of the Code of Virginia, several enumerated rights for the parents of each public elementary or secondary school student in the Commonwealth, including the right to review any books, curricula, or instructional materials being taught or made available to their child and the right to be notified of any situation that directly affects their child's safety at school.

Virginia Education Success Account Program established. HB 1296 (Griffin) would have established the Virginia Education Success Account Program whereby the parents of qualified students, defined in the bill, who reside in school divisions in which the school board has, by majority vote, affirmed its participation in the program, may apply for a one-year, renewable Virginia Education Success Account that consists of an amount that is equivalent to a certain percentage of all applicable annual Standards of Quality per pupil state funds appropriated for public school purposes and apportioned to the school division in which the qualified student resides, including the per pupil share of state sales tax funding in basic aid and any per pupil share of state special education funding for which the qualified student is eligible. The bill permitted the parent of the qualified student to use the moneys in such account for certain qualified expenses of the qualified student, including tuition, deposits, fees, and required textbooks at a private elementary school or secondary school that is located in the Commonwealth. The bill also contained provisions relating to program and account administration by the Department of the Treasury and a third party that serves as program administrator pursuant to a contract with the Department of the Treasury.

Virginia Freedom of Information Act; exclusions; apprenticeship programs; minors. HB 1378 (Kent) would have excluded from the mandatory disclosure requirements of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act any information in a public record regarding the participation of a minor in a program run by a state body, such as an internship, externship, or apprenticeship, except as otherwise prescribed by law.

Public schools; transfer and management of scholastic records; disclosure of information in court notices; transfer of disciplinary records; requirements. HB 1383 (Milde) would have required the superintendent of any school division to, upon receiving notification of the disposition in a delinquency case concerning a student who is not enrolled in such school division, forward such notification to the superintendent of the school division where such student is enrolled or where such student intends to enroll, as evidenced by the receipt of a request from the other school division for such student's scholastic records. Current law only permits the superintendent of any such school division to forward such notification to the superintendent of the school division in which the student is currently enrolled. The bill also would have required a copy of the complete student disciplinary records of any student transferring from one school division to another to be transferred to the school division to which such student is transferring, upon request from such school division.

Celeste's Law; school boards; bathroom check policy required. HB 1528 (Cordoza) would have required each school board to develop and adopt a policy that requires an employee in each public elementary and secondary school, including any school resource officer or any school security officer employed in such school, to check no less frequently than once every 30 minutes during normal school hours each restroom facility in each such building to ensure the safety of each student present in such facility.

School boards; powers and duties; policies regarding cell phones and other handheld communication devices. SB 28 (Stanley) would have permitted each school board to develop and implement a policy to prohibit the possession or use of cell phones and other handheld communication devices during regular school hours.

Home instruction; parents; criteria. SB 83 (McGuire) would have removed the four enumerated criteria–holding a high school diploma, being a teacher of qualifications prescribed by the Board of Education, providing the child with a program of study or curriculum that may be delivered through a correspondence course or distance learning program or in any other manner, or providing evidence of the ability to provide an adequate education for the child–by which a parent is permitted to provide home instruction for his school-age child. The bill does not affect the requirement for such a parent to annually provide a description of the home instruction curriculum before the school year begins and evidence of the child's academic progress after the school year ends.

Prohibition on certain local government appointments. SB 136 (Head) would have prohibited a local governing body from appointing a spouse, child, stepchild, parent, stepparent, or grandparent of a governing body member as a member of any local government board, committee, or commission or as a member of a board of directors of a not-for-profit organization that receives funding from the locality. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in Senate Local Government.

Board of Education; out-of-school time programs; exemptions from licensure; conditions and requirements. SB 170 (Craig) would have exempted from licensure any out-of-school time program that (i) serves only school-age children; (ii) operates primarily after or before regular school hours, during the summer, or at times when school is not normally in session; (iii) is offered for the purpose of promoting expanded childhood learning and enrichment, child and youth development, or educational, recreational, or character-building activities; and (iv) receives and maintains Board of Education certification to operate without a license.  The bill would have provided that any Board-certified, license-exempt out-of-school time program that fails to comply with the conditions set forth in the bill shall receive from the Superintendent notice of such noncompliance with an explanation that if such noncompliance is not resolved within a reasonable period of the time, as determined by the Board, the Superintendent may, at his discretion, deny, suspend, or revoke such program's certification and require it to be licensed. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in Senate Education and Health.

Advertisement of legal notices; website. SB 200 (Diggs) would have allowed a locality to advertise legal notices on the locality's website instead of, or in addition to, publishing such notices in a newspaper having general circulation in the locality. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in Senate Local Government.

School board policies; alternative educational opportunities. SB 380 (Sturtevant) would have required each school board to create a process allowing a qualified student, as defined in the bill, to access funding set aside for alternative educational opportunities, as defined in the bill. The bill provides that the school boards must also determine if an alternative educational program qualifies as a means to earn class credit or satisfy a graduation requirement.

Virginia Freedom of Information Act; definition of "meeting." SB 415 (Stuart) would have amended the definition of "meeting" as it relates to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act to add an exception for local political party meetings. The bill was a recommendation of the FOIA Council.

Administrative Process Act; executive branch agencies. SB 473 (Hackworth) would have required executive branch agencies to ensure that certain regulations and guidance documents under the Virginia Register Act and Administrative Process Act, as appropriate, are posted on the Virginia Regulatory Town Hall according to instructions issued by the Department of Planning and Budget.

General Assembly; intergovernmental affairs; delegates to a convention for proposing amendments held under Article V of the Constitution of the United States. SB 527 (Sturtevant) would have provided for the selection by the General Assembly of delegates to attend a convention for proposing amendments held under Article V of the Constitution of the United States. The bill would have granted the General Assembly the power to recall delegates, appoint new delegates, and convene an advisory committee to oversee the conduct of delegates. The bill provided that delegates must take an oath to adhere to the instructions of the General Assembly.

Travel expenses; local officials. SB 549 (Perry) would have provided that any travel expense of a local official, as defined in the bill, to be paid from public funds, as defined in the bill, that is anticipated to exceed $5,000 shall be subject to approval in advance by a vote of the local governing body in an open meeting. The bill specifies that if the final travel expense exceeds the previously approved amount, such expense shall be reported to the governing body and noted in the meeting agenda or meeting minutes within 60 days of the determination. The bill requires a local official to repay to the locality any travel expense that the governing body determines such local official misappropriated within 10 days and to furnish a copy of any receipts for such expense at the next public meeting. The bill allows a locality to adopt more stringent standards for local officials' travel expenses.

Public schools; open school enrollment policies and guidance. SB 552 (Peake) would have required the Board of Education to develop and make available to each school board by August 1, 2024, model policies and guidance relating to open school enrollment detailing certain conditions, limitations, and procedures relating to the open enrollment process and nonresident students, defined as any student who is enrolled in a school within such student's school division but outside of the attendance area in which he resides pursuant to an open enrollment policy. The bill would have required each school board to establish and implement policies to provide for open enrollment in accordance with the model policies and guidelines developed by the Board. Current law permits, but does not require, each school board to establish and implement policies providing for open enrollment.

School choice educational savings accounts. SB 558 (DeSteph) would have permitted the parents of qualified students to apply to the Department of Education for a renewable school choice education savings account, consisting of a monetary amount that is equivalent to a certain percentage of all applicable annual Standards of Quality per pupil state funds appropriated for public school purposes and apportioned to the resident school division in which the qualified student resides, from which the parent of such student may use the funds to make education-related qualifying expenditures, including tuition, deposits, fees, and required textbooks and instructional materials, at (i) a private elementary or secondary school located in the Commonwealth, (ii) certain nonpublic online learning programs, and (iii) institutions of higher education and requires the Department of Education to establish certain policies, procedures, and processes relating to the savings accounts. The bill defined the term "qualified student" to provide for the annual expansion of the students who are eligible to receive savings accounts, from including for the 2024–2025 school year only students who meet a limited set of criteria and gradually expanding to declare eligible for the 2028–2029 school year and each year thereafter any student who (a) is deemed to reside in a school division in the Commonwealth, (b) for whom compulsory attendance is required pursuant to relevant law, (c) is eligible to enroll in a public elementary or secondary school in the Commonwealth, and (d) is entering kindergarten or was enrolled at and attended a public elementary or secondary school in the Commonwealth during the two semesters immediately preceding the semester for which the child's parent initially applies for a savings account. The bill contained several provisions relating to the terms and conditions to which the parent of any qualified student is required to agree to receive a savings account, requirements relating to renewal of savings accounts and the management of funds remaining when accounts are closed or become inactive, and the consequences of noncompliance with the terms and conditions. The bill also would have provided that the Department of Education shall be responsible for the administration of the savings accounts, including (1) making quarterly disbursements in the appropriate amount to each savings account and managing retained savings; (2) developing informational materials for interested parents relating to the savings accounts; and (3) developing policies and procedures relating to the administration and management of the savings accounts, the application process, quarterly reviews and annual audits of each savings account, and addressing incidents of intentional and substantial misrepresentation, fraud, or noncompliance in relation to expenditures from savings accounts.

Discharge plans; copies to public elementary and secondary schools. SB 575 (Obenshain) would have provided that, prior to the discharge of any minor admitted to inpatient treatment (i) who is a student at a public elementary or secondary school and (ii) for whom the facility deems (a) such discharge poses a threat of violence or physical harm to self and others or (b) additional educational services are needed, such facility is required to provide to the school's mental health professional or school counselor the portions of such discharge plan relevant to the threat of violence or harm or the necessary additional educational services. The bill would have required such facility to, prior to providing any such portions of any minor's discharge plan, provide to the parent of such minor student reasonable notice of the types of information that would be included in any portions of the discharge plan being provided and of the parent's right to, upon written request, refuse the provision of any such information. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Education.

Youth Health Protection Act established; civil penalty. SB 671 (Peake) would have created the Youth Health Protection Act, which makes it unlawful for any individual to provide gender transition procedures, defined in the bill, for minors and prohibits the use of public funds for gender transition procedures. The bill would have allowed parents, guardians, or custodians to withhold consent for any treatment, activity, or mental health care services that are designed and intended to form their child's conceptions of sex and gender or to treat gender dysphoria or gender nonconformity. The bill would have prohibited government agents, other than law-enforcement personnel, from encouraging or coercing a minor to withhold information from the minor's parent. The bill would have established a duty for a government agent with knowledge that a minor has exhibited symptoms of gender dysphoria or gender nonconformity or otherwise demonstrates a desire to be treated in a manner incongruent with the minor's sex to immediately notify each of the minor's parents, guardians, or custodians in writing, with descriptions of relevant circumstances. The bill would have prohibited discrimination against persons (i) providing information regarding violations of the Act to their employer or specified public entities or (ii) who make disclosures under the Act of information that evinces any violation of law, rule, or regulation; any violation of any standard of care or other ethical guidelines for the provision of health care service; or gross mismanagement, a gross waste of funds, an abuse of authority, or a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety. The bill would have established a civil action for any violation of the Act by a clinic, health care system, medical professional, or other responsible person with a two-year statute of limitations. The bill would have prohibited political subdivisions of the Commonwealth from enacting, adopting, maintaining, or enforcing any measure that interferes with the professional conduct and judgment of a mental health care professional or counselor undertaken within the course of treatment and communication with clients, patients, other persons, or the public. The bill would have provided for enforcement by the Attorney General or a mental health care professional or counselor through an action for injunctive relief and allows a mental health care professional to recover reasonable attorney fees and reasonable costs incurred in obtaining an injunction. The bill would have waived sovereign immunity to suit and immunity from liability under this statute.