2024 General Assembly Session

Xylazine; manufacturing; selling; giving; distributing; possessing; veterinary use exemption; penalties. HB 1187 (Hodges) and SB 614 (Pillion) provide that any person who knowingly manufactures, sells, gives, distributes, or possesses with the intent to manufacture, sell, give, or distribute the substance xylazine, when intended for human consumption, is guilty of a Class 5 felony. Under the bills, any person who knowingly possesses xylazine, when intended for human consumption, is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. Under the bills, it is not an offense to (i) manufacture xylazine for legitimate veterinary use; (ii) distribute or sell xylazine for authorized veterinary use; (iii) possess, administer, prescribe, or dispense xylazine in good faith for use by animals within the course of legitimate veterinary practice; or (iv) possess or administer xylazine pursuant to a valid prescription from a licensed veterinarian.

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.

Drug Control Act; Schedule I; Schedule II; Schedule IV; Schedule V. HB 1333 (Waschmann) and SB 111 (Peake) add certain chemicals to Schedules I, II, IV, and V of the Drug Control Act. The Board of Pharmacy has added these substances in an expedited regulatory process. A substance added via this process is removed from the schedule after 18 months unless a general law is enacted adding the substance to the schedule. HB 1333 incorporates HB 1450 (Thomas). 

Department of Criminal Justice Services; law-enforcement officers; interrogation practices. HB 250 (Glass) would have provided that the Department of Criminal Justice Services shall have the power and duty to establish a comprehensive framework for the custodial and noncustodial interrogation of adults and juveniles by law-enforcement officers within the Commonwealth, which shall include (i) developing policies and procedures for interrogation practices, including guidance on when the use of the following is considered lawful: (a) false promises of leniency, (b) misleading statements regarding evidence or statements of witnesses or co-conspirators, and (c) inauthentic replica documents or computer-generated audiovisual evidence; (ii) establishing and publishing a model policy for conducting such interrogations to serve as a guideline for criminal justice agencies in the Commonwealth; and (iii) establishing compulsory minimum training standards for basic training and recertification of law-enforcement officers on conducting such interrogations. The bill would have further provided that the Department establish and publish such model policy by January 1, 2025. The bill would have required any person employed as a law-enforcement officer prior to July 1, 2024, to complete the training required by the bill by January 1, 2028. Note that HB 250 passed the General Assembly but was vetoed by the Governor. 

Public elementary and secondary schools; student discipline; evidence-based restorative disciplinary practices. HB 398 (McQuinn) and SB 586 (Pekarsky) would have prohibited, except in certain cases involving specific offenses enumerated in applicable law or in cases in which the division superintendent or his designee finds that aggravating circumstances, as defined by the Department of Education, exist, any public elementary or secondary school student from being suspended, expelled, or excluded from attendance at school without first considering at least one evidence-based restorative disciplinary practice such as community conferencing, community service, mentoring, a peer jury, peer mediation, positive behavioral interventions and supports, a restorative circle, or the Virginia Tiered Systems of Supports. The bill also would have required the Department to add as part of the student behavior and administrative response collection required pursuant to relevant law the use of evidence-based restorative disciplinary practices as a behavioral intervention in order to evaluate the use and effectiveness of such practices. Note that both HB 398 and SB 586 passed the General Assembly but were vetoed by the Governor. 

Student bullying; definition; characteristics of victim. HB 536 (Cole) would have adjusted the definition of "bullying" in the context of public education to specify that the real or perceived power imbalance between the aggressor or aggressors and victim that is involved in the act of bullying includes such a power imbalance on the basis of the membership of the victim in a group that is protected from discrimination pursuant to the Virginia Human Rights Act. Note that HB 536 passed the General Assembly but was vetoed by the Governor. 

Student safety and discipline; certain reports to school principals and division superintendents; form and scope HB 573 (Henson) would have required local law-enforcement authorities to prepare in writing and provide to the principal or his designee and the division superintendent a report on (i) any suspected offense, offense for which any charge has been filed, or offense that is subject to investigation that was committed or is suspected to have been committed by a student enrolled at the school if the offense would be (a) a felony if committed by an adult, (b) a violation of the Drug Control Act and occurred on a school bus, on school property, or at a school-sponsored activity, or (c) an adult misdemeanor involving certain enumerated incidents and (ii) whether the student is released to the custody of his parent or, if 18 years of age or older, is released on bond. The bill requires division superintendents to report all such incidents to the Department of Education in an annual report that is made available to the public. Current law does not require such reports to be in writing and only applies to student offenses but does not specify whether such reports are required to be made for student offenses that are suspected, charged, or subject to investigation. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Education. 

Threats of death or bodily injury to persons on school property; penalty HB 752 (Walker) would have made it a Class 1 misdemeanor for any person to orally make a threat to kill or do serious bodily injury to any person, regarding that person, while that person is (i) on the grounds or premises of any elementary, middle, or secondary school property; (ii) at any elementary, middle, or secondary school-sponsored event; or (iii) on a school bus, when the threat places the person who is the object of the threat in reasonable apprehension of death or serious bodily injury to himself.

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 would have 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. Note that HB 767 failed while SB 619 was Continued to 2025 in Senate Education and Health.

Department of Education; uniform system of discipline for disruptive student behavior HB 853 (Obenshain) would have required the Department of Education to establish, within its regulations governing student conduct, and each school board to adhere to, a uniform system of discipline for disruptive behavior and the removal of a student from a class that includes, among other things, (i) criteria for teachers to remove disruptive students from their classes, including a requirement for a teacher to remove a disruptive student from a class if the disruptive behavior is violent and a requirement to implement a three-strike system for nonviolent disruptive behavior whereby a teacher is required to remove a student from a class if the student repeats or continues the nonviolent disruptive behavior after the teacher provides two warnings to the student; (ii) a prohibition against holding a teacher liable for taking reasonable actions or utilizing reasonable methods to control a physically disruptive or violently disruptive student; and (iii) appropriate exceptions and modifications for children with disabilities based on the unique needs of each such student.

Disorderly conduct; penalty HB 1319 (Kent) would have removed the prohibition on the applicability of the offense of disorderly conduct in public place to any elementary or secondary school student if the disorderly conduct occurred on the property of any elementary or secondary school, on a school bus, or at any activity conducted or sponsored by any elementary or secondary school.

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.

School boards; placement in alternative education programs; disclosure of certain information in delinquency cases SB 444 (Durant) would have authorized a court in which a disposition is entered or deferred in any proceeding where a student is charged with an offense that, pursuant to relevant law, is required to be disclosed to the superintendent of the school division in which the student is enrolled to, upon written request of any such division superintendent, provide a copy of the court order ordering any conditions upon such disposition or deferred disposition to such superintendent. The bill would have also provided that the division superintendent may, for any student charged with such offense and who is required to attend an alternative education program, request from the court, upon a showing of good cause, additional information that may be relevant to such student's placement in an alternative education program, including conditions that may have not been specified in the court order.

Budget Bill HB6001 (Torian) provides for all appropriations of the Budget submitted by the Governor of Virginia in accordance with the provisions of § 2.2-1509 of the Code of Virginia, and provides a portion of revenues for the two years ending respectively on the thirtieth day of June 2025 and the thirtieth day of June 2026.

Joint Subcommittee on Tax Policy

Language included in the budget directs the Joint Subcommittee on Tax Policy to explore efforts to modernize the Commonwealth’s income and sales and use taxes during the 2024 interim. The goals and objectives shall include: (i) evaluating existing sales and use tax exemptions; (ii) applying sales and use tax to digital goods and services, including transactions involving businesses; (iii) evaluating efforts to increase the progressivity of the income tax; (iv) and long-term revenue growth to maintain core government services.

Joint Subcommittee on Elementary and Secondary Education Funding

Language included in the budget directs the Joint Subcommittee on Elementary and Secondary Education Funding to review the recommendations and policy options offered in the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission's July 2023 report, “Virginia's K-12 Funding Formula"; determine the appropriateness of implementing each recommendation or policy option, propose appropriate amendments to each recommendation or policy option, and develop a long-range plan for the phased implementation of its recommendations. In its deliberations, the Joint Subcommittee shall consider the long-term fiscal implications of each recommendation. The Joint Subcommittee shall submit initial recommendations and an implementation plan to the Governor and the Chairs of the House Appropriations and Senate Finance and Appropriations Committees no later than November 1, 2024.

Item 117 #1c DOE - Redirect Funding for Student Mental Health Services

(This amendment redirects $7.2 million from the general fund each year for mental health and telehealth services in the introduced budget to other education initiatives and provides language for a statewide contract.)

117 #2c DOE - School-Based Mental Health Funding Plan (Language Only)

The Department of Education shall work collaboratively with the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services and the Department of Medical Assistance Services on a plan for creating a new program to deliver flexible mental health funds to divisions. The program should provide flexible funding to participating divisions for maintaining school-based mental health services and supports as well as technical assistance and evaluation capabilities to build out their mental health programs within a multi-tiered system of supports and consider maximizing existing funding and positions funded through the Standards of Quality such as specialized student support positions.  The Department of Education shall provide such plan to the Chairs of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee and the House Appropriations Committee and the Behavioral Health Commission no later than December 1, 2024.

Item 117 #3c DOE - Asian American History Education

Out of this appropriation, $100,000 the first year from the general fund is provided to identify and create model curriculum, tools, and resources to support local school divisions in teaching Asian American history, including the history of Virginians of Asian descent, as part of the History and Social Science Standards of Learning and supporting programming for Asian American and Pacific Islander History Month

117 #6c Virginia Language and Literacy Screening System for Grades PK-8

This amendment (i) provides $6.9 million the first year and $4.9 million the second year to develop and maintain the Virginia Language and Literacy Screening System (VALLS), (ii) provides $3.4 million each year to continue support for literacy coaching, technical assistance and professional development as required by the Virginia Literacy Act (VLA), (iii) authorizes the Virginia Literacy Partnership to collect fees from publishers to offset costs to review reading curriculum materials for alignment with the VLA, (iv) redirects existing funding related to the implementation of the VLA to the University of Virginia's Literacy Partnership, and (v) delays the implementation of literacy screener for grades 4-8 and associated literacy plans for one year. The amendment also directs remaining federal pandemic relief balances from Learning Acceleration Grants be used to supplant general funds in the first year. This represents a net increase of $5.7 million in fiscal year 2025 and $3.7 million in fiscal year 2026 from the amounts proposed in the introduced budget for implementation of the VLA.)

Item 117 #7c DOE - Statewide Contract for Attendance Recovery Services (language only)

This amendment directs the Superintendent of Public Instruction to enter a statewide contract with a provider experienced in attendance recovery services for at-risk students to assist public school divisions with outreach and support for disengaged, chronically absent, or struggling students. The provider should be able to scale up the number of students served if necessary based on demand from school divisions. School divisions may opt to purchase services through this contract."

Item 118 #1c Special Education: Parent Supports, Professional Development and Staff Coaching

This amendment provides $2.2 million each year from the general fund to implement provisions of House Bill 1089 and Senate Bill 220 related to establishing eight regional special education family support centers, provision of professional development, and ongoing special education coaching. The amendment also directs remaining federal pandemic relief balances from Learning Acceleration Grants be used to supplant general funds in the first year.

Item 119 #1c DOE - Defer New Assessment System

This amendment directs the Department to include in its annual report a plan to implement a new state assessment system, including a revised timeframe; estimated short- and long-term costs, including the costs to transition to the new system; staffing and training needs; key milestones; and project deliverables. The Department shall request the funding needed to implement the new contract for inclusion in the Governor's introduced budget bill for the 2025 Regular Session. The Department may consider issuing a request for information (RFI) as part of the process to better determine the costs and requirements of the new system. The Department shall submit the annual report no later than November 1, 2024.  Notwithstanding any contrary provisions of law, the Department of Education is authorized to extend current assessment contracts for one additional year to provide sufficient time for the Department to initiate procurement processes as necessary to select an assessment vendor." 

Item 120 #1c DOE - Restore Funding for the Office of School Quality

"S. 1. Out of this appropriation, $1,922,461 the first year and $1,922,461 the second year from the general fund is provided to the Office of School Quality to assist low performing schools.  2. The Department of Education shall submit an initial report that contains: (i) the level of staffing, amount of funding, and opportunities and challenges of the Office for FY 2023 and FY 2024; (ii) the planned organizational structure, staffing, and resource needs of the Office over the next five years; (iii) the goals and expected outcomes of the Office and how the Office will collaborate with staff and units within the Department of Education to support schools based on their specific needs; and (iv) a plan to evaluate the effectiveness of the Office, including feedback from school divisions and stakeholders to determine both the impact and quality of the assistance received.  The Superintendent shall submit the initial report by July 1, 2024, to the Chairs of the Senate Education and Health and Finance and Appropriations Committees, and the Chairs of the House Education and Appropriations Committees. The Superintendent shall submit a report on the progress of implementing the goals of the Office by June 1, 2025. 

Item 123 #1c DOE - Redirect Funding for Chief School Mental Health Officer

This amendment redirects $200,000 from the general fund each year and one position from the Chief School Mental Health Officer position in the introduced budget.

Item 123 #2c Office of Community Schools

This amendment provides $140,000 from the general fund each year for one position in the proposed Office of Community Schools. The Office of Community Schools shall provide an annual report and make it publicly available on its website that includes: the number of schools that have adopted the Community School framework; the status of these schools in implementing and evaluating the framework; an update and outcome of state grants awarded; and an assessment of the services provided by the Office to support schools. (HB 625/SB 608)

Item 123 #3c Fiscal Support for Joint Subcommittee on Elementary and Secondary Education Funding

This amendment provides $300,000 from the general fund each year and up to two positions to support the Joint Subcommittee on Elementary and Secondary Education Funding through increased staffing and contracted services. This is the subcommittee tasked with further review of the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission’s 2023 Virginia’s K-12 Funding Formula report. 

Item 124 #16c 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program

Out of this appropriation, $3,000,000 the first year and $2,000,000 the second year from the general fund is provided to supplement the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program in Item 126. These funds shall be awarded to community-based organizations partnering with school divisions for afterschool, before-school, and summer learning programs to provide additional instructional opportunities to combat learning loss for school-age children attending high-poverty, low-performing schools. The Department may contract with the Virginia Partnership for Out-of-School Time to assist applicants with obtaining the required licensure and to provide best practices and support to grantees.

Item 124 #19c National Teacher Certification Title I and CEP Schools

This amendment adds $500,000 from the general fund each year for incentive grants for teachers who are pursuing or have obtained a national certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and work in a Title 1 school or a school eligible for participation in the Community Eligibility Provision pursuant to § 22.1-207.4:1.  It is the intent of the General Assembly that the Department of Education provide bonuses from state funds to classroom teachers in Virginia's public schools who have obtained national certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and grants for candidates working in a Title I school or a school eligible for participation in the Community Eligibility Provision pursuant to § 22.1-207.4:1 who are candidates for initial national certification or maintenance of national certification (MOC) from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Any public school staff member who has obtained national certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards shall be eligible to receive an initial grant award of $5,000 and a subsequent award of $2,500 each year for the life of the certificate.  Any candidate (i) working in a Title 1 school or a school eligible for participation in the Community Eligibility Provision pursuant to § 22.1-207.4:1 and (ii) who is pursuing initial national certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards is eligible to apply to the Department for a grant to cover (a) half of the total initial national certification fee, equal to the sum of the cost of the four components and the registration fee for initial national certification, to be disbursed upon initial registration for such certification and (b) the remaining half of such total initial national certification fee to be disbursed upon successful achievement of initial national certification as verified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Any candidate (i) working in a Title 1 school or a school eligible for participation in the Community Eligibility Provision pursuant to § 22.1-207.4:1 and (ii) who is pursuing MOC from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards is eligible to apply to the Department for an incentive grant to cover the total MOC fee, equal to the sum of the cost of MOC and the registration fee for MOC, to be disbursed upon successful completion of the MOC process as verified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. By October 15 of each year, school divisions shall notify the Department of Education of the number of eligible candidates under contract for that school year that hold or are pursuing such certification.

Item 124 #21c Community Schools Development and Implementation Planning Grant

This amendment provides $2.5 million each year from the general fund for the Community Schools Development and Implementation Planning Grant program.

Item 124 #24c AP, IB, and Cambridge Exam Fee Reduction Program

Out of this appropriation, $750,000 the first year and $750,000 the second year from the general fund is provided for the Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), and Cambridge Assessment International Education Exam Fee Reduction Program (the Program) for the purpose of covering all but $20 of the last dollar cost of applicable fees associated with taking an AP, IB or Cambridge examination for any public high school student who is eligible to receive free or reduced price lunch after all other applicable discounts and financial assistance are taken into account. For students attending a school participating in the Community Eligibility Provision, eligibility shall be based on an individual student's family income. The Program shall be administered by the Department. Pursuant to the Program, the Department shall annually transfer to each local school board a grant in a sum sufficient to cover such portion of such fees for each such student in the local school division. The Department shall establish such rules, policies, and procedures as it deems necessary or appropriate for the administration of the Program, including an annual process whereby each local school board demonstrates its grant funding needs. Each local school board shall provide notification to eligible students and parents of the availability of this assistance at the time of enrollment in a course associated with such examination and at the time of test registration of the opportunity for the student to take an AP, IB or Cambridge examination at such reduced fee.

Item 124 #26c Restore Critical National Security Language Grant Program

Out of this appropriation, $250,000 the first year and $250,000 the second year from the general fund is provided for the Critical National Security Language Grant program. The department shall create and publish an application and process for local school divisions to apply for the existing funding by October 1, 2024.

Item 125 #2c Direct Aid - At Risk Add On Program Revisions

This amendment provides $186.7 million the first year and $184.6 million the second year from the general fund to (i) consolidate SOQ Prevention, Intervention, and Remediation and At-Risk Add-On incentive funding into a single At-Risk Add-On funding program, (ii) transition the proxy used to estimate the number of at-risk students from federal free lunch rates to federal Identified Student Percentage rates, using a multiplier of 1.25 plus one-quarter of English learner students, (iii) distributes an 11.0 percent add on to basic aid funding per at-risk student, and (iv) distributes a variable add on between 0 percent and 37 percent to basic aid funding per At-Risk student based on the concentration of At-Risk students in the school division relative to all other school divisions. This amendment addresses in part recommendations 8, 9, and 10 from JLARC's 2023 report, "Virginia's K-12 Funding Formula.”

Item 125 #3c Direct Aid - ELL Staffing Ratios Based on Student Proficiency Level

This amendment provides $37.9 million the first year and $43.7 million the second year to implement staffing standards for English Learner students based on student proficiency level, in lieu of the current standard that provides one position per 50 identified EL students. Flexibility is provided during the first year to implement this new standard to only require one-half of the additional positions. The number of such English Learner teacher positions required pursuant to the Standards of Quality are as established below:                         

EL Student Proficiency Level One: 1 position per 20 EL students

EL Student Proficiency Level Two: 1 position per 30 EL students

EL Student Proficiency Level Three: 1 position per 40 EL students

EL Student Proficiency Level Four: 1 position per 50 EL students

All Other Identified EL Students: 1 position per 100 EL students

Item 125 #4c Direct Aid - School Breakfast

This amendment provides $2.4 million from the general fund the first year and $2.7 million from the general fund the second year to increase the per meal reimbursement amount from $0.22 to $0.28 for the state funded incentive program to maximize federal school nutrition revenues and increase participation in the school breakfast program.

Item 125 #5c Direct Aid - Literary Fund School Construction Loans (language only)

This amendment authorizes the Department of Education to offer $250.0 million in school construction loans from the Literary Fund over the biennium and directs the Board of Education to revise its schedule of interest rates to be fully responsive to market rates while providing reasonably discounted interest rates.

Item 125 #10c Direct Aid - Restore General Fund Payment in Lieu of Sales Tax

This amendment provides $121.3 million the first year and $121.8 million the second year from the general fund to restore and reforecast the general fund payments provided in lieu of the K-12 dedicated sales tax on grocery and personal hygiene products that would have been collected had the tax not been eliminated effective January 1, 2023. The amount of these general fund payments is updated to $272.5 million the first year and $273.6 million in the second year. These payments reduce the state's share of basic aid by $151.1 million the first year and $151.7 million the second year.

Item 125 #14c Direct Aid - Adjust Group Life Insurance

This amendment adjusts the group life insurance rate from 1.34% to the 1.18% actuarial rate approved by the VRS Board, resulting in general fund savings of $3.0 million the first year and $3.1 million the second year.

Item 125 #15c Direct Aid - Three Percent Compensation Supplement Each Year

This amendment provides $178.1 million the first year and $361.0 million the second year from the general fund to provide the state's share of two 3.0 percent salary increases provided on July 1, 2024 and July 1, 2025.

Item 125.10 #1c Early Childhood Care and Education

This amendment establishes a new item for Early Childhood Care and Education, consolidating appropriations for the Child Care Subsidy Program, Mixed Delivery Program, and Virginia Preschool Initiative, and provides support for these programs, including an additional $8.9 million the first year and $40.9 million the second year from the general fund and $25.0 the first year in nongeneral funds beyond the amounts proposed in the introduced budget.  The amendment also restores the VPI composite index funding cap at .5000.

Item 471 #1c Paid Family and Medical Leave Study (language only)

The Virginia Employment Commission (the Commission), in collaboration with the Department of Human Resource Management, the Compensation Board, the Virginia Department of Education, and the Department of Planning and Budget, shall update its November 2021 Virginia Paid Family and Medical Leave study, as authorized by Item 111 of Chapter 1289 of the Acts of Assembly of 2020, to include an assessment of the budgetary impacts of extending application of paid family and medical leave benefits as contemplated in Senate Bill 373 of the 2024 General Assembly to exempt individuals, while maintaining the benefits provided in § 2.2-1210 of the Code of Virginia for state employees. Such assessment shall also examine (i) the number of exempt individuals that would receive expanded family and medical leave benefits; (ii) the budgetary impact and salary impact associated with providing each type of benefit to each class of employee described in clause (i); and (iii) the budgetary impact on state direct aid to public education. The Commission shall submit the updated study to the Chairs of the House Committee on Appropriations and the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriations on or before December 1, 2024. "Exempt individuals" for the purpose of this study means a state employee, the treasurer, commissioner of the revenue, attorney for the Commonwealth, clerk of a circuit court, sheriff of any county or city, regional jail superintendent or regional jail officer, or local director of finance, or deputy or employee of any such officer, or an employee of a local school division.

Item 472 #1c Remaining ARPA Balances (language only)

This amendment provides instructions for any returned funding from the American Rescue Plan Act. In addition, this amendment advances the deadline for school divisions to obligate ARPA-SLRF ventilation grants issued in January 2022 from December 31, 2024 to July 1, 2024 to ensure these federal pandemic relief funds can be expended prior to their expiration on December 31, 2024. Item 125.10 assumes $25.0 million in ARPA-SLRF funds will be reverted to support the Child Care Subsidy Program as a result of this action.

The adopted budget retains items from the Governor’s Introduced Budget, including the biennial re-benchmark, updates in sales tax and lottery revenues, and updates to the Local Composite Index.  The budget also retains expanded state funding for reading specialists through eighth grade.  The adopted budget reverses actions proposed in the Governor’s Introduced Budget related to sales tax base expansion to digital goods sales, the Diploma Plus Program (Item 125 #16c), to a proposed one-time deposit in FY2025 to the VRS teacher retirement fund (Item 125 #17c), and to propose additional funding for College Partnership Laboratory Schools (Item 125 #18c).

Budget Bill HB6002 (Torian) amends Chapter 2 of the Acts of Assembly of 2022, Special Session I, as amended by Chapter 769 of the Acts of Assembly of 2023, as further amended by Chapter 1 of the Acts of Assembly of 2023, Special Session I (the “caboose” budget, finalizing FY2024)

College Laboratory Partnership Laboratory Schools

Language included in the budget allows institutions not otherwise eligible to operate a college partnership laboratory school (two year institutions and non-public institutions) to operate lab school in partnership with an eligible institution. The budget also requires college partnership laboratory schools to reach financial sustainability by the end of their initial approval period additional state funding other than state funds received by a school division in support of Direct Aid for Public Education is required to support ongoing operations after the first contract renewal, and submit supporting information to the Board of Education demonstrating progress toward financial sustainability.  The Board of Education shall report annually by November 1 on progress of college laboratory schools in meeting this financial sustainability requirement.

Annual retail sales and use tax holiday HB 25 (Reid) and SB 116 (Lucas) establish an annual retail sales and use tax holiday that takes place on the first full weekend in August beginning on July 1, 2025, through July 1, 2030. During such weekend, state retail sales and use tax will not apply to certain (i) school supplies, (ii) clothing and footwear, (iii) qualified products designated as Energy Star or WaterSense, (iv) portable generators, or (v) hurricane preparedness equipment.

Virginia Public Procurement Act; competitive negotiation; exceptions to contractual terms and conditions of the Request for Proposal HB 242 (Bulova) and SB 242 (McPike) remove the prohibition on a public body from requiring an offeror to state in a proposal any exception to any liability provisions contained in a Request for Proposal for information technology. The bills also require an offeror to state any exception to any contractual terms or conditions in writing at the time of responding to such Request for Proposal, if so requested by the public body, which exception shall be considered during negotiations, but prohibits the public body from basing the scoring or evaluation on such exceptions when selecting offerors for negotiations. Current law only prohibits a public body from requiring an offeror to state in a proposal any exception to the liability provisions of the Request for Proposal. 

Virginia Public Procurement Act; local public bodies; electronic submissions of bids or proposals HB 311 (Hope) mandates that all local public bodies provide an option to submit bids or proposals for procurement contracts through the Commonwealth's statewide electronic procurement system, known as eVA, or other electronic means. Current law only encourages local public bodies to use eVA for such submissions. The bill has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2025. 

School boards; unexpended local funds; capital reserve fund permitted HB 599 (Simonds) permits any school board, with the concurrence of the local governing body, to establish a capital reserve fund as a savings account into which it exclusively deposits the local operating funds that remain unexpended at the end of the year for future school division capital expenditures at no additional cost to local taxpayers, subject to certain conditions enumerated in the bill.

Virginia Public Procurement Act; construction management and design-build contracting HB 1108 (Carr) and SB 18 (Locke) requires state public bodies, covered institutions, and local public bodies to provide documentation of the processes used for the final selection of a construction contract to all the unsuccessful applicants upon request. The bills add certain requirements for covered institutions, including posting all documents that are open to public inspection exchanged between the Department of General Services and the covered institution on the central electronic procurement website eVA. The bills require approval by a majority vote of the covered institution's board of visitors or governing board if the covered institution chooses to proceed with construction management or design-build against the recommendation of the Department for (i) projects funded by funds other than those provided from the state general fund or (ii) projects of $65 million or more funded in whole or in part from state general funds. For projects under $65 million funded in whole or in part by state general funds, the bills provide that the covered institution shall obtain approval from the Chairmen of the House Committee on Appropriations and the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriations, or their designees, and a representative of the Department.  The bills require a local public body to adopt a resolution or motion to use construction management or design-build, if required by its local governing body, prior to issuing a Request for Qualifications and to publish notice of such resolution or motion on its website or eVA. The bills provide that the Department shall report annually, for any construction management or design-build project, on the qualifications that made such project complex. Finally, the bills require the Department, with the assistance of staff of the House Committee on Appropriations and the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriations, to assess the implementation and administration of construction management and design-build projects and report its findings and recommendations to the General Assembly by November 1, 2029. Note that HB 1108 incorporated HB 965 (Lopez) and SB 18 incorporated SB 249 (McPike). 

Virginia Public Procurement Act; job order contracting; limitations HB 1113 (Carr) increases from $6 million to $10 million the maximum threshold above which the sum of all jobs performed in a one-year job order contract term shall not exceed. The bill also increases the maximum threshold amount for any individual job order from $500,000 to $1 million. Finally, the bill increases from two to three the number of additional one-year terms for which job order contracts may be renewable, and the bill only applies to contracts entered into on or after the bill's effective date.

Virginia Public Procurement Act; methods of procurement; certain construction projects HB 1116 (Carr) allows a public body to establish purchase procedures, if adopted in writing, not requiring competitive sealed bids or competitive negotiation for single or term contracts for non-transportation-related construction projects if the aggregate or the sum of all phases is not expected to exceed $300,000. Current law places the limit at $200,000.

Virginia Public Procurement Act; Virginia resident preference HB 1361 (Feggans) and SB 260 (DeSteph) provide preference as it relates to procurement for a bidder who is a resident of Virginia and then a bidder whose goods are produced in the United States. For the procurement of goods by manufacturers, when the lowest responsive and responsible bidder is not a resident of Virginia and the bid of any Virginia resident is within 10 percent of such bid, the bills give the lowest responsive and responsible bidder that is a Virginia resident the option to match the price of the lowest responsive and responsible bidder. Furthermore, if the lowest responsive and responsible bidder is a resident of another state and such state allows a resident a percentage preference or price-matching preference for the procurement of goods, the bill grants a like preference to responsive and responsible bidders who are residents of Virginia. Under the bills, an eligible bidder that is a Virginia resident shall be granted the greater of either preference. The bills exempt a public body from the provisions of the bill if such public body is rendered ineligible to receive federal funding due to the provisions of the bill. The bills have an expiration date of July 1, 2027. Finally, the bills direct the Department of General Services to report to the General Assembly regarding the bill's efficacy, including any retaliatory action taken by other states, no later than the first day of the 2025 Regular Session. Note that HB 1361 incorporates HB 164 (Keys-Gamarra), HB 341 (Thomas) and HB 1154 (Sickles).

Study; Department of Housing and Community Development; tax implications of implementing a land value tax; report HJ 40 (Shin) would have directed the Department of Housing and Community Development to study tax implications of local governing bodies implementing a land value tax.

Minimum wage HB 1 (Ward) and SB 1 (Lucas) would have increased the minimum wage from the current rate of $12.00 per hour to $13.50 per hour effective January 1, 2025, and to $15.00 per hour effective January 1, 2026. The bill satisfied a reenactment clause included in Chapters 1204 and 1242 of the Acts of Assembly of 2020. Note that both HB 1 and SB 1 passed the General Assembly but were vetoed by the Governor.

Annual retail sales and use tax holiday HB 138 (Green) would have established an annual retail sales and use tax holiday to take place on the first full weekend in August beginning on August 1, 2025. During such weekend, state retail sales and use tax would not apply to certain (i) school supplies, (ii) clothing and footwear, (iii) qualified products designated as Energy Star or WaterSense, (iv) portable generators, or (v) hurricane preparedness equipment.

Average teacher salary in the Commonwealth; national average HB 187 (Clark) and SB 104 (Lucas) would have required the Governor's introduced budget bills for the 2025, 2026, and 2027 Regular Sessions of the General Assembly to propose funding for, and state funding to be provided pursuant to the general appropriation act enacted during any regular or special session of the General Assembly during 2025, 2026, or 2027 to fund, the Commonwealth's share of compensation supplement incentives for Standards of Quality-funded instructional and support positions sufficient to increase the average teacher salary in the Commonwealth to at least the national average teacher salary by the end of the 2026–2028 biennium and establishes a detailed timeline and process for satisfying such requirement.  Note that both HB 187 and SB 104 were passed by the General Assembly but were vetoed by the Governor.

Virginia Small Business Economic Development Act established; regulation of skill game machines; penalties. SB 212 (Rouse) would have established the Virginia Small Business Economic Development Act for the purpose of providing a regulatory and registration scheme for skill game machines in the Commonwealth. The bill would have authorized and specified the registration requirements for the distribution, operation, hosting, and play of skill game machines, as defined in the bill. The bill would have imposed a 25 percent tax on the gross receipts from the play of each skill game machine from each distributor and provides for the use of such tax proceeds, with most being deposited into the PreK-12 Priority Fund, established in the bill. The bill would have directed the Virginia Lottery Board to promulgate regulations no later than January 1, 2027, to implement the provisions of the bill and authorizes the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority to grant a provisional registration, beginning July 1, 2024, to any entity that provides a laboratory certification from a laboratory approved by the Authority that the game being distributed, operated, or placed in an establishment meets the definition and requirements of a skill game machine.  Note that SB 212 passed the General Assembly but was vetoed by the Governor.

Virginia Public Procurement Act; participation by veteran-owned small businesses HB 381 (Feggans) would have required all public bodies to include in their goals for participation by small businesses a minimum of five percent participation by veteran-owned businesses and service disabled veteran-owned businesses. Current law only requires a goal of three percent participation by service disabled veteran-owned businesses and does not impose such goal upon local public bodies. The bill would have also required the Department of General Services to update the eVA portal to include a category for veteran-owned and service disabled veteran-owned small businesses that is conspicuous to the general public to easily display and search set-aside opportunities for such businesses.

Sales tax; exemption for food purchased for human consumption and essential personal hygiene products HB 540 (McNamara) would have provided an exemption from local sales and use tax beginning July 1, 2024, for food purchased for human consumption and essential personal hygiene products. The bill would have also provided an allocation of state revenues to fund the distribution to localities for funding that would have been distributed to them absent the exemption created by the bill. Under current law, such products are exempt from state sales and use tax but are subject to the standard local rate of one percent. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Finance.

Public school funds; state share for basic aid; basic aid and supplemental basic aid payment limit HB 702 (Webert) would have removed the cap on an adjustment of the state share of aid provided to a school division, which limited such adjustment to the sum of the basic aid payment and any supplemental basic aid payment appropriated to such locality by the 2007 Session of the General Assembly.

Virginia Public Procurement Act; prohibition on boycotting Israel HB 758 (Walker) and SB 604 (McGuire) would have required all public bodies to include in every contract in excess of $100,000 with a business that employs more than 10 employees and in every subcontract or purchase order in excess of $10,000 a provision that states that during the performance of the contract, neither the contracting business nor any of its affiliates shall engage in a boycott of Israel.

Additional local sales and use tax to support schools; referendum HB 805 (Rasoul) and SB 14 (McPike) would have authorized all counties and cities to impose an additional local sales and use tax at a rate not to exceed one percent with the revenue used only for capital projects for the construction or renovation of schools if such levy is approved in a voter referendum. The bill would have removed the requirement that such a tax must have an expiration date on either (i) the date of the repayment of any bonds or loans used for such capital projects or (ii) a date chosen by the governing body. Under current law, only Charlotte, Gloucester, Halifax, Henry, Mecklenburg, Northampton, Patrick, and Pittsylvania Counties and the City of Danville are authorized to impose such a tax. NOTE: This legislation incorporated HB 60 (Wright), HB 193 (Cole), HB 458 (Callsen), HB 600 (Kilgore), HB 616 (Price), HB 1159 (Sickles) and HB 1437 (Hayes). Note that both HB 805 and SB 14 passed the General Assembly but were vetoed by the Governor.

Certain school divisions; cost-savings agreements; requirements HB 1029 (Runion) and SB 468 (Obenshain) would have removed the limitation on any school board that enters into certain cost-savings agreements with a school board that governs a contiguous school division for the consolidation or sharing of educational, administrative, or support services and thus qualifies for adjustment of state share of basic aid computed annually on the basis of the composite index of local ability-to-pay of such contiguous school division that caps such adjusted basic aid payment at an amount equal to the basic aid payment appropriated to such locality by the 2007 Session of the General Assembly. The bill would have also permitted, notwithstanding the requirement set forth in relevant law that a school division has 65 percent or more of its local taxes coming from real estate taxes in order for the school board that governs such school division to be eligible to enter into such cost-savings agreements with a contiguous school division, the Bath County School Board to enter into such cost-savings agreements with the Augusta County School Board, provided that all other conditions and limitations set forth in relevant law apply to any such agreement. HB 1029 and SB 468 were Continued to 2025 in House Education and Senate Education and Health, respectively.

Cost of competing adjustment; eligibility; certain school boards HB 1033 (Bloxom) would have provided that the Accomack County School Board and the Northampton County School Board are eligible to receive the cost of competing adjustment to salaries for instructional and support positions as part of the state share of basic aid pursuant to the general appropriation act. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Appropriations.

Virginia Public Procurement Act; professional services; definition HB 1101 (Wiley) would have added to the definition of "professional services," for use throughout the Virginia Public Procurement Act, services of an investment and financial advisor procured by the Department of the Treasury. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in Senate Finance and Appropriations.

Virginia Public Procurement Act; construction management and design-build contracting; applicability HB 1191 (Sickles) would have stated that design-bid-build, defined in the bill, utilizing competitive sealed bidding is the preferred method of procurement for construction services in the Commonwealth. Complex projects, defined in the bill, may request an exemption from the provisions of the bill and relevant law from the Division of Engineering and Buildings of the Department of General Services. The bill would have required all documents related to the proposed use of construction management or design-build by state public bodies and institutions of higher education and any available subcontractor opportunities to be posted on eVA. The bill would have transferred from the Department of General Services to the Division of Engineering and Buildings the authority to evaluate the proposed use of construction management or design-build by state public bodies and institutions of higher education and specifies that a local governing body must approve at a public meeting the use of construction management or design-build by a local public body. Finally, the bill would have prohibited state public bodies, institutions of higher education, and local governing bodies from considering prior construction management or design-build experience of contractors on comparable projects.

Eligible educator income tax deduction; home school instruction income tax credit HB 1234 (Earley) would have increased from $500 to $1,500 for tax years 2024 through 2026 the amount of income tax deduction certain eligible educators may deduct for qualifying expenses. The bill would have also created a nonrefundable tax credit for taxable years 2024 through 2028 for amounts paid by an individual or married couple filing jointly for their child receiving home instruction for (i) instruction-related materials, including textbooks, workbooks, and supplies, or (ii) courses or programs used in home instruction. The bill would have provided that the credit equals the lesser of the amount actually paid during the year for such costs or $3,000.

Home instruction and private school tax credit HB 1275 (Higgins) would have created an individual, nonrefundable income tax credit for taxable years 2024 through 2028 for amounts paid by the parent or legal guardian of a child for the child's home instruction expenses or tuition for attending an accredited private school in Virginia. The bill would have provided that a taxpayer shall be allowed a credit up to $2,500 that is equal to the lesser of the amount actually paid in the taxable year for such costs or half of the average state standards of quality funding per student per year. The bill would have provided that the credit may be taken for instruction-related materials, courses, or programs used in home instruction or for private school tuition. The bill would have provided that the credit is available for two years per child and can be carried forward for five taxable years.

Virginia Public Procurement Act; local arbitration agreements HB 1371 (Simon)­ would have allowed a participating locality, for any procurement solicitation or contract exceeding $10,000 for goods and services, to require the bidder or offeror to disclose certain information regarding pre-dispute arbitration clauses, defined in the bill, in employment, civil rights, and certain consumer disputes, and provides that a locality may consider the policies and practices related to arbitration of each bidder and offeror. The bill also would have provided that a participating locality shall require the bidder or offeror to provide written or electronic submissions to allow the locality to ascertain (i) whether the bidder or offeror requires persons with whom it is in a work relationship or prospective work relationship to sign or otherwise enter into a contract containing a pre-dispute arbitration clause that would cover an employment or civil rights dispute and (ii) whether the bidder or offeror requires consumers to sign or otherwise enter into a contract containing a pre-dispute arbitration clause as a condition of downloading mobile applications or using websites to pay a school district for goods, services, or fees. The bill would have authorized a participating locality to cancel, terminate, or suspend, in whole or in part, the contract of any contractor that has violated a provision of the bill and to declare the contractor ineligible for further contracts with such locality for up to five years. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House General Laws.

Virginia Public Procurement Act; public works contracts; project labor agreements HB 1440 (Wiley) would have removed the statutory authority for any public body, including any state or local government, when engaged in procuring products or services or letting contracts for construction, manufacture, maintenance, or operation of public works, to require bidders to enter into or adhere to project labor agreements on the public works projects.

Sales tax; exemption for food purchased for human consumption and essential personal hygiene products SB 110 (Sutterlein) would have provided an exemption from local sales and use tax beginning July 1, 2024, for food purchased for human consumption and essential personal hygiene products. The bill would have also provided an allocation of state revenues to fund the distribution to localities for funding that would have been distributed to them absent the exemption created by the bill. Under current law, such products are exempt from state sales and use tax but are subject to the standard local rate of one percent.

Virginia Public Procurement Act; procurement of electric vehicles; forced and child labor prohibition SB 492 (Stanley) would have prohibited public bodies from awarding contracts to acquire an electric vehicle or electric vehicle component from a business unless such business provides a sworn declaration from the manufacturer of such electric vehicle or electric vehicle component certifying that every person involved in the production of such electric vehicle or electric vehicle component and every person involved in the sourcing, manufacturing, or mining of the material used in such electric vehicle or electric vehicle component did not use forced labor or oppressive child labor, both terms defined in the bill, in the sourcing, manufacturing, or mining of such electric vehicle or electric vehicle component. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in Senate General Laws and Technology.

Taxation SB 632 (Stuart) would have decreased, beginning in taxable year 2025, the income tax imposed (i) on income less than $3,000, from two percent to 1.75 percent; (ii) on income in excess of $3,000 but less than $5,000, from three percent to 2.65 percent; (iii) on income in excess of $5,000 but less than $17,000, from five percent to 4.4 percent; and (iv) on income in excess of $17,000, from 5.75 percent to 5.1 percent.  The bill would have increased from 20 to 25 percent, beginning in taxable year 2025, the amount of credit eligible taxpayers may claim pursuant to the income tax credit for low-income taxpayers. The bill would have also increased the annual aggregate amount of Education Improvement Scholarships tax credits that are available from $25 million to $30 million beginning fiscal year 2025 and each fiscal year thereafter. The bill would have defined "digital personal property," "streaming," and "taxable service" for the purposes of the retail sales and use tax. The bill would have increased the sales and use tax from 4.3 percent to 5.2 percent. Amendments were made throughout the bill to impose the sales and use tax on taxable services in addition to tangible personal property. The bill would have required that one half of the additional sales and use tax revenues generated by taxable services and digital personal property that is deposited in the Commonwealth Transportation Fund be distributed to the Transportation Partnership Opportunity Fund, and the additional one half of such revenues be distributed to the Interstate 81 Corridor Improvement Fund until June 30, 2031, or until $400 million has been deposited in the Interstate 81 Corridor Improvement Fund. Certain provisions of the bill had a delayed effective date of January 1, 2025. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in Senate Finance and Appropriations.

Virginia Public Procurement Act; competitive sealed bidding; required criteria in invitations to bid SB 647 (Carrol Foy) would have required all public bodies to include in any Invitation to Bid criteria that will be used in determining whether a bidder who is not prequalified by the Virginia Department of Transportation is a responsible bidder. Current law authorizes, but does not require, localities to include such criteria in Invitations to Bid.

Health education Standards of Learning; severe allergic reaction awareness training. HB 121 (Sullivan) requires the Board of Education to include in the Standards of Learning for health education for grade nine and grade 10 an in-person or online severe allergic reaction awareness training that includes certain topics enumerated in the bill. The bill requires each school board to incorporate such severe allergic reaction awareness training into any health education instruction provided at grades nine and 10 beginning with the school year following the Board of Education's adoption of the revised Standards of Learning for health education for grades nine and 10 incorporating such severe allergic reaction awareness training and directs the Board to, in the intermediary time, develop and post on its website guidance documents for the purpose of making such severe allergic reaction awareness training available to school boards.

Opioids; DOE to develop education materials concerning risks HB 134 (Convirs-Fowler) requires the Department of Education, in consultation with such stakeholders and experts as it deems necessary or appropriate, to develop and submit to the Chairs of the House Committee on Education and the Senate Committee on Education and Health by November 1, 2024, (i) age-appropriate and evidence-based education materials concerning the risks to health and safety that are posed by opioids and (ii) guidelines for school boards for incorporating such education materials into instructional programs for students enrolled in the local school division.

Title IX and sexual harassment prevention training modules; 9th/10th grade students HB 215 (Watts) requires the Department of Education to develop culturally appropriate, age appropriate, and trauma-informed Title IX and sexual harassment prevention training modules concerning Title IX rights and protections, consent, and sexual harassment prevention and reporting and to make such training modules available to each school board for the education of ninth and tenth grade students. The bill also requires the Department to revise these training modules no later than December 31 of each year to ensure that such training modules comply with applicable state and federal law. The bill also permits each school board to (i) adopt policies to require all students in the ninth and tenth grades to complete the sexual harassment training modules, (ii) allow all such students to opt-out of participation in the completion of such training modules by request of the student's parents if such student is under the age of 18, or by request of the student if such student is 18 years of age or older, and (iii) ensure that all such students are provided information about school counseling services and the supportive measure and formal complaint procedures that are available to them. Finally, the bill requires (a) the Department to develop and make available to each school board such training modules by July 1, 2025; and (b) each school board to adopt policies to implement such training modules by the beginning of the 2025–2026 school year.

Child day programs; use of office buildings, waiver of zoning requirements HB 281 (Reaser) and SB 13 (Favola) permit any locality to by ordinance provide for the waiver of any requirements for zoning permits for the operation of a child day program in an office building, as defined by the bill, provided that such facility satisfies the requirements for state licensure as a child day program. 

Voluntarily registered family day homes; safe sleep practices; checklist HB 358 (Simonds) requires the Department of Education to update its Voluntary Registration Health and Safety Checklist for any voluntarily registered family day home to include safe sleep practices.

Child Care Subsidy Program; categorical eligibility for certain families HB 407 (Hernandez) provides that any family that receives public assistance through Medicaid or the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children shall be deemed to categorically satisfy income eligibility requirements to receive assistance through the Child Care Subsidy Program

Early childhood care and education system; need- and demand-based funding HB 419 (Bulova) and SB 54 (Locke) require, for the purpose of addressing family demand and preferences for affordable, high-quality early childhood care and education services, state general funds to be provided to support the provision of services to families for early childhood care and education, as specified in the general appropriations act. The bills require the Department of Education to report each year by November 15 on the projected general funds needed for the upcoming two fiscal years based on cost of quality rate per child in order to (i) maintain the current number of slots at early childhood care and education programs, (ii) increase the number of slots using a projected growth report, and (iii) increase the number of slots to fully accommodate parent demand and eliminate waitlists. The bills require such projected general funds to be based on the annual per-child cost, determined as set forth in the bill, for the Virginia Preschool Initiative, the Mixed Delivery Program, and the Child Care Subsidy Program, the current eligibility criteria for such programs, and maximization of certain regularly recurring federal funds. The bills require each regional entity established by the Board of Education pursuant to applicable law, each local school division, and each locality to annually indicate the number of slots needed, respectively, in the region for the Mixed Delivery Program, the local school division for the Virginia Preschool Initiative, and the locality for the Child Care Subsidy Program. The bills require the Department of Education to (a) reallocate by July 1 any slots with available funding from the Child Care Subsidy Program and the Mixed Delivery Program, (b) make adjustments based on family preferences following the fall enrollment periods, and (c) first expend all current-year state general funds in providing funding for slots.

TANF; child care services; reporting; repeal HB 472 (Gardner) repeals the requirement that the Department of Social Services (i) identify strategies for Virginia to obtain the maximum amount of federal funds available for child care services for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program recipients and families whose incomes are at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty level and (ii) provide an annual report on these strategies to the Chairmen of the House Committees on Appropriations and on Health, Welfare and Institutions and the Senate Committees on Finance and Appropriations and on Rehabilitation and Social Services.

Public elementary and secondary schools; health instruction, certain topics relating to mental health. HB 603 (Price) requires health instruction provided to elementary and secondary school students to include certain topics relating to mental health that are enumerated in the bill, including (i) general themes of life skills, including self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision making, relationship skills, and social awareness; (ii) signs and symptoms of common mental health challenges; and (iii) mental health wellness and healthy strategies for coping with stress and negative feelings, including conflict resolution skills.

Virginia STEM Education Advisory Board; purpose and duties, historically underrepresented students HB 615 (Price) expands the purpose of the Virginia Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education Advisory Board to include promoting the participation of historically underrepresented students, as defined in the bill, in primary and secondary schools in STEM education. The bill expands the duties of the Board to effectuate this additional purpose. 

Public education; student literacy measures HB 647 Coyner and SB 624 (Lucas) clarify several provisions of the Virginia Literacy Act (the Act), enacted during the 2022 Regular Session of the General Assembly and effective with the 2024-2025 school year, including (i) clarifying that the term "evidence-based literacy instruction" does not include practices that instruct students to gain meaning from print through the use of (a) three-cueing, which includes semantic, syntactic, and graphophonic cues; (b) meaning, structure, and visual cues; or (c) visual memory for word recognition; (ii) removing the option to use a literacy screener approved by the Department of Education for certain purposes enumerated in the Act; (iii) requiring the Department to develop a list of core literacy curricula for students in kindergarten through grade five and supplemental instruction practices and programs and intervention programs for students in kindergarten through grade eight that consist of evidence-based literacy instruction aligned with science-based reading research; and (iv) requiring each divisionwide literacy plan to address how the local school board will align (a) core reading and literacy curriculum for students in kindergarten through grade five and (b) screening, supplemental instruction, and interventions for students in kindergarten through grade eight with evidence-based literacy instruction practices aligned with science-based reading research. 

Public high schools; SOL curriculum guidelines for research-based hazing prevention instruction HB 719 (Reaser) and SB 379 (Boysko) require the Board of Education to develop Standards of Learning and curriculum guidelines for research-based hazing prevention instruction to be provided as a part of physical or health education instruction provided to students in grade nine or 10. The bills require such hazing prevention instruction to include age-appropriate, extensive, and current education about hazing, including (i) examples of hazing; (ii) the dangers of hazing, including the consequences of alcohol intoxication; and (iii) school policies and laws related to hazing, including criminal penalties and bystander intervention. The bills require such research-based hazing prevention instruction to be offered in-person but requires each school board to provide options for virtual participation for any student who is enrolled in an online or virtual physical or health education program. Finally, the bills require each school board to provide such research-based hazing prevention instruction beginning with the school year following the Board's adoption of revised Standards of Learning for physical and health education for grades nine and 10 incorporating such research-based hazing prevention instruction and directs the Board to, in the intermediary time, develop and post on its website guidance documents for the purpose of making such research-based hazing prevention instruction available to local school boards.

Early childhood care and education; exemption from licensure for certain child day programs HB 739 (Sewell) and SB 702 (Subramanyam) exempt from licensure by the Superintendent of Public Instruction any child day program that (i) serves only dependent children of military personnel and (ii) (a) is located on a military base or federal property or (b) is certified as a family child care provider by a branch of the Armed Forces of the United States and provides that any branch of the Armed Forces of the United States or its agent, including an installation commander of a military base on which a child day program is located, may assume responsibility for approving or determining which children may be served by the program that is so exempted from licensure.  Note that HB 739 incorporated HB 146 (Tata) and SB 702 incorporated SB 75 (Durant).

Farm to School Program Task Force; Department of Education to establish HB 830 (Cousins) and SB 314 (Roem) require the Department of Education to establish and appoint such members as it deems necessary or appropriate to the Farm to School Program Task Force for the purpose of increasing student access throughout the Commonwealth to high-quality farm to school programs, defined in the bill as programs (i) whereby public schools purchase and feature prominently in school meals locally produced food or (ii) that involve experiential student learning opportunities relating to local food and agriculture, including school and community garden programs and local farm visits. The bills require the Task Force to collaborate with local school boards, community-based organizations, farmers, relevant state and local agencies, and other relevant stakeholders to (a) assess existing farm to school programs within the Commonwealth to identify and disseminate to each local school board best practices for implementing and sustaining such programs, (b) establish and distribute to each local school board a guidance document for the establishment and operation of school garden programs, (c) provide information and resources to each local school board to assist it in leveraging grant funds to support farm to school programs, and (d) collect such data and make such policy recommendations to local school boards, the Board of Education, and the General Assembly as it deems appropriate.

Virginia Preservice Training for Child Care Staff; Department of Education shall review course HB 1024 (Wilt) requires the Department of Education to review its Virginia Preservice Training for Child Care Staff course for appropriateness based on the age range of children served by staff who are required to complete such course and to consider excluding portions of such course that are solely relevant to providing care for students in a certain age range for staff whose duties do not include the care of children in such age range.

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library of Virginia Program; established, report, sunset date HB 1075 (Coyner) establishes Dolly Parton's Imagination Library of Virginia Program for the purpose of promoting a comprehensive statewide initiative for encouraging preschool-age children to develop a love of reading and learning whereby one reading selection, as defined in the bill, is provided per month to each registered child from birth to age five in each participating county at no cost to the family of such child. The bill requires the Program to contribute to local programs a 50 percent match of funds, if available, required of such local programs participating in Dolly Parton's Imagination Library in the Commonwealth. The bill requires a nonprofit entity dedicated to statewide early literacy advocacy to serve as the program administrator and be responsible for the development, implementation, and administration of the Program. The bill sunsets on January 1, 2029.

Through-year growth assessment system, alternatives during 2024-2026 HB 1076 (Rasoul) and SB 435 (Suetterlein) require the Board of Education to permit school boards to administer, during the 2024-2026 school years, assessments as alternatives to the through-year growth assessment system established by the Board, provided that any such alternative assessment is aligned to the Standards of Learning.

VA Longitudinal Data System & VA Workforce Data Trust; work group to review current capabilities HB 1083 (Coyner) requires the Secretary of Education to convene a work group to review the current capabilities and future needs of the Virginia Longitudinal Data System (the System) and the Virginia Workforce Data Trust (the Trust) (collectively, the Databases) and, based on the results of such review, develop a work plan for improving the System. The goal of such work shall be to provide a best-in-class data analytics platform and to support evidence-based research and data-informed decision making by policy makers in the Commonwealth through the maintenance of datasets and the creation of public-facing dashboards regarding education, labor, and the workforce.  The Secretary shall deliver a report that includes a summary of the review and the proposed work plan by November 1, 2024.

College and Career Ready Virginia Program and Fund; established and created HB 1087 (Coyner) and SB 627 (Lucas) establish the College and Career Ready Virginia Fund and requires the Department of Education and the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) to establish the College and Career Ready Virginia Program whereby each school board is required to offer each qualified high school student in the local school division access at the high school to the dual enrollment courses that are sufficient to complete the Passport Program and the Uniform Certificate of General Studies Program at a public institution of higher education at no cost to such students. The bills establish several enumerated duties for the Department and the System in the administration of the College and Career Ready Virginia Program, including the establishment of a work group to make recommendations no later than November 1, 2024, on the incorporation of a career and technical education program of coursework into the College and Career Ready Virginia Program.  Note that provisions related to requiring each school board to offer each qualified high school student in the local school division access to courses at each high school that are sufficient to complete the Passport Program and the Uniform Certificate of General Studies Program at a public institution of higher education at no cost to such student; provisions requiring the VCCS and the Online Virginia Network Authority to offer each local school board access to courses at each high school, including virtual courses, that are sufficient for each local school board's qualified high school students to complete the Passport Program and the Uniform Certificate of General Studies Program at a public institution of higher education, at no cost to such local school board; and provisions related to transfer of any credit earned through successful completion of Passport Program and Uniform Certificate of General Studies Program courses through the Program to each public institution of higher education pursuant to §§ 23.1-905.1 and 23.1-907 shall become effective beginning with course registrations for the fall term of the 2025 academic year.

Health education; menstrual education instruction permitted HB 1221 (Seibold) permits health education instruction for students in grades four through eight to include menstrual education instruction.

Child care; background checks. HB 1277 (Laufer) allows applicants for employment and applicants to serve as volunteers to work in certain child day centers, family day homes, and family day systems pending the results of a full background check, provided that (i) the applicant has received qualifying results on a fingerprint-based background check through the Central Criminal Records Exchange or the Federal Bureau of Investigation and (ii) the applicant is supervised at all times by a person who received a qualifying result on a full background check within the past five years.

Standards of Learning; assessments, eligibility for expedited retakes HB 1451 (Phillips) requires the Board of Education to revise its regulations relating to student eligibility for an expedited retake of any Standards of Learning assessment, with the exception of the writing Standards of Learning assessments, to (i) provide that any student in grades three through 12 who scores in the 375 to 399 range, or an equivalent range on an alternative scoring scale, on any such Standards of Learning assessment shall be eligible to retake such assessment on an expedited basis at least once prior to the next scheduled assessment administration and (ii) establish guidelines for and require each eligible student to complete prior to retaking any Standards of Learning assessment on an expedited basis a comprehensive remediation program based on such student's particular educational needs as identified by such student's results on such assessment. The Board of Education shall submit to the Chairs of the House Committee on Education and the Senate Committee on Education and Health by November 1, 2024, a report on its progress in revising its regulations in accordance with the provisions of this act. The Board of Education shall implement such revised regulations in accordance with the provisions of this act by January 1, 2025.

Fentanyl education and awareness informational one-sheet; Department of Education to develop HB 1473 (Clark) requires the Department of Education to develop, in collaboration with the Department of Health, a fentanyl education and awareness informational one-sheet designed to promote awareness of the dangers associated with and the prevalence of fentanyl and provide essential information on fentanyl overdose prevention and preparedness among high school-age students. The bill requires the Department of Education to make available to each school board and post in a publicly accessible location on its website such informational one-sheet and to annually review and update such informational one-sheet in collaboration with the Department of Health to ensure its currency and accuracy. The bill requires each public high school or secondary school that includes grades nine through 12 to annually distribute such informational one-sheet to each student in grades nine through 12 within the first two weeks of the school year. Note this legislation incorporates HB 1007 (Lovejoy).

Public schools; instructional time; competency-based education HB 1477 (Rasoul) Requires the Board of Education to provide local school boards maximum flexibility to waive existing instructional clock hour requirements by developing alternative instructional time models in accordance with the Board's regulations and guidelines relating to instructional time waivers. The bill directs the Board, when revising its regulations and adopting Standards of Accreditation, to provide flexibility for school boards to develop programs that provide for acceleration, remediation, and multiple pathways to graduation that permit students to demonstrate competency at different rates. The bill also requires the Board to update, by December 1, 2024, its Guidelines for Graduation Requirements: Local Alternative Paths to Standard Units of Credit (Alternatives to the 140-Clock-Hour Requirement) to include guidance regarding (i) waiver pathway options to allow students time within the school day to complete work-based learning opportunities; (ii) advanced learning opportunities focused on problem-solving, critical and creative thinking, communication, collaboration, and citizenship skills; (iii) content that provides technical knowledge, skills, and competency-based applied learning; (iv) a method for approving alternative programs, including dual enrollment courses as specified in the bill; (v) other instructional time models adopted to meet instructional hour requirements through a variety of learning modalities; and (vi) offering instructional and learning opportunities including innovative, advanced, and enrichment programs for the full school year. Finally, the bill requires the Board to submit to the Chairs of the Senate Committee on Education and Health and the House Committee on Education by November 1, 2024, a report on its progress in implementing the provisions of the bill. Note this legislation incorporates HB 663 (Tata) and HB 1081 (Coyner).

STEM+C Competition Team Grant Program; created SB 5 (Stanley) establishes the Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Computing (STEM+C) Competition Team Grant Program to encourage interest in STEM+C-related subject areas and support STEM+C-related extracurricular team-building activities in public schools in the Commonwealth by providing grants for use in establishing or supporting STEM+C competition teams.

Students with Limited and/or Interrupted Formal Education (SLIFE); Board of Education to develop and adopt policies related to supporting SLIFE students SB 433 (Suetterlein) directs the Board of Education to develop and adopt policies relating to supporting Students with Limited and/or Interrupted Formal Education (SLIFE students) in staying in and graduating from, or otherwise completing, high school in the Commonwealth and to develop formulas for calculating high school drop-out rates and graduation rates in the Commonwealth that do not include any SLIFE student who dropped out if such student had not yet been enrolled in a public high school in the Commonwealth for at least two semesters.

Public middle schools and high schools; career and technical education organizations permitted SB 707 (Subramanyam) permits each public middle school and high school to establish career and technical education student organizations, regardless of whether such school offers career and technical education courses.

Standards of Learning; programs of instruction, civics education on local government HB 41 (Green) would have required the Board of Education to include in the Standards of Learning for Virginia and United States Government for grade 12 and requires each school board to provide as a part of any Virginia and U.S. Government course or civic education course offered to students in grade 12 instruction on local government, including instruction on the types of localities in the Commonwealth and the structure and functions of local governments in the Commonwealth. The bill also would have required the Board to consider in its criteria for awarding a diploma seal for excellence in civics education and understanding of the state and federal constitutions and the democratic model of government the successful completion of government or civics courses that include instruction on the structures and functions of local government.  This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Education.

Comprehensive community colleges and school boards; dual enrollment agreements, parameters HB 83 (Scott, P.A.)  would have required dual enrollment agreements between comprehensive community colleges and school boards to permit any student to complete an associate degree, the Passport Program, or a one-year Uniform Certificate of General Studies from a comprehensive community college concurrent with a high school diploma or high school equivalency program. Current law requires such agreements to specify options for students to complete an associate degree, the Passport Program, or a one-year Uniform Certificate of General Studies from a comprehensive community college concurrent with a high school diploma.

Audit of education preparation programs at public institutions of higher education; science-based reading research and evidence-based literacy instruction; frequency HB 211 (Martinez) would have changed from once every seven years to biennially the frequency with which the Department of Education is required to audit each education preparation program for compliance with the requirements set forth in relevant law relating to student coursework and mastery in science-based reading research and evidence-based literacy instruction.  This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Education.

Regional workforce development and child care initiative; implementation in Southwest Virginia. HB 365 (Martinez) would have required the Department of Education and the Department of Workforce Development and Advancement to jointly establish and appoint such members as such departments deem appropriate to a work group to monitor the implementation of the regional workforce development and child care initiative being implemented by the United Way of Southwest Virginia, the Wellspring Foundation of Southwest Virginia, Food City, and the Town of Abingdon in Abingdon and in four other locations throughout the surrounding region. The bill would have required such work group to monitor the extent to which such initiative achieves its stated goals, including in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, teacher training, and access to child care, and to report its findings and any associated recommendations for the replication of such initiative in other regions of the Commonwealth no later than November 1, 2025.

Child Care Implementation and Substitute Employee Pool Grant Program; established HB 372 (Martinez) would have required the Department of Education, with such funds as may be appropriated for such purpose pursuant to the general appropriation act, to establish and administer the Child Care Implementation and Substitute Employee Pool Grant Program whereby any (i) existing child day program provider or group of such providers may apply for a grant, on a competitive basis, for the establishment of a substitute employee pool that, notwithstanding the provisions of relevant law relating to the disclosure of the results of background checks, enables such provider or providers to ensure efficient and effective staffing with qualified employees or (ii) prospective child day program may apply for a grant, on a competitive basis, to cover costs associated with implementing such program. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Appropriations.

Standards of Learning assessments; development and administration of assessments; assessments in languages other than English; requirements HB 500 (Cohen) would have required the Board of Education to develop all Standards of Learning assessments using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles, as defined in the bill. The bill would also have required the Board to develop and implement policies providing for the development and administration of all Standards of Learning assessments in languages other than English that are identified as being present to a significant extent in the participating student population. The bill would have required such policies to provide that each local school board provide appropriate accommodations on such assessments for eligible students who are English language learners, including providing for administration of such assessments for any student who is an English language learner in grades three through eight who has been identified as having limited English proficiency and has participated in an English language proficiency program for no more than a total of three school years. The bill would have provided, however, that each local school board, on the recommendation of English language learner faculty that any such student has not yet reached sufficient English proficiency, may provide on an individual case-by-case basis for the administration of any such Standards of Learning assessment in one of such top three languages other than English for a period that does not exceed two additional consecutive years. The provisions of the bill would have been required to be implemented by the beginning of the 2025–2026 school year.  This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Education.

Careers in Law Enforcement Incentive Grant Program; established HB 507 (Cohen) would have required the Department of Education, with such funds as may be appropriated for such purpose pursuant to the general appropriation act, to establish and administer the Careers in Law Enforcement Incentive Grant Program whereby any school board may apply for a grant in an amount up to $250,000, to be awarded on a competitive basis, with which to offer courses relating to criminal justice or law enforcement in at least one public high school in the local school division.

Early childhood care and education; comprehensive review of certain findings and recommendations HB 535 (Keys-Gamarra) would have required the Division of Early Childhood Care and Education of the Department of Education, in consultation with the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation and such other stakeholders as it deems appropriate, to (i) conduct a comprehensive review of the findings and recommendations contained in the 2017 report of the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, Improving Virginia's Early Childhood Development Programs, to determine what barriers, gaps, and deficiencies continue to exist in the provision of high-quality early childhood education and care in the Commonwealth, with a particular focus on gaps and deficiencies in the ongoing monitoring of Virginia Preschool Initiative program quality, including the collection and analysis of data relating to outcomes and kindergarten readiness, and (ii) report its findings and any associated policy recommendations to the Board of Education, the Governor, and the General Assembly no later than November 1, 2024.  This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Education.

Virginia Student Environmental Literacy Plan Grant Fund and Program; established HB 538 (Cole) would have required the Office of Environmental Education within the Department of Conservation and Recreation (the Department), in conjunction with the Department of Education and any other stakeholder that it deems appropriate, to implement the Virginia Student Environmental Literacy Plan Grant Program and Fund for school districts to develop local student environmental literacy plans and, with consultation from the Department of Education, to maintain a state environmental literacy plan. The bill would have established the Program and Fund, to be administered by the Office, for the purpose of awarding grants on a competitive basis to any local school board that seeks assistance to initiate, expand, or improve teacher professional development opportunities or student environmental education programs that align with the content and objectives of the bill.

Internet Safety Advisory Council; extends sunset date HB 547 (Walker) would have extended from July 1, 2024, to July 1, 2025, the sunset date for the Internet Safety Advisory Council. The bill requires each school board, after considering the model policy, instructional practices, curricula, and other teacher resources that are developed, recommended, or designed by the Internet Safety Advisory Council, to adopt policies (i) requiring all elementary and secondary schools in the local school division to provide an Internet safety education program to each student in grades three through 12 at least once each school year but (ii) permitting the parent of any such student to opt his child out of participating in such program.

Sexually explicit content; policies on parental notification of instructional material.  HB 571 (Delaney) and SB 235 (Hashmi) would have provided that nothing in the law requiring the Department of Education to develop and make available to each school board model policies for ensuring parental notification of any instructional material that includes sexually explicit content and requiring each school board to adopt policies that are consistent with but may be more comprehensive than such model policies or that is in such model policies or school board policies shall be construed to permit the censoring of books in any public elementary or secondary school. Note that both HB 571 and SB 235 passed the General Assembly but were vetoed by the Governor.

Early childhood care; Child Care Subsidy Program expansion, provision of free child care HB 627 (Bennett-Parker) would have required the Child Care Subsidy Program, established pursuant to applicable regulations, to be expanded to assist employees of any licensed child care provider in the Commonwealth with the costs of child care by providing any such employee who meets the eligibility criteria set forth in the bill child care at no cost to and with no copayment required of such employee. The bill would have directed the Board of Education to adopt any regulations and the Department of Education to implement any policies and procedures necessary for the implementation and administration of the provisions of the bill.  This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Appropriations.

Virginia Parent Data Portal; Board of Education to create and maintain HB 654 (Coyner) and SB 72 (McPike) would have required the Board of Education, on or before July 1, 2025, to create and maintain the Virginia Parent Data Portal that, among other things, (i) displays individualized student assessment data on all state-supported assessments, defined in the bill, (a) in a format that shows both current and cumulative data over time and (b) within 45 days of a state-supported assessment window closing for each state-supported assessment; (ii) provides (a) a description of the purpose of each state-supported assessment, (b) an explanation of how to interpret student data on each state-supported assessment, (c) a comparison of a student's performance on each state-supported assessment with the performance of the student's school, the student's school division, and the Commonwealth, and (d) guidance to support parents in understanding and addressing the specific academic needs of their students; (iii) is viewable from a mobile device in addition to a desktop computer; (iv) leverages existing school division user management to restrict user access to students and their parents; and (v) is compatible with each local school division's existing student information system to enable direct integration of state-supported assessment data into local school division parent portals.  The bill would have required the Board and the Department of Education to develop professional development for principals and teachers in encouraging and supporting parents to engage with, interpret, and use student assessment data available through the Portal to support their student's learning and requires each school board to annually provide such professional development to principals and teachers.  Note that SB 72 was Continued to 2025 in Senate Finance and Appropriations, while HB 654 failed.

Standards of Learning; instruction on dangers and victims of communism HB 669 (Freitas) would have required the Governor to annually issue a proclamation setting the seventh day of November as Victims of Communism Day and requiring such day to be suitably observed in each public elementary and secondary school in the Commonwealth as a day honoring the approximately 100 million individuals who have fallen victim to communist regimes around the world and to be suitably observed by a public exercise in the Capitol and elsewhere as the Governor may designate in such proclamation. The bill also would have required the Board of Education to include in the history and social science Standards of Learning in grades six through 12 and each school board to emphasize in its Standards-aligned program of instruction in grades six through 12 the study of the dangers of communism.

Public Instruction, Superintendent of; employment of certified school library specialists HB 677 (Simonds) would have required the Superintendent of Public Instruction to employ in the Department of Education at least one certified school library specialist who fulfills several duties enumerated in the bill, including providing leadership and technical assistance with the implementation and use of information literacy skills to support student achievement for local school divisions, Department staff, and other stakeholders and directing the implementation of state and national school library standards and consulting with and providing technical assistance to local school divisions relating to such standards.  This legislation was Continued to 2025 in Senate Finance and Appropriations.

Public secondary schools; Internet safety education required, report HB 706 (Webert) would have required the Board of Education to develop and approve objectives for Internet safety education at the middle and high school grade levels to be required of all students in grades six through 12, and to provide for the infusion of such objectives in the relevant Standards of Learning and in career and technical education. The bill also would have required the Board, in consultation with the Internet Safety Advisory Council or another appropriate entity, to develop a model curriculum for such Internet safety education. The bill would have required each public secondary school to provide instruction on Internet safety education in accordance with the educational objectives and model curriculum developed by the Board. The bill also would have required each public institution of higher education to provide instruction on the principles of Internet safety as a part of an existing general education course, a first-year orientation program, or another appropriate program or course and directs the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia to encourage private institutions of higher education to provide instruction on the principles of Internet safety.

Model policies on parental review of instructional material, local adoption HB 757 (Walker) would have required the Board of Education to adopt and distribute to each school board model policies requiring any instructional material used in any public elementary or secondary school in the Commonwealth to be open for inspection during normal business hours by the parents of students enrolled in the relevant public school, regardless of the copyright status of any such material. The bill would have required each school board to adopt policies that are consistent with such model policies adopted by the Board.

Public high school students; economics education and financial literacy, benchmark assessment HB 931 (Shin) would have required the Board of Education to develop and make available to each school board an economics education and financial literacy benchmark assessment and requires each school board to require each public high school student enrolled in the local school division, except in the case of a public high school student whose individualized education program indicates otherwise, to take such assessment at least once during grades nine through 12. The bill would have required the Board to annually report to the Governor and the General Assembly the state-level and school division-level student results on such benchmark assessment in order to aid decision-making regarding any policy changes that may be necessary to improve student learning in the relevant subject matter areas.

Early childhood care & education; expansion of Head Start prog. availability at community colleges HB 984 (Tran) would have required the Department of Education and the Virginia Community College System to convene a stakeholder work group to evaluate and provide recommendations to the Chairmen of the Senate Committee on Education and Health and the House Committee on Education by October 1, 2024, on expanding the availability of Head Start programs at comprehensive community colleges.

High school family life education curricula; programs on crime of sexual extortion HB 1020 (Wilt) would have required any high school family life education curriculum offered by a local school division to incorporate age-appropriate elements of effective and evidence-based programs on the prevention of the crime of sexual extortion.

Climate change and environmental literacy; instructional materials, model policies HB 1088 (Carr) would have required the Board of Education to make available to each local school board instructional materials on climate change and environmental literacy that are based on and include peer-reviewed scientific sources. The bill would have required the Board of Education to develop, adopt, and make available to each local school board model policies and procedures, based on peer-reviewed scientific sources, pertaining to the selection of instructional materials on climate change and environmental literacy, including a requirement for any such selected material to accurately portray changes in weather and climate patterns over time, the impacts of human activity on changes in weather and climate patterns, and the effects of climate change on people and resources. Note that HB 1088passed the General Assembly but was vetoed by the Governor. 

Obscene materials; modifies restrictions on purchase, distribution, exhibition, or loan HB 1206 (Scott, P.A.) would have modified the exceptions to restrictions on the purchase, distribution, exhibition, or loan of obscene materials by providing that schools supported by public appropriation are not subject to the exceptions and limiting the exception applicable to libraries supported by public appropriation only to obscene material that is available exclusively in a section of the library to which access is restricted by age.

Standards of Learning assessments; virtual assessment administration HB 1212 (Scott, P.A.) would have required the Board of Education to offer virtual assessment administration as an alternative method of Standards of Learning assessment administration for any student with an Individualized Education Program (IEP) who meets the criteria established by the Board to demonstrate achievement of the Standards of Learning. The bill would have provided that such virtual assessment administration shall be available at the option of such student and such student's parent subject to the final determination of such student's IEP team as to the virtual setting and conditions appropriate for such student. The bill would have further permitted the Board to adopt policies providing for such virtual assessment administration as an alternative for any student who does not receive special education or does not have an IEP, provided that such alternative is equally available to any such student subject to through-year growth assessment requirements. Finally, the bill would have required the Board to develop guidance to implement the provisions of the bill by January 1, 2025.

Early childhood care and education; publicly funded providers HB 1375 (Gardner) would have provided that any locality wishing to participate in the Virginia Preschool Initiative (VPI) must submit a proposal by May 15 of each year identifying a lead VPI agency responsible for developing a local plan for the delivery of preschool services to at-risk children. A local match based on the composite index of local ability to pay is required to fund such a proposal. The proposal must include the number of at-risk four-year-olds and three-year-olds to be served and eligibility criteria for participation. Upon acceptance, the Department will disburse state VPI funds to the lead VPI agency in such localities, which may be used with local matching funds to provide preschool education, health services, social services, parental involvement services, and transportation. The Department must establish academic standards for VPI programs that prepare students to successfully enter kindergarten. Full day VPI programs must operate for a minimum of five and a half instructional hours per day, while half day VPI programs operate for a minimum of three instructional hours per day. The bill would have required the Department of Education to collect information from VPI and the Mixed Delivery Grant Program to compile a comprehensive report on the use of state funds, including the number of slots and funding allocated to each local program or provider and the number of slots that have been filled.  The bill would have codified the Child Care Subsidy Program, which is currently established pursuant to regulations of the Board of Education, for the purpose of assisting families who meet certain eligibility criteria with the cost of child care provided by approved vendors. The bill would have required the Child Care Subsidy Program to be overseen by the Department of Education and permits the Department to contract with state and local agencies to administer the Program. The bill would have required the Department and Board of Education, as applicable, to establish rules, regulations, policies, procedures, and standards for the Program. The bill also would have codified the Mixed Delivery Grant Program, which is currently established pursuant to the general appropriation act, for the purpose of awarding grants on a competitive basis to local public entities that enter into partnerships with local private early childhood care and education entities and other community organizations, as applicable, to provide, under the direction and leadership of a lead agency identified in the grant proposal, high-quality care and education, either part time or full time, for at-risk infants, toddlers, and preschool-age children who reside in the locality. The bill would have required the Mixed Delivery Grant Program to be administered by the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation in partnership with the Department of Education and, consistent with any provisions relating to the Program in the general appropriation act, requires the Foundation and the Department to establish policies, procedures, and standards for the Program.  The legislation was Continued to 2025 in Senate Finance and Appropriations.

Virginia Freedom of Information Act; exclusions, apprenticeship programs 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.

Health education and family life education; certain videos and animations relating to human development HB 1516 (Earley) would have required health education instruction to include an oral, written, or digital lesson, lecture, or presentation about human biology relating to pregnancy and human development inside the uterus, including (i) a high-definition ultrasound video, at least three minutes in duration, showing the development of the brain, heart, sex organs, and other vital organs in early fetal development and (ii) a high-quality, computer-generated rendering or animation showing the process of fertilization and every stage of human development inside the uterus, noting significant markers in cell growth and organ development for each significant marker of pregnancy until birth. The bill would have required any family life education curriculum or similar curriculum offered by a local school division that includes any oral, written, or digital lesson, lecture, or presentation about sexual activity and pregnancy in the context of student health or healthy relationships to also include such a video and rendering or animation.

Public School Trades Incentive Fund and Program; created and established SB 27 (Stanley) would have established the Public School Trades Incentive Fund (the Fund) and the Public School Trades Incentive Program (the Program) for the purpose of providing grants on a competitive basis from the Fund to any school board that seeks to (i) restore high school programs that teach students skilled trades that lead to earning industry-recognized certifications or credentials or (ii) create or restore middle school programs that encourage and recruit students to participate in high school programs that teach students skilled trades that lead to earning industry-recognized certifications or credentials. 

Joint Commission on Technology and Science; analysis of the use of artificial intelligence by public bodies; report SB 487 (Aird) directs the Joint Commission on Technology and Science (JCOTS), in consultation with relevant stakeholders, to conduct an analysis of the use of artificial intelligence by public bodies in the Commonwealth and the creation of a Commission on Artificial Intelligence. JCOTS shall submit a report of its findings and recommendations to the Chairmen of the House Committees on Appropriations and Communications, Technology and Innovation and the Senate Committees on Finance and Appropriations and General Laws and Technology no later than December 1, 2024. This legislation incorporates SB 621 (Pillion). 

Consumer Data Protection Act; protections for children HB 707 (Maldonado) and SB 361 (VanValkenburg) As passed by the General Assembly, the bills would prohibit, subject to a parental consent requirement, a data controller from processing personal data of a known child (i) for the purposes of targeted advertising, the sale of such personal data, or profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects concerning a consumer; (ii) unless such processing is reasonably necessary to provide the online service, product, or feature; (iii) for any processing purpose other than the processing purpose that the controller disclosed at the time such controller collected such personal data or that is reasonably necessary for and compatible with such disclosed purpose; or (iv) for longer than is reasonably necessary to provide the online service, product, or feature. The bill prohibits, subject to a parental consent requirement, a data controller from collecting precise geolocation data from a known child unless (a) such precise geolocation data is reasonably necessary for the controller to provide an online service, product, or feature and, if such data is necessary to provide such online service, product, or feature, such controller shall only collect such data for the time necessary to provide such online service, product, or feature and (b) the controller provides to the known child a signal indicating that such controller is collecting such precise geolocation data, which signal shall be available to such known child for the entire duration of such collection. The bill prohibits a data controller from engaging in the activities described in the bill unless the controller obtains consent from the child's parent or legal guardian in accordance with the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. This bill has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2025.

Joint Commission on Technology and Science; study; advancements in artificial intelligence; report SJ 14 (Subramanyam) would have directed the Joint Commission on Technology and Science to study advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), including assessing (i) the impacts of deep fakes, data privacy implications, and misinformation; (ii) measures to ensure these technologies do not indirectly or directly lead to discrimination; (iii) strategies to promote equity in AI algorithms; and (iv) ways in which AI can be utilized to improve government operations and services, and to make recommendations on any appropriate legislation for consideration by the General Assembly. This resolution was Continued to 2025 in Finance and Appropriations.

Public secondary schools; public institutions of higher education; Internet safety education required; report HB 706 (Webert) would have required the Board of Education to develop and approve objectives for Internet safety education at the middle and high school grade levels to be required of all students in grades six through 12, and to provide for the infusion of such objectives in the relevant Standards of Learning and in career and technical education. The bill would have also required the Board, in consultation with the Internet Safety Advisory Council or another appropriate entity, to develop a model curriculum for such Internet safety education. The bill would have further required each public secondary school to provide instruction on Internet safety education in accordance with the educational objectives and model curriculum developed by the Board. The bill would have also required each public institution of higher education to provide instruction on the principles of Internet safety as a part of an existing general education course, a first-year orientation program, or another appropriate program or course and directs the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia to encourage private institutions of higher education to provide instruction on the principles of Internet safety.

Consumer Data Protection Act; protections for children HB 821 (Cherry) would have required a controller or processor to obtain verifiable parental consent, defined in the bill, prior to registering any child with the operator's product or service or before collecting, using, or disclosing such child's personal data and prohibits a controller from knowingly processing the personal data of a child for purposes of (i) targeted advertising, (ii) the sale of such personal data, or (iii) profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects concerning a consumer. The bill would have also amended the definition of child for purposes of the Consumer Data Protection Act to include any natural person younger than 18 years of age.

Computer trespass; elementary and secondary schools; school board; penalty HB 868 (Earley) would have made it a Class 6 felony for the offense of computer trespass when such offense is committed against any elementary or secondary school or school board.

Department of Education; school boards; student online activity; data collection, monitoring, and restrictions HB 1094 (Oates) would have required the Department of Education to establish, and each school board to adhere to, (i) requirements relating to the collection of data on student online activity and the monitoring of student online activity by school boards and school board employees, including requirements to disclose to the parents of enrolled students what student online activity is tracked and monitored on school or personal devices on school property and what data on student online activity is being collected on school or personal devices and (ii) a requirement to set the most restrictive age-appropriate limits on student access to social media platforms, YouTube and other video platforms, and search engines and other search features on school devices and permit the parents of each enrolled student to waive such limits for their child by submitting a written request to the school division. The bill would have also required the Department to establish and distribute to each school board a template that each such school board is required to use to (a) make certain disclosures to the parents of enrolled students relating to student online activity tracking or monitoring and the collection of data on such activity and (b) permit the parents of each enrolled student to opt their child out of any such tracking, monitoring, or collection.

Information Technology Access Act; digital accessibility HB 1355 (Tran) would have made numerous organizational changes to the Information Technology Access Act. The bill defined "information and communications technology" as it relates to digital accessibility, defined in the bill, for all persons with disabilities. The bill permitted the head of each covered entity, defined in the bill, to designate an employee to serve as such covered entity's digital accessibility coordinator and provided that such digital accessibility coordinator is responsible for developing and implementing such covered entity's digital accessibility policy. The bill had a delayed effective date of July 1, 2025. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in General Laws and Technology and the subject will be addressed in the off session by the Public Body Procurement Work Group.

Department of Education; school boards; student online activity; data collection, monitoring, and restrictions SB 264 (Craig) would have required the Department of Education to establish reporting expectations for school divisions that collect student online activity data and provided that if no school within a school division does so, the school board, upon submission of written documentation to the Department stating that no school within the school division collects student online activity data, shall be deemed to have satisfied such reporting expectations. The reporting expectations include: (i) making certain disclosures to parents, including what online activity is being tracked, monitored, and collected when using school devices on school property and what types of student online activity or online activity data would create an alert; (ii) including in the school division's acceptable use policy for the Internet that student online activity is being tracked and data collected; (iii) providing, to the extent available for the school division, parents the ability to access any collected student online activity data; (iv) notifying the parent of a student for whom an alert is created or an action taken on such student's online activity or associated data before the student is notified, except as provided in the bill; (v) prohibiting the inclusion of student online activity data in a student's permanent record except in the most severe cases, as defined, set forth, and made publicly available by the Department. The bill would have required the Department to create and distribute to each school board (a) a template for making the required parental disclosures and (b) best practices for deleting student online activity data.

Study; Board of Education; work group on the use of artificial intelligence technology in education; report SB 385 (Pekarsky) would have required the Board of Education, in collaboration with the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, to convene a work group to study and make recommendations on guidelines for the use and integration of AI technology in education in public elementary and secondary schools and public institutions of higher education. The bill would have required the work group to submit a report on its findings and recommendations to the Department of Education, the Governor, the Senate Committee on Education and Health, and the House Committee on Education by November 1, 2024.

Consumer Data Protection Act; protections for children SB 432 (Sutterlein) would have required a controller or processor to obtain verifiable parental consent, defined in the bill, prior to registering any child with the operator's product or service or before collecting, using, or disclosing such child's personal data and prohibits a controller from knowingly processing the personal data of a child for purposes of (i) targeted advertising, (ii) the sale of such personal data, or (iii) profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects concerning a consumer. The bill also would have amended the definition of child for purposes of the Consumer Data Protection Act to include any natural person younger than 18 years of age. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in Senate General Laws and Technology.

Computer trespass; elementary and secondary schools; school board; penalty SB 442 (Durant) would have made it a Class 6 felony for the offense of computer trespass when such offense is committed against any public, private, or religious elementary or secondary school or any school board.

Online Children's Safety Protection Act established; civil penalties SB 684 (Stanley) would have created the Online Children's Safety Protection Act, which would have required certain duties of covered entities, defined in the bill, to protect the best interests of children who use online services, products, or features. The bill would have required any covered entity that provides an online service, product, or feature likely to be accessed by a child to complete a data protection impact assessment, the details of which are described in the bill, within two years before any new online service, product, or feature is offered to the public on or after July 1, 2024. The bill also would have prohibited certain actions by covered entities and authorized the Attorney General to impose penalties and initiate actions against any covered entity that violated the provisions of the bill. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in Senate General Laws and Technology.

Unemployment compensation; employer failure to respond to requests for information; claim determination; notice requirements. HB 14 (Ware) and SB 381 (Ebbin) provide that an employer's account shall not be relieved of charges relating to an erroneous payment if the Virginia Employment Commission determines that (i) the employer has failed to respond timely or adequately to a written request for information related to the claim and (ii) the employer has established a pattern of failing to respond timely or adequately to such requests, as described in the bill. The bills require the Commission to provide written notice for each instance of untimely or inadequate employer response to such requests. The bills provide that upon the Commission's third determination, and for each subsequent determination, within the applicable review period that an employer failed to respond timely or adequately to such a request, the employer shall be considered to have waived all rights in connection with the claim, including participation and appeal rights. The bills require a deputy examining a claim to provide the reasoning behind the decision, as described in the bill, and a short statement of case-specific facts material to the determination together with any notice of determination upon a claim. The provisions of the bill have a delayed effective date of July 1, 2025. 

Virginia Retirement System; plan credits and accounts. HB 70 (Bulova) and SB 458 (Marsden) allow members of the Virginia Retirement System to purchase service credit for prior full-time active duty military service of at least 180 consecutive days in any federally established branch of the armed services. Under current law, such purchases are restricted to prior full-time active duty military service of at least 180 consecutive days in the United States Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, or Coast Guard. The bills also provide that any funds or other property held in a Virginia Retirement System defined contribution plan, deferred compensation plan, or cash match plan remaining unclaimed for more than five years shall be presumed abandoned under the Virginia Disposition of Unclaimed Property Act and may escheat to the state treasury. Under current law, the Act does not apply to any Virginia Retirement System defined benefit plan funds or other property. 

Workers' compensation; prompt payment; limitation on claims. HB 205(Simonds) prohibits an employer or workers' compensation carrier from seeking recovery of a payment made to a health care provider for health care services rendered to a claimant unless such recovery is sought less than one year from the date payment was made to the health care provider. Under current law, such prohibition only applies to services rendered after July 1, 2014.  The bill also prohibits a health care provider from submitting a claim to the Virginia Workers' Compensation Commission contesting the sufficiency of payment for health care services rendered to a claimant unless such claim is filed within one year of the date the last payment is received by the health care provider. Under current law, such prohibition only applies to services rendered after July 1, 2014.

Health insurance; coverage for colorectal cancer screening. HB 238 (McQuinn) requires health insurers to provide coverage for examinations and laboratory tests related to colorectal cancer screening in accordance with the most recently published recommendations established by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force for colorectal cancer screening for which a rating of A or B is in effect with respect to the individual involved. The bill requires such coverage to include coverage of a follow-up colonoscopy after a positive noninvasive stool-based screening test or direct visualization screening test. The bill prohibits such coverage from being subject to any deductible, coinsurance, or any other cost-sharing requirements for services received from participating providers. The provisions of the bill apply to individual or group accident and sickness insurance policies, individual or group accident and sickness subscription contracts, or health care plans delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed in the Commonwealth on and after January 1, 2025.

Board of Education; Provisional (Career Switcher) License; special education. HB 269 (McQuinn) requires the Board of Education to amend its relevant regulation to permit any career switcher who seeks a teaching endorsement preK through grade 12, including any career switcher who seeks a teaching endorsement in special education, to pursue a Provisional (Career Switcher) License through the career switcher alternate route to licensure program in accordance with all of the requirements set forth in such regulation, provided that the individual completes at least 60 percent of the endorsement requirements for special education general curriculum K-12 as part of Level I preparation and the remainder of such requirements as part of Level II and Level III preparation.

Social Work Licensure Compact. HB 326 (Glass) and SB 239 (Hashmi) authorize Virginia to become a signatory to the Social Work Licensure Compact. The Compact allows social workers who have or are eligible for an active, unencumbered license in the compact member state where they reside to apply for a multistate license. After verifying eligibility, the social worker is granted a multistate license that authorizes practice in all other compact member states. Per the Social Work Licensure Compact, while the Compact has reached activation status, multistate licenses are not yet being issued. The implementation process for the compact will take 12 to 24 months before multistate licenses are able to be issued. 

School boards; employment verification; timing. HB 355 (Cole) and SB 441 (Durant) require each school board to respond within 10 working days of receiving a request for employment verification of a former employee of the school board when such verification is sought by another school board. The bills define working day as every day except Saturdays, Sundays, and legal state and federal holidays.

Investment of public funds. HB 356 (Fowler) and SB 510 (Stanley) Allow any qualified public entity of the Commonwealth to invest in asset-backed securities that are guaranteed by the United States or any agency thereof.

Virginia Rap Back Service; criminal history record monitoring. HB 444 (Williams) and SB 169 (Reeves) change the time frame for which a participating entity in the Virginia Record of Arrest and Prosecution (Rap) Back Service is required to disenroll any individual who is deceased or no longer qualifies as an individual for the purposes of the Virginia Rap Back Service from within 30 days to within five business days. The bills also remove the provision stating that an individual who moves from one participating entity in the Virginia Rap Back Service to another need not be refingerprinted. 

Department of Education; background checks for child day program employees and volunteers; dissemination of information in certain circumstances. HB 508 (Cohen) requires the Department of Education, upon receiving a written request for a written certification from an individual, to provide written certification to an entity designated by the Department that provides staffing for child day programs that such individual satisfies all requirements set forth in relevant law and is eligible to serve as an employee, temporary employee, or volunteer in a child day program. The bill further provides that (i) each such written certification shall also state the date by which the individual is required to complete a new background check in accordance with the periodic requirement for such background checks, (ii) no such written certification shall reveal the nature of any disqualifying barrier crime committed by or founded complaint of child abuse or neglect against the individual, and (iii) any such written certification may be shared among child day programs for the purpose of facilitating the creation and maintenance of a child day program substitute staff pool system.

Public school teachers; daily lunch breaks; data collection; report. HB 583 (Simonds) requires the Department of Education to annually collect and present in the Virginia School Survey of Climate and Working Conditions school-level and division-level data on the share of teachers that are provided each working day a lunch break of at least 30 minutes in length and unencumbered by any teaching or supervisory duties.

Health insurance; emergency services; mobile crisis response services. HB 601 (Kilgore) and SB 543 (Bagby) provide that emergency services, with respect to an emergency medical condition, include, as it relates to any mental health services or substance abuse services rendered at a behavioral health crisis service provider, (i) a behavioral health assessment that is within the capability of a behavioral health crisis service provider, including ancillary services routinely available to evaluate such emergency medical condition, and (ii) such further examination and treatment, to the extent that they are within the capabilities of the staff and facilities available at the behavioral health crisis service provider, as are required so that the patient's condition does not deteriorate.

Teacher licensure; universal licensure by reciprocity. HB 632 (Rasoul) and SB 352 (Peake) establish universal licensure by reciprocity as a category of teacher licensure in the Commonwealth for teachers who hold a valid out-of-state teaching license with full credentials and without deficiencies that has been in force and in use by the individual as an employed teacher in a non-virtual classroom setting at a public or private elementary or secondary school for at least three years prior to and is in force at the time of application and meet other provisions set forth in the bills. The bills also permit the division superintendent rather than the Board of Education, as in current law, to issue a career and technical education teacher a provisional license to allow time for the teacher to attain the industry certification credential required by law. Finally, the bills direct the Department of Education to compile, publicly post on its website, and update as necessary, data on teacher licensure standards and requirements for each state for the purposes of facilitating the determination of the compatibility of out-of-state teacher licenses with requirements for teacher licensure and licensure by reciprocity in the Commonwealth and increasing transparency of such licensure requirements.

Teachers; renewable licenses; requirements; assessments. HB 731 (Sewell) requires the Board of Education to eliminate the requirement for any individual to take and receive a passing score on the Virginia Communication and Literacy Assessment as a condition of the initial award or renewal of a renewable license as a teacher in the Commonwealth.

Health insurance for local employees. HB 1019 (Wilt) permits any locality to allow participation in its group health insurance program by any non-benefitted employee, including members of governing bodies, if such non-benefitted employee or governing body member is not otherwise entitled to participate, provided that such non-benefitted employees reimburse the locality for the full cost of their participation. The bill provides that reimbursement may include forgoing all or a part of a local government salary.

Long-term care insurance; rate increases; notice requirements. HB 1060 (Tran) requires an insurer providing long-term care insurance policies to issue a written notice to each policyholder of the insurer's filing for a rate increase with the State Corporation Commission within 60 days of making such filing. Additionally, the bill requires the insurer to (i) if the Commission denies the rate increase, issue a written notice to each policyholder of the Commission's final decision to deny the rate increase within 90 days of such decision or (ii) if the Commission approves the rate increase, issue a written notice to each policyholder of the rate increase at least 90 days before its effective date that includes certain information listed in the bill. The bill requires the Commission, in reviewing requests to increase long-term care insurance rates, to consider, to the extent practicable, how the rate increase will impact policyholders.

Health insurance; prior authorization. HB 1134 (Willett) and SB 98 (Favola) require that any provider contract between a carrier and a participating health care provider contain specific provisions that require that if a prior authorization request is approved for prescription drugs and such prescription drugs have been scheduled, provided, or delivered to the patient consistent with the authorization, the carrier shall not revoke, limit, condition, modify, or restrict that authorization unless (i) there is evidence that the authorization was obtained based on fraud or misrepresentation; (ii) final actions by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, other regulatory agencies, or the manufacturer remove the drug from the market, limit its use in a manner that affects the authorization, or communicate a patient safety issue that would affect the authorization alone or in combination with other authorizations; (iii) a combination of drugs prescribed would cause a drug interaction; or (iv) a generic or biosimilar is added to the prescription drug formulary. The bills provide that such provisions do not require a carrier to cover any benefit not otherwise covered or cover a prescription drug if the enrollee is no longer covered by a health plan on the date the prescription drug was scheduled, provided, or delivered. 

Unemployment compensation; continuation of benefits; repayment of overpayments. HB 1261 (Tran) and SB 536 (Bagby) reinstate provisions of the Code that expired on July 1, 2022, relating to unemployment compensation. The bills provide that when a claimant has had a determination of initial eligibility for unemployment benefits, as determined by the issuance of compensation or waiting-week credit, payments shall continue, subject to a presumption of continued eligibility, until a determination is made that provides the claimant notice and an opportunity to be heard. The bills require the Virginia Employment Commission to waive the obligation to repay any overpayment if (i) the overpayment was made without fault on the part of the individual receiving benefits and (ii) requiring repayment would be contrary to equity and good conscience. Conditions for when overpayments are considered "without fault on the part of the individual" are outlined in the bill. The bills further provide that the Commission shall notify each person with an unpaid overpayment of benefits that he may be entitled to a waiver of repayment and provide 30 days to request such a waiver. This applies to outstanding overpayments established for claim weeks commencing on or after March 15, 2020. Finally, the bills add overpayments that the Commission has waived the requirement to repay to the list of situations where specific employers are not responsible for benefit charges. The bills have an expiration date of July 1, 2028.

Child care; background checks. HB 1277 (Laufer) allows applicants for employment and applicants to serve as volunteers to work in certain child day centers, family day homes, and family day systems pending the results of a full background check, provided that (i) the applicant has received qualifying results on a fingerprint-based background check through the Central Criminal Records Exchange or the Federal Bureau of Investigation and (ii) the applicant is supervised at all times by a person who received a qualifying result on a full background check within the past five years.

Local government employee insurance programs. HB 1392 (Jones) authorizes any locality to include in its group life, accident, and health insurance programs any person to whom coverage could be extended under the provision of current law that sets out who may be covered under a private group accident and sickness insurance policy.

Contractors; workers' compensation requirements. HB 1417 (Kilgore) removes the requirements that the governing body of a locality shall forward a signed certification to the Virginia Workers' Compensation Commission and the Commission shall conduct periodic audits of selected contractors to whom such body has issued business licenses, thereby eliminating the need for commissioners of the revenue to send the Commission 61A forms.

Child abuse and neglect; mandatory reporters; statute of limitations; penalties. HB 1542 (Mundon King) adds aggravated sexual battery of a child and attempted rape, sodomy, aggravated sexual battery, or object sexual penetration of a child to the list of offenses for which a failure to report subjects a mandatory reporter to criminal liability. Note this legislation incorporates HB 449 (Obenshain).

Public school teachers; licensure requirements; one-year local eligibility license; alternate routes and flexibility. SB 142 (Ruff) requires the Board of Education to include in its teacher licensure regulations provisions authorizing each school board, upon recommendation of the division superintendent or the school board and in accordance with the criteria set forth in the bill, to issue a one-year, nonrenewable local eligibility license that is only valid within the issuing school division to any individual who (i) received a baccalaureate degree from a regionally accredited institution of higher education, (ii) has experience or training in a subject or content area as the school board and division superintendent may deem appropriate for the applicable teaching position or endorsement area, and (iii) is not seeking to provide instruction in special education or eligible for collegiate professional or postgraduate professional licensure. The bill establishes several requirements, criteria, and conditions relating to a local eligibility license. The bill has an expiration date of July 1, 2030.

Workers' compensation; notice of right to dispute claim. SB 241 (McPike) requires that when an employee's workers' compensation claim is denied, an employer or insurer shall include in its letter denying benefits a notice that the employee has a right to dispute the claim denial through the Virginia Workers' Compensation Commission.

Unemployment compensation; collection of overpayments; limitations. SB 382 (Ebbin) provides that collection activities for an overpayment, provided that such overpayment was not caused by fraud on the part of the claimant, shall be suspended and that the Virginia Employment Commission shall determine as uncollectable and discharge the overpayment if it remains unpaid after the earliest of the following: (i) after the expiration of five years from the last day of the benefit year in which the overpayment was made, (ii) immediately upon the death of the claimant, (iii) upon the claimant's discharge in bankruptcy occurring subsequently to the determination of payment, or (iv) at any time where the Commission finds such overpayment to be uncollectible or the recovery of such overpayment to be administratively impracticable. As introduced, this bill was a recommendation of the Commission on Unemployment Compensation.

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

Health insurance; coverage for doula care services. HB 935 (Bolling) and SB 118 (Locke) requires health insurers, corporations providing health care subscription contracts, and health maintenance organizations whose policy, contract, or plan includes coverage for obstetrical services to provide coverage for doula care services provided by a state-certified doula. The bill requires such coverage to include coverage for at least eight visits during the antepartum or postpartum period and support during labor and delivery. The bill provides that health insurance carriers are (i) not required to pay for duplicate services actually rendered by both a state-certified doula and another health care provider and (ii) prohibited from requiring supervision, signature, or referral by any other health care provider as a condition of reimbursement for doula care services, except when those requirements are also applicable to other categories of health care providers. Such provisions of the bill are subject to a reenactment clause. The bill also requires the Health Insurance Reform Commission to consider coverage for doula care services in its review of the essential health benefits benchmark plan and to include such coverage in its recommendation to the General Assembly unless a compelling reason for excluding such coverage is identified.  The policy provisions of this legislation shall not become effective unless reenacted by the 2025 Session of the General Assembly.

Study; State Council of Higher Education for Virginia; offering reduced rate in-state tuition rates at public institutions of higher education in the Commonwealth to dependents of public school instructional, administrative, and support personnel in the Commonwealth; report. HJ 15 (Helmer) would have requested the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia to study, in collaboration with the Department of Education, the feasibility and efficacy of offering the dependents of public school instructional, administrative, and support personnel in the Commonwealth reduced rate in-state tuition at public institutions of higher education in the Commonwealth for the purpose of improving retention rates of public school instructional, administrative, and support personnel in the Commonwealth. This resolution was Continued to 2025 in House Rules.

Study; JLARC; effect of salaries, employment benefits, and other relevant factors on teacher recruitment and retention; report. HJ 53 (Batten), HJ 56 (Cordoza) and SJ 9 (Sturtevant) would have directed the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission to study the effect of salaries, employment benefits, and other relevant factors on recruiting and retaining high-quality, fully licensed teachers, including (i) examining salaries, employment benefits, and other financial benefits and incentives available to teachers in relation to teacher recruitment and retention in each local school division; (ii) identifying disparities in salaries, employment benefits, and other financial benefits and incentives available to teachers in relation to teacher recruitment and retention rates between high-poverty and rural school divisions, high-income school divisions, and the Commonwealth on average; (iii) reviewing salaries, employment benefits, and other financial benefits and incentives available to teachers in relation to the rates of teacher recruitment and retention and the numbers of fully licensed teachers in adjoining states and the District of Columbia; and (iv) identifying factors that positively impact the recruitment and retention of high-quality, fully licensed teachers.

Unemployment compensation; maximum duration of benefits. HB 82 (Fowler) would have provided that the maximum duration for which a claimant may receive unemployment compensation benefits shall be calculated based on the average, seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the Commonwealth for the three months preceding the month in which such claimant files his first claim in a benefit year.

Virginia Teacher Residency Training Corps established. HB 145 (Reid) would have established the Virginia Teacher Residency Training Corps for the purposes of attracting and retaining public elementary and secondary school teachers in school divisions in the Commonwealth by awarding scholarships to students seeking to obtain teaching degrees and certifications at participating institutions and requiring such students upon completion of their degree or certificate to fill teaching positions for one year for each year of scholarship receipt at a high-need school, as defined pursuant to federal law. The bill would have also created the Virginia Teacher Residency Training Corps Scholarship Fund and Program for the purpose of funding such scholarships at the participating institutions of Longwood University, Norfolk State University, Radford University, and Virginia Commonwealth University. Finally, the bill would have established the 12-member Virginia Teacher Residency Training Corps Commission to administer the Program and directed the Commission to begin meeting on or after September 1, 2024, and to establish the parameters for the Program and award the first scholarships prior to the beginning of the 2025-2026 academic year.

Financial reports by retirement systems; annual disclosures. HB 162 (Reid) would have required retirement systems to provide disclosures describing the process and criteria used for selecting third-party fund managers, advisers, or consultants and other persons providing services to the retirement system. Such information shall be included in a retirement system's annual report. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Appropriations.

Income tax deduction; union dues. HB 165 (Keys-Gamarra) would have provided an income tax deduction beginning in taxable year 2024 for the amount paid by an individual for union dues for participation in a labor organization.

Public schools; teachers and other relevant personnel; mental health awareness training. HB 224 (Henson) would have required each teacher and other relevant personnel, as determined by the applicable school board, employed on a full-time basis to complete mental health awareness training that addresses the needs of youth populations that are at a high risk of experiencing mental health challenges and disorders in accordance with evidence-based best practices developed by the American Psychological Association. Current law requires such teachers and personnel to complete mental health awareness training but does not contain any requirements relating to the specific topics such training must address. The bill would have prohibited any of its provisions or any policy adopted in accordance with its provisions from beig construed to permit biased or discriminatory treatment of any youth population deemed to be at a high risk of experiencing mental health challenges and disorders. Note that HB 224 passed the General Assembly but was vetoed by the Governor. 

Health insurance; cost sharing for breast examinations. HB 230 (Simonds) would have prohibited health insurance carriers from imposing cost sharing for diagnostic breast examinations and supplemental breast examinations, as those terms are defined in the bill, under certain insurance policies, subscription contracts, and health care plans delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed in the Commonwealth on and after January 1, 2025. The bill provided that such examinations include examinations using diagnostic mammography, breast magnetic resonance imaging, or breast ultrasound. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Appropriations.

Minimum wage and overtime wages; civil actions. HB 325 (Thomas) would have provided that an employer that violates minimum wage or overtime provisions is liable to the employee for the applicable remedies, damages, or other relief available in an action brought pursuant to the civil action provisions currently available for the nonpayment of wages. Such provisions currently available provide that an employee may bring an action in a court of competent jurisdiction to recover payment of the wages, and the court is required to award the wages owed, an additional equal amount as liquidated damages, plus prejudgment interest thereon, and reasonable attorney fees and costs. If the court finds that the employer knowingly failed to pay wages to an employee, the court is required award the employee an amount equal to triple the amount of wages due and reasonable attorney fees and costs. Such actions are required to be commenced within three years after the cause of action accrued.

Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact. HB 328 (Glass) and SB 407 (Durant) would have entered the Commonwealth into the Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact, the purpose of which is to facilitate the mobility of teachers across the member states, with the goal of supporting teachers through a new pathway to licensure. The Compact is presently in effect, as it has reached the enactment threshold of 10 state members. HB 328 was Continued to 2025 in House Education, while SB 407 was stricken from the docket in Senate Education and Health.

School board employees; civil cause of action against principals, division superintendents, and school boards for workplace injuries. HB 347 (Green) would have permitted any school board employee who suffers bodily injury in the course of his employment on school board property after notifying the appropriate school principal, division superintendent, or school board that a working condition or situation was reasonably likely to lead to such bodily injury to bring a civil cause of action in a court of competent jurisdiction for appropriate relief, including damages, against any such school principal, division superintendent, or school board that acted negligently, recklessly, or willfully in failing to remedy the condition or situation that led to such bodily injury. This legislation was Continued to 2025 with amendments in House Courts of Justice.

Employment; paid sick leave; civil penalties. HB 348 (Ward) would have expanded provisions of the Code that currently require one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked for home health workers to cover all employees of private employers and state and local governments. The bill would have required that employees who are employed and compensated on a fee-for-service basis accrue paid sick leave in accordance with regulations adopted by the Commissioner of Labor and Industry. The bill provided that employees transferred to a separate division or location remain entitled to previously accrued paid sick leave and that employees retain their accrued sick leave under any successor employer. The bill allowed employers to provide a more generous paid sick leave policy than prescribed by its provisions. Employees, in addition to using paid sick leave for their physical or mental illness or to care for a family member, may use paid sick leave for their need for services or relocation due to domestic abuse, sexual assault, or stalking. The bill would have provided that certain health care workers who work no more than 30 hours per month may waive the right to accrue and use paid sick leave. The bill also provided that employers are not required to provide paid sick leave to certain health care workers who are employed on a pro re nata, or as-needed, basis, regardless of the number of hours worked. The bill would have required the Commissioner to promulgate regulations regarding employee notification and employer recordkeeping requirements. The bill would have authorized the Commissioner, in the case of a knowing violation, to subject an employer to a civil penalty not to exceed $150 for the first violation, $300 for the second violation, and $500 for each successive violation. The Commissioner may institute proceedings on behalf of an employee to enforce compliance with the provisions of this bill. Additionally, an aggrieved employee is authorized to bring a civil action against the employer in which he may recover double the amount of any unpaid sick leave and the amount of any actual damages suffered as the result of the employer's violation. The bill had a delayed effective date of January 1, 2025. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Appropriations.

Employment; training and education; harassment and workplace discrimination. HB 370 (Martinez) would have required each employer with 50 or more employees, including the Commonwealth and its agencies, institutions, and political subdivisions, to provide annual interactive training and education regarding harassment and workplace discrimination, as both terms are defined in the bill, by July 1, 2025. The bill included specific training and education requirements for supervisory and nonsupervisory employees, seasonal and temporary employees who are hired to work for less than six months, and migrant and seasonal agricultural workers. The training and education required under the bill must be provided by an educator or human resources professional with knowledge and expertise in the subject matter and must include a method for employees to electronically save a certificate of completion of such training and education. The bill would have required the Department of Labor and Industry to make online courses for the required training available on its website beginning January 1, 2025.

Virginia Retirement System; investments; diversity, equity, and inclusion investing restricted. HB 388 (Griffin) would have provided that unless the Board of Trustees of the Virginia Retirement System can demonstrate that a social investment, defined in the bill, would provide a superior rate of return compared to a similar investment that is not a social investment with a similar time horizon and risk, neither the Board nor any external fiduciary utilized by the Board may invest or make recommendations regarding state funds for the purpose of social investment on or after July 1, 2024.

Reports of certain arrests and convictions of school employees; timing; method. HB 482 (Garrett) would have required any probation and parole officer who is supervising a person employed by a local school division in the Commonwealth, upon discovering that such supervised person has been arrested for or convicted of a felony offense or an equivalent offense in another state, to report such arrest or conviction to the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the designated division safety official in the local school division in which such supervised person is employed as soon as practicable but no later than 48 hours after such arrest. Current law requires such report to be made as soon as practicable. The bill also would have removed the requirement to report certain arrests and convictions of school employees enumerated in law via fax to the fax number identified for the division superintendent or the designated division safety official, as the case may be. However, the requirements in current law to make such reports via certified mail and email are preserved.

School boards; employee criminal history records checks and applications; penalty for noncompliance. HB 485 (Garrett) would have clarified that certain school board employees who are (i) employed in an in-person or remote capacity or some combination thereof or (ii) fully licensed, provisionally licensed, or unlicensed are subject to the requirements in existing law to undergo a criminal history records check and a search of the registry of founded complaints of child abuse and neglect and to disclose certain criminal history information at the employment application stage and upon arrest. The bill provided that in the event that any school board fails or refuses to perform its duty to require any employee to undergo a criminal history records check as set forth in relevant law, each individual member of such board is guilty of a Class 3 misdemeanor and his position on such school board shall be deemed vacant. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Education.

Teachers for Tomorrow Grant Program established. HB 506 (Cohen) would have required the Department of Education, with such funds as may be appropriate for such purpose pursuant to the general appropriation act, to establish and administer the Teachers for Tomorrow Grant Program whereby any school board may apply for a grant in an amount up to $250,000, to be awarded on a competitive basis, with which to expose and attract high school students in the local school division to careers in teaching through curricula, courses, and hands-on experiential learning opportunities, which may include early opportunities to earn course credit at an institution of higher education or take and pass assessments required for licensure as a teacher in the Commonwealth.

Workers' compensation; injuries caused by repetitive and sustained physical stressors. HB 531 (Krizek) would have provided that, for the purposes of the Virginia Workers' Compensation Act, "occupational disease" includes injuries or diseases from conditions resulting from repetitive and sustained physical stressors, including repetitive and sustained motions, exertions, posture stresses, contact stresses, vibrations, or noises. The bill provides that such injuries or diseases are covered under the Act and that such coverage does not require that such repetitive or sustained physical stress occurred over a particular time period, provided that the time period over which such physical stress occurred can be reasonably identified. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Appropriations.

Health insurance; coverage option for fertility services; essential health benefits benchmark plan. HB 560 (Helmer) would have required health insurance policies, subscription contracts, and health care plans to offer and make available coverage for the diagnosis and treatment of infertility and for standard fertility preservation procedures, as defined in the bill. Such coverage includes coverage for in vitro fertilization, provided that procedures are performed at medical facilities or clinics that conform to guidelines published by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology or the American Fertility Society for in vitro fertilization procedures. The bill also would have required the Health Insurance Reform Commission to consider such coverage in its 2025 review of the essential health benefits benchmark plan. The bill directed the Commission to include such coverage in its recommendation to the General Assembly for a new essential health benefits benchmark plan unless the Commission identifies a compelling reason to exclude such coverage.

Board of Education; procedure for adjusting grievances; definition of "classified instructional support staff." HB 563 (Askew) would have required the Board of Education, for the purpose of its regulations that establish the procedure for adjusting grievances, to define "classified instructional support staff" to mean any nonlicensed teacher, both nonexempt and exempt, who is employed in a local school division and involved in classroom instruction and any other full-time or part-time employee who works more than 90 days total in a 200-day school year and to include teaching assistants, long-term substitutes, site-based substitutes, temporary teachers, and other nonlicensed instructors who substitute in the place of licensed teachers. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Education.

Public schools; classified instructional support staff; competitive compensation; biennial review. HB 564 (Askew) would have declared that it is a goal of the Commonwealth that its classified instructional support staff, defined in the bill as any individual who works more than 90 days total in a 200-day school year as a substitute for a licensed teacher, be compensated at a rate that is competitive in order to provide a quality education in the absence of a licensed teacher. The bill would have required the Department of Education to conduct a biennial review of the compensation for classified instructional support staff and to consider the Commonwealth's compensation for classified instructional support staff relative to the national average teacher salary and report the results of such review to the Governor, the General Assembly, and the Board of Education by June 1 of each odd-numbered year. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Education.

Employment discrimination; employee notification of federal and state statute of limitations. HB 569 (Henson) would have required an employer that employs 10 or more employees and that receives an employee complaint alleging sexual assault, harassment, or any other form of discrimination for which the employee may seek enforcement by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) or the Office of the Attorney General to notify such employee that a charge may be filed with the EEOC or the Office of the Attorney General within 300 days after the alleged unlawful discriminatory practice occurred. The bill also would have required an employer to provide this information as part of any new employee training provided at the commencement of employment or anti-discrimination training provided to an employee. Note that HB 569 passed the General Assembly but was vetoed by the Governor. 

Health insurance; coverage for polycystic ovary syndrome. HB 604 (Price) would have required health insurers, health maintenance organizations, and corporations providing health care coverage subscription contracts to provide coverage for the treatment of polycystic ovary syndrome, as defined in the bill, diagnosed by a licensed physician or health care provider, including diagnosis by a gynecologist, endocrinologist, primary care physician, pediatrician, nurse practitioner, dermatologist, or infertility specialist. The bill specified the types of treatment covered for polycystic ovary syndrome and applies to policies, contracts, and plans delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed on or after January 1, 2025.

Board of Social Work; licensure of clinical social workers; examination alternative; regulation amendments. HB 606 (Price) would have directed the Board of Social Work to amend the regulations for the licensure of clinical social workers to allow applicants to utilize an examination alternative, which shall consist of at least 1,500 hours of supervised experience that is obtained within the five calendar years immediately preceding the date of application. The bill clarified that the examination alternative shall be in addition to any other supervised clinical experience required for licensure.

Health insurance; coverage for diabetes. HB 610 (Price) would have required 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 allowed 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 would have repealed 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 applied to insurance policies, contracts, and plans issued for delivery, reissued, extended, or amended on and after January 1, 2025. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Appropriations.

Public school staffing and funding; National Teacher Certification Incentive Reward Program and Fund; At-Risk Program; English language learner students HB 624 (Rasoul) and SB 105 (Lucas) would have renamed the National Teacher Certification Incentive Reward Program and Fund as the National Board Certification Incentive Reward Program and Fund, expanded eligibility for incentive grant awards from such Fund pursuant to such Program from solely teachers who have obtained national certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards to all public school staff who are candidates for initial national certification or maintenance of national certification to cover certain costs of obtaining or maintaining such certification and all public school staff who have successfully obtained or maintained such certification, and permitted certain teachers to apply for additional incentive grants pursuant to such Program and Fund. The bills also would have established the At-Risk Program for the purpose of supporting programs and services for students who are educationally at risk, including prevention, intervention, or remediation activities required pursuant to relevant law, teacher recruitment programs and initiatives, programs for English language learners, the hiring of additional school counselors and other support staff, and other programs relating to increasing the success of disadvantaged students in completing a high school degree and providing opportunities to encourage further education and training. The bills also contained provisions relating to certain funding requirements for the At-Risk Program. Finally, the bills would have required state funding to be provided pursuant to the general appropriation act to support ratios of instructional positions to English language learner students based on each such student's English proficiency level, as established in the general appropriation act. Note that both HB 624 and SB 105 passed the General Assembly but were vetoed by the Governor. 

Virginia Retirement System; additional service credit. HB 687 (O’Quinn) would have allowed an individual who serves concurrently as a full-time primary or secondary school teacher and as a full-time school bus driver to receive additional service credit in the Virginia Retirement System for providing such services. The bill specified that the amount of credit allowable shall be equivalent to the amount of credit that the individual would earn if he were employed only as a full-time school bus driver.

National Teacher Certification Incentive Reward Program and Fund; eligibility; incentive grant awards. HB 708 (Maldonado) would have renamed the National Teacher Certification Incentive Reward Program and Fund as the National Board Certification Incentive Reward Program and Fund, expands eligibility for incentive grant awards from such Fund pursuant to such Program from solely teachers who have obtained national certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards to (i) all public school staff who are candidates for initial national certification or maintenance of national certification to cover certain costs of obtaining or maintaining such certification and (ii) all public school staff who have successfully obtained or maintained such certification. The bill would have also declared as eligible for an annual incentive grant award in the amount of $7,500 all public school staff who have obtained or maintained such certification. Current law declares as eligible for an annual incentive grant award of $5,000 in the first year and $2,500 in each subsequent year all teachers who have obtained or maintained such certification.

Health insurance; cost-sharing payments for insulin and diabetes equipment and supplies; limit. HB 760 (Delaney) would have decreased the cap on the cost-sharing payment that a covered person is required to pay for a covered prescription insulin drug from $50 to $35 for a 30-day supply of the prescription insulin drug and provides such cap is an aggregate cap that applies in situations where the covered person is prescribed more than one insulin drug. The bill also would have established such an aggregate cap of $35 for a 30-day supply of diabetes equipment and supplies.

Health insurance; coverage for contraceptive drugs and devices. HB 819 (Mundon King) and SB 238 (Hashmi) would have required health insurance carriers to provide coverage, under any health insurance contract, policy, or plan that includes coverage for prescription drugs on an outpatient basis, for contraceptive drugs and contraceptive devices, as defined in the bills, including those available over-the-counter. The bills would have prohibited a health insurance carrier from imposing upon any person receiving contraceptive benefits pursuant to the provisions of the bill any copayment, coinsurance payment, or fee, except in certain circumstances. Note that both HB 819 and SB 238 passed the General Assembly but were vetoed by the Governor. 

Health insurance; coverage for therapeutic day treatment services. HB 864 (Clark) would have required health insurers providing health care plans to provide coverage for therapeutic day treatment services for children with serious emotional disturbances, defined in the in bill as children who have a mental illness diagnosis and have experienced functional limitations due to emotional disturbance, including experiencing a school shooting or the loss of a loved one in a school setting, over the past 12 months on a continuous or intermittent basis. Under the bill, "therapeutic day treatment services" are treatment programs that combine psychotherapeutic interventions with education and mental health and may include evaluation; medication education and management; opportunities to learn and use daily living skills and to enhance social and interpersonal skills; and individual, group, and family counseling. The bill applied to plans delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed on and after January 1, 2025. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Labor and Commerce.

Local government employees; expression of certain opinions protected. HB 867 (Earley) would have provided that an employee of a locality shall not be penalized by his employer for expressing his opinion regarding a current or proposed regulation, rule, policy, position, or other action or purpose of a public body at an open meeting of such public body when such employee is speaking on his own behalf. The bill excludes any speech that is unprotected under the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, including speech that (i) incites violence; (ii) is obscene, defamatory, or fraudulent; or (iii) discloses privileged and confidential information. The bill specifies that for purposes of this provision an employee of a locality does not include any person appointed to a position in a locality by an elected official or by a government body composed in whole or in part of elected officials.

Health insurance; coverage for contraceptive drugs and devices. HB 902 (Srinivasan) would have required health insurance carriers to provide coverage, under any health insurance contract, policy, or plan that includes coverage for prescription drugs on an outpatient basis, for any contraceptive drug or contraceptive device, as defined in the bill, available for purchase with or without a prescription. The bill would have prohibited a health insurance carrier from imposing upon any person receiving contraceptive benefits pursuant to the provisions of the bill any copayment, coinsurance payment, or fee, except in certain circumstances. The provisions of the bill would have applied to health insurance contracts, policies, or plans delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed on and after January 1, 2025.

Health insurance; cost-sharing requirements for the treatment of cancer; prohibited for individuals 18 years of age or younger. HB 903 (Srinivasan) would have prohibited any (i) insurer proposing to issue individual or group accident and sickness insurance policies providing hospital, medical and surgical, or major medical coverage on an expense-incurred basis; (ii) corporation providing individual or group accident and sickness subscription contracts; and (iii) health maintenance organization providing a health care plan for health care services from imposing (a) any cost-sharing requirement for the treatment of cancer and (b) if the policy, contract, or plan, including any certificate or evidence of coverage issued in connection with such policy, contract, or plan, includes coverage for medicines, any cost-sharing requirement for a covered prescription drug for the treatment of cancer in an enrollee who is 18 years of age or younger under such policy, contract, or plan delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed in the Commonwealth. The bill would have applied with respect to health plans and provider contracts entered into, amended, extended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2025.

Unemployment insurance; benefit eligibility conditions; lockout exception to labor dispute disqualification. HB 938 (Bolling) and SB 542 (Bagby) would have amended the Virginia Unemployment Compensation Act's labor dispute disqualification to provide that a lockout by an employer shall not constitute a labor dispute and that locked-out employees who are otherwise eligible for benefits shall receive such benefits unless (i) the recognized or certified collective bargaining representative of the locked-out employees refuses to meet under reasonable conditions with the employer to discuss the issues giving rise to the lockout, (ii) there is a final adjudication under the federal National Labor Relations Act that such representative has refused to bargain in good faith with the employer, or (iii) the lockout is the direct result of such representative's violation of an existing collective bargaining agreement. Note that both HB 938 and SB 542 passed the General Assembly but were vetoed by the Governor. 

Building service employees; public contracting. HB 951 (Lopez) would have permitted any county, city, or town in the Commonwealth to provide for certain requirements concerning incumbent and successor service employers, defined in the bill, by local ordinance or resolution. For example, such local ordinance or resolution may require that successor service employers retain incumbent service employees during a transition period of 90 days. Under the bill, service employees are those who perform work in connection with the care or maintenance of property, services at an airport, or food preparation services at schools. The bill provided that a employer that violates the provisions of a local ordinance or resolution enacted pursuant to the bill may be subject to a civil action and monetary damages. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in Senate Finance and Appropriations.

Workers' compensation; presumption that certain injuries arose out of employment. HB 974 (Keys-Gamarra) would have provided that in any claim for workers' compensation, where the employee suffers an unexplained fall in the course of employment, such employee may satisfy the burden of proof by circumstantial evidence, testimony of others, other evidence, or any combination thereof. Note that HB 974 passed the General Assembly but was vetoed by the Governor.

Prohibiting employer seeking wage or salary history of prospective employees; wage or salary range transparency; cause of action. HB 990 (Maldonado) and SB 370 (Boysko) would have prohibited a prospective employer from (i) seeking the wage or salary history of a prospective employee; (ii) relying on the wage or salary history of a prospective employee in determining the wages or salary the prospective employee is to be paid upon hire; (iii) relying on the wage or salary history of a prospective employee in considering the prospective employee for employment; (iv) refusing to interview, hire, employ, or promote a prospective employee or otherwise retaliating against a prospective employee for not providing wage or salary history; and (v) failing or refusing to disclose in each public and internal posting for each job, promotion, transfer, or other employment opportunity the wage, salary, or wage or salary range. The bill would have established a cause of action for an aggrieved prospective employee or employee and provides that an employer that violates such prohibitions is liable to the aggrieved prospective employee or employee for statutory damages between $1,000 and $10,000 or actual damages, whichever is greater, reasonable attorney fees and costs, and any other legal and equitable relief as may be appropriate. Note that both HB 980 and SB 370 passed the General Assembly but were vetoed by the Governor.

Collective bargaining by public employees; labor organization representation. HB 1001 (Tran) would have repealed the existing prohibition on collective bargaining by public employees. The bill would have created the Public Employee Relations Board, which shall determine appropriate bargaining units and provide for certification and decertification elections for exclusive bargaining representatives of state employees and local government employees. The bill would have required public employers and employee organizations that are exclusive bargaining representatives to meet at reasonable times to negotiate in good faith with respect to wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment. The bill would have repealed a provision that declares that, in any procedure providing for the designation, selection, or authorization of a labor organization to represent employees, the right of an individual employee to vote by secret ballot is a fundamental right that shall be guaranteed from infringement. This bill incorporated HB 780 (Callsen).

Sex offenses prohibiting working on school property; penalty. HB 1026 (Wilt) would have added certain offenses involving children, including kidnapping, trafficking, sex crimes, and prostitution and commercial sex crimes, to the list of offenses that would prohibit an adult if convicted of such offense from working or engaging in any volunteer activity on property he knows or has reason to know is a public or private elementary or secondary school or child day center. A violation of any such offense is a Class 6 felony.

Health insurance; employee welfare benefit plans; pharmacy audit protections. HB 1136 (Hodges) would have required contracts and provider contracts between an entity providing or administering self-insured or self-funded employee welfare benefit plans and an intermediary or a participating pharmacy provider or its contracting agent, pursuant to which such entity or intermediary has the right or obligation to conduct audits of participating pharmacy providers, to contain certain terms and provisions relating to such audits.

Health insurance; coverage for physical therapy; outpatient visit limit. HB 1142 (Cordoza) would have prohibited (i) insurers proposing to issue individual or group accident and sickness insurance policies providing hospital, medical and surgical, or major medical coverage on an expense-incurred basis; (ii) corporations providing individual or group accident and sickness subscription contracts; and (iii) health maintenance organizations providing a health care plan for health care services, whose policies, contracts, or plans include coverage for physical therapy from imposing a limit on the number of outpatient visits for physical therapy for an insured individual with chronic disease, as defined in the bill.

Teacher compensation; at or above national average; various annual salary adjustments. HB 1152 (Cordoza) would have required that public school teachers be compensated at a rate that is at or above the national average for each step or level on a years of experience-based pay scale. Under current law, compensation at such rate is aspirational, and such aspirational rate is silent on compensation variations based on experience. The foregoing provisions of the bill had a delayed effective date of July 1, 2025. The bill also would have provided that (i) effective for the 2024-2025 school year, each teacher in each school division, Academic Year Governor's School, and Regional Alternative Education Program shall be awarded a cost-of-living compensation adjustment in an amount or percentage to be determined in the general appropriation act and (ii) effective beginning with the 2025-2026 school year, state funding shall be provided pursuant to the general appropriation act in a sum sufficient to fund a 12 percent annual increase for teacher salaries in each school division, Academic Year Governor's School, and Regional Alternative Education Program.

Benefits consortium for localities. HB 1153 (Cordoza) would have authorized the governing bodies of three or more cities, counties, or school boards to form a benefits consortium for the purpose of establishing a self-funded employee welfare benefit plan. Under current law, such governing bodies or school boards are authorized to form such a benefits consortium if they comprised the membership of a multiple employer welfare arrangement as of December 31, 2014. Such a benefits consortium is required to be a nonstock corporation established to operate a benefits plan. Each member of the benefits consortium is contractually liable for its allocated share of the consortium's liabilities, and the benefits consortium is exempt from taxation and from insurance regulations.

Virginia Human Rights Act; dual-filed civil actions. HB 1329 (Simon) would have clarified timelines for dual-filing complaints alleging unlawful discrimination under the Virginia Human Rights Act and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The bill would have allowed either the complainant or the respondent for any charge of discrimination to request a notice of the right to file a civil action after the Commission has closed its file on such charge of discrimination.

Employee protection; prohibited retaliation; prohibited nondisclosure and nondisparagement provisions; civil action. HB 1344 (McQuinn) would have prohibited the inclusion of a provision in any employment contract that has the purpose or effect of concealing illegal activity or activity an employee believes to be unlawful, including unlawful sexual harassment, discrimination, wage theft, and protected whistleblowing, as those terms are described in existing law. Under the bill's provisions, no employer shall discharge or otherwise retaliate against an employee, prospective employee, or independent contractor for disclosing or discussing conduct that such employee reasonably believes to be discrimination, including harassment, retaliation, a wage or hour violation, sexual assault, fraud against taxpayers, shareholders, the government, consumers, or other employees, or other conduct that is against a clear mandate of public policy. An employer that violates the provisions of the bill shall be liable for the greater of actual damages or statutory damages of $10,000, as well as reasonable attorney fees and costs. The bill also would have required employers to include in any settlement agreement or employment agreement with an employee a disclaimer that such agreement does not prohibit an employee from disclosing conduct as protected under the bill. The provisions of the bill applied to contracts entered into, renewed, modified, or amended on or after July 1, 2024. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Labor and Commerce.

School boards; teachers; terms of employment; employment verification; requirement. HB 1384 (Milde) would have required each school board to provide written verification of employment within 10 days of receipt of any request for employment verification from a former employee of the school board.

Income tax deduction; union dues. HB 1470 (Keys-Gamarra) would have provided an income tax deduction beginning in taxable year 2024 for the amount paid by an individual for union dues for participation in a labor organization. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Finance.

E-Verify program. SB 185 (Sturtevant) would have required every employer to enroll in the E-Verify program by January 1, 2025, and to use the program for each newly hired employee who is to perform work within the Commonwealth. Under current law, only state agencies and certain employers with contracts with state agencies are required to use the program. The bill also would have required the Attorney General to request the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, once each calendar quarter, to provide a list of agencies and employers that are enrolled and participate in the E-Verify program and to make such list available on the Attorney General's website.

Health insurance; disclosure of summary health information. SB 202 (Diggs) would have required, to the extent permitted by various protected health information privacy laws, a group health plan that has 50 or more participants to disclose information that summarizes the claims history, claims expenses, or type of claims experienced by individuals for whom a plan sponsor has provided health benefits under a group health plan to the plan sponsor if the plan sponsor requests the summary health information for the purposes of (i) obtaining premium bids from health plans for providing health insurance coverage under the group health plan or (ii) modifying, amending, or terminating the group health plan.

Building service employees; public contracting. SB 247 (McPike) would have permitted any county, city, or town in the Commonwealth to provide for certain requirements concerning incumbent and successor building service employers, defined in the bill, by local ordinance or resolution. For example, such local ordinance or resolution may require that successor building service employers retain incumbent employees during a transition period of 90 days. Under the bill, building service employees are those who perform work in connection with the care or maintenance of property, services at an airport, or food preparation services at schools. The bill provided that a building service employer that violates the provisions of a local ordinance or resolution enacted pursuant to the bill may be subject to a civil action and monetary damages. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in Senate Finance and Appropriations.

Paid family and medical leave insurance program; notice requirements; civil action. SB 373 (Boysko) would have required the Virginia Employment Commission to establish and administer a paid family and medical leave insurance program with benefits beginning January 1, 2027. Under the program, benefits are paid to covered individuals, as defined in the bill, for family and medical leave. The bill specified that covered individuals shall not include state employees, constitutional and other local officers, and employees of local school divisions and that funding for the program is provided through premiums assessed to employers and employees beginning January 1, 2026. The bill provided that the amount of a benefit is 80 percent of the employee's average weekly wage, not to exceed 80 percent of the state weekly wage, which amount is required to be adjusted annually to reflect changes in the statewide average weekly wage. The bill capped the duration of paid leave at 12 weeks in any application year and provides self-employed individuals the option of participating in the program. Finally, the bill would have required the Commission to update its 2021 Paid Family and Medical Leave study to include an assessment of the budgetary impacts of extending the benefits of the program to exempt individuals. Note that SB 373 passed the General Assembly but was vetoed by the Governor. 

Collective bargaining by public employees; labor organization representation. SB 374 (Boysko) would have repealed the existing prohibition on collective bargaining by public employees. The bill creates the Public Employee Relations Board, which shall determine appropriate bargaining units and provide for certification and decertification elections for exclusive bargaining representatives of state employees and local government employees. The bill requires public employers and employee organizations that are exclusive bargaining representatives to meet at reasonable times to negotiate in good faith with respect to wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment. The bill repeals a provision that declares that, in any procedure providing for the designation, selection, or authorization of a labor organization to represent employees, the right of an individual employee to vote by secret ballot is a fundamental right that shall be guaranteed from infringement.

Health insurance; limit on cost-sharing payments for prescription drugs under certain plans. SB 376 (Boysko) would have required 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 provided 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 applied with respect to health plans entered into, amended, extended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2025. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in Senate Commerce and Labor..

Workers' compensation; injuries caused by repetitive and sustained physical stressors. SB 520 (Williams Graves) would have provided that, for the purposes of the Virginia Workers' Compensation Act, "occupational disease" includes injuries or diseases from conditions resulting from repetitive and sustained physical stressors, including repetitive and sustained motions, exertions, posture stresses, contact stresses, vibrations, or noises. The bill would have provided that such injuries or diseases are covered under the Act and that such coverage does not require that such repetitive or sustained physical stress occurred over a particular time period, provided that the time period over which such physical stress occurred can be reasonably identified. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in Senate Finance and Appropriations.

Virginia Retirement System; return to work; break in service. SB 548 (Craig) would have reduced, from six months to one month, the length of the required break in service after retirement for a teacher, bus driver, specialized student support instructor, or law-enforcement officer before such person may return to work full time and continue to receive his pension under the Virginia Retirement System (VRS). This legislation was Continued to 2025 in Senate Finance and Appropriations.

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. 

Note: 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.

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.

Department of Energy; building standards for certain local buildings. HB 151 (Helmer) and SB 245 (McPike) require the Department of Energy, upon request, to provide technical assistance to localities, subject to available budgetary resources, as localities implement mandates related to onsite renewable energy generation, energy storage, and resilience standards for construction or renovation of certain public buildings. The bills also make several technical and clarifying changes to the existing statute, in part by defining or redefining existing terms found in the statute. 

Early childhood care and education; child day programs; use of office buildings; waiver of zoning requirements. HB 281 (Reaser) and SB 13 (Favola) permit any locality to by ordinance provide for the waiver of any requirements for zoning permits for the operation of a child day program in an office building, as defined by the bills, provided that such facility satisfies the requirements for state licensure as a child day program.

School Construction Program and Fund; career and technical education programs eligible. HB 462 (Runion) and SB 474 (Obenshain) clarify that, for the purposes of eligibility to receive grants through the School Construction Fund and Program, "local school division" includes any joint or regional school established in accordance with relevant law and "public school buildings and facilities" or "public school buildings" include any building or facility used for career and technical education programs provided at any such joint or regional school. 

Virginia Public Procurement Act; construction management and design-build contracting. HB 1108 (Carr) and SB 18 (Locke) require state public bodies, covered institutions, and local public bodies to provide documentation of the processes used for the final selection of a construction contract to all the unsuccessful applicants upon request. The bills add certain requirements for covered institutions, including posting all documents that are open to public inspection exchanged between the Department of General Services and the covered institution on the central electronic procurement website eVA. The bills require approval by a majority vote of the covered institution's board of visitors or governing board if the covered institution chooses to proceed with construction management or design-build against the recommendation of the Department for (i) projects funded by funds other than those provided from the state general fund or (ii) projects of $65 million or more funded in whole or in part from state general funds. For projects under $65 million funded in whole or in part by state general funds, the bills provide that the covered institution shall obtain approval from the Chairmen of the House Committee on Appropriations and the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriations, or their designees, and a representative of the Department.  The bills require a local public body to adopt a resolution or motion to use construction management or design-build, if required by its local governing body, prior to issuing a Request for Qualifications and to publish notice of such resolution or motion on its website or eVA. The bills provide that the Department shall report annually, for any construction management or design-build project, on the qualifications that made such project complex. Finally, the bills require the Department, with the assistance of staff of the House Committee on Appropriations and the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriations, to assess the implementation and administration of construction management and design-build projects and report its findings and recommendations to the General Assembly by November 1, 2029. This legislation incorporates HB 965 (Lopez).

Virginia Public Procurement Act; methods of procurement; certain construction projects. HB 1116 (Carr) allows a public body to establish purchase procedures, if adopted in writing, not requiring competitive sealed bids or competitive negotiation for single or term contracts for non-transportation-related construction projects if the aggregate or the sum of all phases is not expected to exceed $300,000. Current law places the limit at $200,000.

Net energy metering; solar interconnection; cost recovery. HB 117 (Sullivan) would have provided that an electric distribution company shall pay 33 cents ($0.33) per kilowatt-hour per day for the costs of lost electricity production for any and all delays beyond the regulatory notice period required by the State Corporation Commission related to net energy metering. The bill would have required that, for the purposes of net energy metering, an eligible customer-generator shall bear all reasonable costs of equipment required at the eligible customer-generator's premises for the interconnection to the supplier's electric distribution system, including commercially reasonable costs of additional controls, tests, or liability insurance. Additionally, the bill would have allowed for cost recovery by Phase I and Phase II Utilities for electric distribution grid transformation projects that support the interconnection of generating facilities using energy derived from sunlight that are owned or contracted by eligible customer-generators, subject to the Commission finding those costs to be reasonable and prudent in accordance with existing law.

Department of Education; review physical accessibility challenges in public schools; report. HB 618 (Price) would have required the Department of Education, in consultation with each school board, the Virginia Board for People with Disabilities, and such other stakeholders as it deems appropriate, to review the extent to which (i) public elementary and secondary school buildings and grounds in the Commonwealth present physical accessibility challenges and barriers for individuals with disabilities, including challenges and barriers that may prevent such individuals from fully participating in school activities; (ii) such schools have begun or plan to address and eliminate such challenges and barriers; and (iii) state agencies can assist such schools to address and eliminate such challenges and barriers and fully comply with all applicable state and federal laws. The bill would have required the Department of Education to report its findings and any associated recommendations to the Board, the Governor, the General Assembly, and each local school board no later than November 1, 2024.

Public school buildings; indoor air quality standards. HB 936 (Bolling) would have established several enumerated requirements for school boards to ensure indoor air quality in each public school building in the local school division, including (i) identifying a designated individual to oversee the establishment of and adherence to a preventive maintenance schedule for the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system in each such building and the implementation of the use of general or local exhaust ventilation in areas of each such building where housekeeping and maintenance activities involve the use of equipment or products that could reasonably be expected to result in hazardous chemical or particulate exposures, among other things; (ii) controlling microbial and fungal contamination in each such building by promptly repairing water intrusion that can promote microbial or fungal growth; (iii) ensuring indoor air quality during renovation and remodeling or new construction in various ways; and (iv) keeping school building system maintenance records. The bill also would have required the Department of Education to establish and administer a school board employee complaint and resolution process relating to indoor air quality in public school buildings.

Uniform Statewide Building Code; temporary prohibition on modifications. HB 950 (Lopez) would have provided that neither the Governor nor the Board of Housing and Community Development shall modify any regulation in the Uniform Statewide Building Code prior to the conclusion of the Commonwealth's next triennial code development process. Note that HB 950 passed the General Assembly but was vetoed by the Governor. 

Virginia Public Procurement Act; construction management and design-build contracting; applicability. HB 1191 (Sickles) would have stated that design-bid-build, defined in the bill, utilizing competitive sealed bidding is the preferred method of procurement for construction services in the Commonwealth. Complex projects, defined in the bill, may request an exemption from the provisions of the bill and relevant law from the Division of Engineering and Buildings of the Department of General Services. The bill would have required all documents related to the proposed use of construction management or design-build by state public bodies and institutions of higher education and any available subcontractor opportunities to be posted on eVA. The bill would have transferred from the Department of General Services to the Division of Engineering and Buildings the authority to evaluate the proposed use of construction management or design-build by state public bodies and institutions of higher education and specifies that a local governing body must approve at a public meeting the use of construction management or design-build by a local public body. Finally, the bill would have prohibited state public bodies, institutions of higher education, and local governing bodies from considering prior construction management or design-build experience of contractors on comparable projects.

Solar-ready roofs for certain government buildings; net-zero energy consumption building design for schools. HB 1456 (Carr) would have required any executive branch agency or institution and any locality entering the design phase for the construction of a new building greater than 5,000 gross square feet in size, or the renovation of a building where the cost of the renovation exceeds 50 percent of the value of the building, to ensure that such building includes a solar-ready, cool, or energy-efficient roof, defined in the bill. The bill also would have required new public school buildings and facilities and improvements and renovations to existing public school buildings and facilities where the cost of the renovation exceeds 50 percent of the value of the building to, after notice is given to the governing body, be designed and constructed to meet net-zero energy consumption standards. The provisions of this bill only would have applied to projects entering the design phase on or after January 1, 2025.

Cash proffers; development rights. HB 1501 (Milde) would have provided that cash payments proffered pursuant to § 15.2-2298, 15.2-2303, or 15.2-2303.1 may be used for the purpose of extinguishing development rights elsewhere in the locality if the development rights to be extinguished are greater than the development rights being granted and the extinguishing of those development rights results in a perpetual conservation easement. The bill also would have provided that cash payments proffered may be used to seek matching funds from the Virginia Land Conservation Foundation and the Virginia Farmland Preservation Fund.

Solar-ready roofs for certain government buildings; net-zero energy consumption building design for schools. SB 79 (Favola) would have required any executive branch agency or institution and any locality entering the design phase for the construction of a new building greater than 5,000 gross square feet in size, or the renovation of a building where the cost of the renovation exceeds 50 percent of the value of the building, to ensure that such building includes infrastructure for renewable energy systems. The bill also would have required the Department of Energy to convene a work group to make recommendations on how to implement renovations to existing public school buildings and facilities. The provisions of this bill would have only applied to projects entering the design phase on or after January 1, 2026.

Compost and other products containing organic soil amendments infrastructure; civil penalty. SB 329 (Surovell) would have allowed a locality by ordinance to require certain generators, as defined in the bill, of large quantities of organic waste to separate the organic waste from other solid waste and ensure that the organic waste is diverted from final disposal in a refuse disposal system. The bill would have allowed a locality to establish civil penalties for violations of such ordinance but requires the locality to issue a warning to a generator that violates the ordinance prior to collecting such a civil penalty. Finally, the bill would have expressed that it is the intent of the General Assembly that new public school buildings and facilities and improvements and renovations to existing public school buildings and facilities include waste disposal infrastructure, as defined in the bill. Note that SB 329 passed the General Assembly but was vetoed by the Governor.

Net energy metering; solar interconnection; cost recovery. SB 346 (Subramanyam) would have provided that an electric distribution company shall pay $1 per kilowatt per day for the costs of lost electricity production for any and all delays beyond the regulatory notice period required by State Corporation Commission related to net energy metering. The bill would have required that, for the purposes of net energy metering, an eligible customer-generator shall bear all reasonable costs of equipment required at the eligible customer-generator's side of the meter for the interconnection to the supplier's electric distribution system, including reasonable and prudent costs of additional controls, tests, or liability insurance. Additionally, the bill would have allowed for cost recovery by Phase I and Phase II Utilities for electric distribution grid transformation projects that support the interconnection of generating facilities using energy derived from sunlight that are owned or contracted by eligible customer-generators, subject to the Commission finding those costs to be reasonable and prudent in accordance with existing law. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in Senate Commerce and Labor.

Energy efficiency and climate standards; more stringent energy efficiency and climate requirements. SB 409 (Boysko) would have allowed a locality by ordinance to adopt and require compliance with stretch codes, as defined in the bill, for the construction or rehabilitation of buildings within the locality that are in addition to or more stringent than those in the Uniform Statewide Building Code, and use them as an alternative means of compliance with a locality's building requirements. The bill would have required periodic review of the codes and allowed the locality to make amendments.

Virginia Clean Energy Innovation Bank; established; report. SB 729 (Surovell) would have created the Virginia Clean Energy Innovation Bank to finance clean energy projects, greenhouse gas emissions reduction projects, and other qualified projects through the strategic deployment of public funds in the form of grants, loans, credit enhancements, and other financing mechanisms. The Bank would have been governed by a 12-member Board of Directors, consisting of nine nonlegislative citizen members and three ex officio members with voting privileges, who include the Director of the Department of Energy, the Chief Executive Officer of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership Authority, and the State Treasurer or their designees. The bill provided that the nonlegislative citizen members are to be appointed as follows: four members by the Senate Committee on Rules, four members by the Speaker of the House of Delegates, and one member by the Governor, each of whom are required to have expertise in real estate, finance, or project development or legal expertise in zero-emission or low-emission energy generation, infrastructure, transportation, agriculture, storm water management, or housing. The bill contained provisions for (i) the appointment of a president and the hiring of staff, (ii) the powers and duties of the Bank, (iii) lending practices, (iv) a strategic plan, (v) an investment strategy, (vi) public outreach requirements, (vii) audits, (viii) exemptions from taxes and from personnel and procurement procedures, and (ix) reporting requirements. Note that SB 729 passed the General Assembly but was vetoed by the Governor. 

Public schools; fire drills; timing and frequency. HB 66 (Campbell) requires every public school to hold fire drills during the school session in accordance with the requirements of the Statewide Fire Prevention Code. Current law requires such fire drills to be conducted at least twice during the first 20 school days of each school session and at least twice more during the remainder of the school session.

School building evacuation plans, policies, and protocols; students with mobility impairments. HB 501 (Cohen) requires any divisionwide or public elementary or secondary school-specific school building evacuation plan, policy, or protocol to include provisions that seek to maximize the opportunity for students with mobility impairments to evacuate the school building alongside their non-mobility-impaired peers.

Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety; school safety audits; list of items required to be reviewed. HB 561 (Askew) requires the Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety to include specific technology systems in the list of items to be reviewed and evaluated in required annual school safety audits.

Reduction of speed limits; local authority. HB 1071 (Carr) expands the current authority of any locality to reduce the speed limit to less than 25 miles per hour, but not less than 15 miles per hour, on highways within its boundaries that are located in a business district or residence district to include highways within the state highway system, provided that such reduced speed limit is indicated by lawfully placed signs. The bill authorizes a locality to restore a speed limit that has been reduced pursuant to this authority and requires the locality to notify the Commissioner of Highways of a change in speed limit. This legislation incorporates HB 793 (Henson).

School bus video-monitoring system; citations. HB 1362 (Maldonado) prohibits a contract between a private vendor and a school division for the operation of school bus video-monitoring systems to capture passing stopped school bus violations from requiring a minimum quota of violations captured or citations issued for the video-monitoring system to be deployed.

Alert for missing or endangered children; Virginia Critical Operation for a Disappeared Child Initiative (Codi) Alert Program. HB 1388 (Anthony) and SB 201 (Diggs) create a program for local, regional, or statewide notification of a missing or endangered child. The bills define a missing or endangered child as a child (i) who is 17 years of age or younger or is currently enrolled in a secondary school in the Commonwealth, regardless of age; (ii) whose whereabouts are unknown; and (iii) whose disappearance is under suspicious circumstances or poses a credible threat as determined by law enforcement to the safety and health of the child and under such other circumstances as deemed appropriate by the Virginia State Police. The bills require the Virginia State Police to develop, in consultation with representatives of local law-enforcement agencies, including representatives from the Virginia Sheriffs' Association and the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police, policies for the establishment of uniform standards for the creation of Codi Alert Programs throughout the Commonwealth. (added 6/3)

Photo speed monitoring devices; high-risk intersection segments. SB 336 (Roem) permits a state or local law-enforcement agency to place and operate a photo speed monitoring device at a high-risk intersection segment, defined in the bill, located within the locality for the purpose of recording violations resulting from the operation of a vehicle in excess of the speed limit, provided that such law-enforcement agency certifies that a traffic fatality has occurred since January 1, 2014, in such segment. The bill provides the same requirements for such devices, information collected from such devices, and any enforcement actions resulting from information collected from such devices as current law applies to the use of such devices in school crossing zones and highway work zones.

Photo speed monitoring devices; location. HB 20 (Jones) would have authorized the governing body of any county, city, or town to provide by ordinance for the placement and operation of photo speed monitoring devices in any location deemed necessary by the locality for the purposes of recording violations resulting from the operation of a vehicle in excess of the speed limit. The bill provided the same requirements for such devices, information collected from such devices, and any enforcement actions resulting from information collected from such devices as current law applies to the use of such devices in school crossing zones and highway work zones. The bill would have required that two signs, rather than one, be placed warning of such device if the device is placed somewhere other than a school crossing zone or highway work zone. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Transportation.

Public schools; threat assessment teams; duties; annual meeting with chief law-enforcement officer of locality or a designee from the local law-enforcement agency. HB 72 (Green) would have required the threat assessment team established by the division superintendent for each public elementary or secondary school to meet at least annually on school grounds with the chief law-enforcement officer of the locality or a designee from the local law-enforcement agency to determine potential safety hazards or points of vulnerability on such grounds or in the school building and to discuss and promote active shooter prevention and natural disaster preparedness.

Reimbursement of expenses incurred in responding to terrorism hoax incident, bomb threat, malicious activation of fire alarm, or false emergency communication to emergency personnel. HB 147 (Reid) and SB 656 (Favola) would have allowed a locality that has an ordinance requiring any person over 18 years of age convicted of false emergency communication to emergency personnel to reimburse such locality at the time of sentencing or in a separate civil action to bill a flat fee of $2,500 or a minute-by-minute accounting of actual costs incurred. The bills also would have allowed a locality that has an ordinance requiring any person under 18 years of age convicted of false emergency communication to emergency personnel to reimburse such locality at the time of sentencing or in a separate civil action to bill a flat fee of $2,500 or a minute-by-minute accounting of actual costs incurred, not to exceed $2,500. Current law allows a flat fee of $250 or a minute-by-minute accounting of actual costs incurred, in an amount not to exceed $2,500.

Carrying a concealed handgun with a permit; public parking lots. HB 289 (Wiley) would have provided that a concealed handgun permit holder may store his firearms or other weapons in a motor vehicle in a publicly or privately owned parking lot, traffic circle, or other means of vehicular ingress or egress to property that is open to the public regardless if such firearms or weapons are prohibited by the owner of such area.

Board of Education; Standards of Quality; Standards of School Safety. HB 495 (Garrett) would have required the Board of Education, in collaboration with the Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety and such other stakeholders as it deems appropriate, to establish pursuant to regulation the Standards of School Safety for the purpose of assessing school safety in each local school division in the Commonwealth and each school building therein based on such objective, quantifiable measures of safety as the Board deems appropriate. The bill would have required the Board to incorporate compliance with the Standards of School Safety as a school and school division accountability measure for the purposes of the Standards of Accreditation.

Transportation projects; highway safety. HB 532 (Seibold) would have prohibited the initiation of any transportation project in an established school crossing zone unless a pedestrian safety-focused road safety audit is conducted and its recommendations are incorporated into the project plan. The bill would have required the Commonwealth Transportation Board, in administering the Virginia Highway Safety Improvement Program, to prioritize infrastructure projects that address a hazardous road location or feature or address an identified highway safety problem located in a school crossing zone.

Home-based firearms dealers; prohibited near schools; penalties. HB 585 (Mundon King) would have provided that no home-based firearms dealer, as defined in the bill, shall be engaged in the business of selling, trading, or transferring firearms at wholesale or retail within 1.5 miles of any elementary or middle school, including buildings and grounds. The bill would have provided that any person who willfully violates such prohibition is guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor for a first offense and guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor for a second or subsequent offense. Note that HB 585 passed the General Assembly but was vetoed by the Governor.

Department of Criminal Justice Services; school resource officers; establishment of minimum employment qualifications prohibited. HB 676 (Runion) would have prohibited the Department of Criminal Justice Services from establishing minimum qualifications for the employment of school resource officers, including any minimum age or experience requirement, or providing guidance or standards or adopting regulations relating to such minimum qualifications unless expressly authorized by law. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Education.

Pneumatic guns; penalties. HB 791 (Henson) would have made it a Class 6 felony to possess a pneumatic gun upon (i) the property of any child day center or public, private, or religious preschool or elementary, middle, or high school, including buildings and grounds; (ii) that portion of any property open to the public and then exclusively used for school-sponsored functions or extracurricular activities while such functions or activities are taking place; or (iii) any school bus owned or operated by any such school.

Expeditious resolution of complaints relating to certain student transportation safety issues. HB 977 (Keys-Gamarra) would have required each locality and the Department of Transportation, as applicable, to expeditiously respond to and assist in the resolution of, to the maximum extent practicable, any complaint received by or on behalf of any public elementary or secondary school student relating to such student's safety on the streets, roads, sidewalks, and crosswalks surrounding school property as such student arrives to or departs from school and permits, for the purposes of complying with such requirement, any school board to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the locality or the Department, as applicable, for the establishment of a protocol or the designation of an ombudsman for the resolution of such complaints. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Education. 

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 boards; parental notification of certain threats, behavior, and unlawful acts; panic alarms. HB 1046 (Batten) would have required, within four hours of receiving notification of (i) a preliminary determination by the threat assessment team that a student poses a threat of violence or physical harm to self or others; (ii) threatening or aberrant behavior that may represent a threat to the school; or (iii) unlawful acts committed on school property, on a school bus, or at a school-sponsored activity that involve the unlawful use or possession of a weapon, homicide, criminal sexual assault, or trespassing, each division superintendent to notify the parent of each student enrolled in the relevant school of such threat, threatening or aberrant behavior, or unlawful act. The bill would have required each school board to equip each public elementary and secondary school building in the local school division with at least one panic alarm that adheres to nationally recognized industry standards, including the standards of the National Fire Protection Association and Underwriters Laboratories, and is installed by a licensed and qualified professional. The bill defined "panic alarm" as a silent security system by which the user manually activates a device that sends a non-audible signal to the local law-enforcement agency that indicates a school security emergency, including a non-fire evacuation, lockdown, or active shooter situation, that requires immediate response and assistance from such agency.

School crossing zones. HB 1072 (Carr) and SB 535 (Bagby) would have expanded the definition of "school crossing zone" to include areas surrounding schools where the presence of students reasonably requires a special warning to motorists and provides that the term "school" includes public institutions of higher education and nonprofit private institutions of higher education. Currently, the definition of "school crossing zone" includes only areas surrounding schools where the presence of children requires such warning. Existing provisions of law allowing photo speed monitoring devices to be installed in school crossing zones will apply to any location that meets the expanded definition.

School boards; school resource officers; employment; participation in development and review of school crisis, emergency management, and medical emergency response plans. HB 1219 (Higgins) would have required each school board to (i) seek, to the maximum extent practicable, to employ school resource officers in each public elementary and secondary school in the local school division in accordance with the memorandum of understanding entered into with the local law-enforcement agency and (ii) include school resource officers employed in the local school division in the development and annual review of its written school crisis, emergency management, and medical emergency response plan.

Certain school board employees; possession of firearms on school property. HB 1230 (Zehr) would have permitted any school board to authorize any school board employee to possess a firearm on school property, in addition to those individuals expressly authorized to possess such a firearm as otherwise provided in statute, provided that any school board employee so authorized by the school board receives advanced firearms training in accordance with criteria established by the Department of Criminal Justice Services. The bill would have required the Department of Criminal Justice Services to develop and distribute to each local school board such criteria no later than August 1, 2024.

Students with individualized education programs or Section 504 Plans; emergency protocol and guide. HB 1283 (Willett) would have required a protocol for individualized accommodations and supports during emergency situations at school and a step-by-step guide on how to execute such protocol to be included in each individualized education program implemented for a public school student with a disability in accordance with the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and in each Section 504 Plan implemented for a public school student in accordance with § 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and provided to all of such student's teachers for implementation.

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.

Public elementary and secondary schools; cardiac emergency response plans required; grant program established. SB 181 (Rouse) would have required each public elementary or secondary school to develop a cardiac emergency response plan (CERP) that addresses the appropriate use of school personnel to respond to incidents involving an individual who is experiencing sudden cardiac arrest or a similar life-threatening emergency while on school grounds and, in the event that such school has an athletic department or organized athletic program, while attending or participating in an athletic practice or event. The bill would have required each such CERP to integrate nationally recognized evidence-based core elements such as those recommended by the American Heart Association guidelines and to integrate certain provisions and guidelines, including those relating to establishing a cardiac emergency response team, activating such team in response to a sudden cardiac event, and integrating the CERP into the local community's emergency medical services response protocols. The bill also would have required, with such funds as may be appropriated for such purpose pursuant to the general appropriation act, the Department to establish and administer the CERP Grant Program for the purpose of awarding grants, on a competitive basis, to any public elementary or secondary school to assist such school in the development or implementation of its CERP or in the purchase or funding of activities or equipment that further promotes CERP preparedness, giving priority to certain high-need schools. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Appropriations.

Employment of school protection officers in public schools. SB 440 (Durant) would have permitted 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 would have required 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 would have required 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. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in Senate Education and Health.

Virginia Public Safety Communications Infrastructure Fund and Program established. SB 573 (Obenshain) would have established the Virginia Public Safety Communications Infrastructure Fund and Program, to be administered by the Department of Emergency Management and financially managed by the Virginia Resources Authority, for the purpose of making loans and awarding grants to local governments for the purpose of assisting with improvement projects relating to public safety radio and communications infrastructure.

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.

Disability Pride Month HJ 17 Cole designates July, in 2024 and in each succeeding year, as Disability Pride Month in Virginia.

Fentanyl crisis; Joint Commission on Health Care to study policy solutions. HJ 41 (Srinivasan) directs the Joint Commission on Health Care (JCHC) to study policy solutions to the Commonwealth's fentanyl crisis. The resolution directs JCHC to (i) study the causes of the rise in fentanyl prevalence and fentanyl overdoses in the Commonwealth, (ii) study the impact of the rise in fentanyl prevalence and fentanyl overdoses in the Commonwealth on Virginians and the Commonwealth's health care system, (iii) study and provide insight into the fentanyl crisis within the context of other drug crises and addiction trends in recent history, and (iv) establish and make policy recommendations related to reducing the prevalence of fentanyl in the Commonwealth and reducing the number of fentanyl overdoses in the Commonwealth. The resolution requires JCHC to complete its meetings by November 30, 2025, and to submit to the Division of Legislative Automated Systems an executive summary of its findings and recommendations no later than the first day of the next Regular Session of the General Assembly for each year.

Opioids; DOE to develop education materials concerning risks. HB 134 (Convirs-Fowler requires the Department of Education, in consultation with such stakeholders and experts as it deems necessary or appropriate, to develop and submit to the Chairs of the House Committee on Education and the Senate Committee on Education and Health by November 1, 2024, (i) age-appropriate and evidence-based education materials concerning the risks to health and safety that are posed by opioids and (ii) guidelines for school boards for incorporating such education materials into instructional programs for students enrolled in the local school division.

School building evacuation plans, policies, and protocols; students with mobility impairments. HB 501 (Cohen) requires any divisionwide or public elementary or secondary school-specific school building evacuation plan, policy, or protocol to include provisions that seek to maximize the opportunity for students with mobility impairments to evacuate the school building alongside their non-mobility-impaired peers.

Students with disabilities; SCHEV to study process used to determine eligibility for accommodations. HB 509 (Cohen) and SB 21 (Salim) require the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, in consultation with representatives of public institutions of higher education, students enrolled at public institutions of higher education, higher education disability accommodation professionals, and a subject matter expert to be selected by the Council, to study the processes by which each public institution of higher education determines the eligibility for accommodations of an admitted or enrolled student with a temporary or permanent disability and identify in such processes and make recommendations to reduce any barriers to establishing eligibility. In conducting its study, the Council is required to (i) evaluate the current processes used by such institutions for determining a student's eligibility for accommodations, including any required documentation; (ii) identify any barriers students may face in establishing eligibility for accommodations through such processes; (iii) identify any resources that may be necessary for students to overcome such barriers in establishing eligibility for accommodations; and (iv) make recommendations on (a) strategies for reducing any such barriers, and (b) the development and establishment of a uniform accommodations eligibility determination process for public institutions of higher education. The bills require the Council to submit to the Governor, the Chairmen of the House Committees on Appropriations and Education, and the Chairmen of the Senate Committees on Finance and Appropriations and Education and Health a report on its findings and recommendations by October 1, 2024.

Public schools; opioid antagonist administration, etc. HB 732 (Sewell) and SB 726 (Pillion) require each local school board to develop a plan, in accordance with the guidelines and model curriculum developed by the Department of Health in collaboration with the Department of Education, for providing at each public secondary school that includes grades nine through 12 a program of instruction on opioid overdose prevention and reversal. Require that each public secondary school shall provide an opioid overdose prevention and reversal program of instruction at such grade level as the local school board deems appropriate and shall adopt policies for the purpose of encouraging each student to complete such opioid overdose prevention and reversal program of instruction prior to graduation. Require each local school board to develop a plan and policies and procedures, in accordance with the guidelines developed by the Department of Health in collaboration with the Department of Education, that: (i) provide for the procurement, storage, and maintenance of at least two unexpired doses of opioid antagonists at each public elementary and secondary school; (ii) require each such school to inspect its opioid antagonist supply ay least annually and maintain a record of the date of inspection, the expiration date on each dose, and in the event that a dose is administered for overdose reversal, the date of such administration; and (iii) relate to the proper and safe storage of such opioid antagonist supply in each school. The bills require that each local school board shall develop policies and procedures relating to the possession and administration of opioid antagonists by any school nurse or employee of the school board who is authorized by a prescriber and trained in the administration of opioid antagonist including: (i) policies requiring each public school to ensure that at least one employee is authorized by a prescriber and has been trained and is certified in the administration of an opioid antagonist and has the means to access at all times during regular school hours any such opioid antagonist supply; and (ii) policies and procedures for partnering with a program administered or approved by the Department of Health to provide training in opioid antagonist administration and maintaining records of each employee of each such school who is trained and certified in the administration of an opioid antagonist. The bills state that any employee of a public school, school board, or local health department who, during regular school hours, on school premises, or during a school sponsored activity, in good faith administers an opioid antagonist for opioid overdose reversal to any individual who is believed to be experiencing or about to experience a life threatening opioid overdose, regardless of whether such employee was trained in administration of an opioid antagonist, shall be immune from any disciplinary action or civil or criminal liability for any act or omission made in connection with the administration of an opioid antagonist in such incident, unless such act or omission was the result of gross negligence or willful misconduct. Finally, the bills direct the Department of Health and the Department of Education to collaborate to develop guidelines and policies for the implementation of the provisions of the bill and for the Department of Education to submit such guidelines to the House Committee on Appropriations, the House Committee on Education, the Senate Committee on Education and Health, and the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriations by January 1, 2025. The bills require such guidelines and policies to be implemented by each school board by the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year.  Note that HB 732 also incorporated HB 271 (Reid) and HB 497 (Cohen) while SB 726 incorporated SB 387 (Pekarsky).

Minors; parental admission for inpatient treatment. HB 772 (Delaney) and SB 460 (Marsden) clarify that for the purposes of admission of a minor to a willing mental health facility for inpatient treatment, the finding required to be made by a qualified evaluator that the minor appears to have a mental illness serious enough to warrant inpatient treatment may include a finding of substance abuse and such inpatient treatment may be related to such mental illness, which may include substance abuse. The bills also specify that a temporary detention order shall not be required for a minor 14 years of age or older who objects to admission to be admitted to a willing facility upon the application of a parent.

School boards; model memorandum of understanding; partnerships with certain mental health services providers; provision and expansion of virtual mental health services. HB 919 (Srinivasan) directs the Department of Education, in consultation with the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services and the Department of Medical Assistance Services, to develop, adopt, and distribute to each school board a model memorandum of understanding between a school board and a nationally recognized school-based telehealth provider that sets forth the parameters for the provision of mental health teletherapy by such provider to public school students enrolled in the local school division. Current law only requires the development, adoption, and distribution of a model memorandum of understanding between a school board and a public or private community mental health services provider. The bill also permits each school board to adopt policies and procedures to increase the accessibility of school-based mental health services for students enrolled in each school division who may not have access to mental health services otherwise by providing or expanding virtual mental health resources and establishing or expanding a partnership with (i) a public or private community mental health services provider that offers school-based teletherapy to students or (ii) a nationally recognized school-based telehealth provider that provides mental health teletherapy to students.

Local government; regulation by ordinance for locations of tobacco products, etc. HB 947 (Lopez) allows a locality to regulate the retail sale locations of tobacco products, nicotine vapor products, alternative nicotine products, or hemp products intended for smoking for any such retail sale location and may prohibit a retail sale location on property within 1,000 linear feet of a child day center or a public, private, or parochial school.

Public elementary and secondary schools; possession and administration of undesignated glucagon. HB 1039 (Bennett-Parker) would permit any local school board to adopt and implement policies for the possession and administration of undesignated nasal or injectable glucagon in each public elementary or secondary school in the local school division, provided that such policies are consistent with the guidance outlined in the most recent revision of the Diabetes Management In School: Manual for Unlicensed Personnel published by the Department of Education and include guidance on several items enumerated in the bill. The bill also permits any public elementary or secondary school to maintain a supply of nasal or injectable glucagon in any secure location that is immediately accessible to any school nurse or other employee trained in the administration of nasal and injectable glucagon prescribed to the school by a prescriber. The bill requires any such school to ensure that such a supply consists of at least two doses. The bill permits any school nurse or other authorized employee who is trained in the administration of nasal and injectable glucagon consistent with the guidance outlined in the most recent revision of the Diabetes Management In School: Manual for Unlicensed Personnel published by the Department to administer nasal or injectable glucagon from undesignated inventory with parental consent and if the student's prescribed glucagon is not available on school grounds or has expired. The bill permits any school board to accept donations of nasal or injectable glucagon from a wholesale distributor of glucagon or donations of money from any individual to purchase nasal or injectable glucagon for the purpose of maintenance and administration in a public school in the local school division as permitted pursuant to the aforementioned provisions of the bill.

Special education and related services; definitions, utilization of Virginia IEP. HB 1089 (Coyner) and SB 220 (Favola) make several changes relating to special education and related services for children with disabilities in public elementary and secondary schools in the Commonwealth, including requiring (i) the Department of Education to (a) develop, establish, review and update as necessary at least once every five years, and make available to each local school board an IEP writing, facilitation, tracking, and transfer system to be referred to as the Virginia IEP that includes, at a minimum, an IEP template component and a data system component and (b) develop and publish a data dashboard for the annual public reporting of state-level, division-level, and school-level special education data; (ii) each local school board to designate a faculty member to serve as a special education parent/family liaison to be a resource to parents and families to understand and engage in the referral, evaluation, reevaluation, and eligibility process if they suspect that their child has a disability and in the IEP process; and (iii) the Parent Training and Information Center in the Commonwealth designated pursuant to relevant federal law to establish special education family support centers in eight distinct regions of the Commonwealth that shall each be staffed by a regional special education family liaison employed by such center, coordinate with the designated special education parent/family liaisons in the local school divisions in the region, develop and implement outreach and support to parents of children with disabilities in its region, and track and report to the State Parent Ombudsman for Special Education data on questions and concerns raised by parents.  Finally, the bills require that the Virginia Commission on Youth (the Commission) shall study and make recommendations on Virginia's special education dispute resolution system, with a report of findings and recommendations due to the General Assembly no later than November 1, 2025.  Note that provisions related to the Virginia IEP and to professional development in implementing the Virginia IEP and in instructional practices to support specially designed instruction in inclusive settings shall become effective on July 1, 2027 and are required to be fully implemented in each local school division in the 2027-2028 school year. Note also that no later than January 1, 2028, each school board shall adopt policies regarding the utilization of the components of the Virginia IEP or a local alternative to either such component.

School health entrance form; Departments of Education and Health to streamline. HB 1279 (Hayes) requires the Department of Health, in conjunction with the Department of Education, to examine the Department of Health's COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA SCHOOL HEALTH ENTRANCE FORM: Health Information Form/Comprehensive Physical Examination Report/Certification of Immunization and make such changes as they deem necessary to streamline such form and make it more user-friendly for families, physicians, and other health care professionals while continuing to gather all of the information that is necessary to comply with relevant state laws relating to student health and immunization and school attendance.

Fentanyl education and awareness informational one-sheet; Department of Education to develop. HB 1473 (Clark) requires the Department of Education to develop, in collaboration with the Department of Health, a fentanyl education and awareness informational one-sheet designed to promote awareness of the dangers associated with and the prevalence of fentanyl and provide essential information on fentanyl overdose prevention and preparedness among high school-age students. The bill requires the Department of Education to make available to each school board and post in a publicly accessible location on its website such informational one-sheet and to annually review and update such informational one-sheet in collaboration with the Department of Health to ensure its currency and accuracy. The bill requires each public high school or secondary school that includes grades nine through 12 to annually distribute such informational one-sheet to each student in grades nine through 12 within the first two weeks of the school year. This bill incorporates HB 1007 (Lovejoy).

Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services; dissemination and availability of online transition resources. SB 51 (Favola) directs the Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services, in partnership with relevant entities, to ensure that online resources are readily available and disseminated to all individuals of age to transition from school to post-school activities and their families. This bill is a recommendation of the Virginia Disability Commission.

Guidelines for individualized education program teams relating to certain age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate instruction; availability and posting. SB 60 (Favola) requires the Department of Education to make available to each school board and post on its website by the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year the guidelines established in accordance with relevant law for individualized education program (IEP) teams to use in developing IEPs for children with disabilities relating to the need for age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate instruction.

Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind; Board of Visitors, expands membership, powers & duties. SB 420 (Head) expands the total membership of the Board of Visitors of the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind from 11 to 15 members by increasing the number of nonlegislative citizen members from seven to 11. The bill provides that of the 11 nonlegislative citizen members, two shall be parents of current students at the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind, of whom (i) one is the parent of a student who is deaf or hard of hearing and one is the parent of a student who is vision impaired and (ii) one represents the Eastern region of the Commonwealth and one represents the Western region of the Commonwealth; two shall be representatives of the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind Alumni Association who are deaf or hard of hearing; and two shall be representatives of the Alumni Association who are vision impaired. Under current law, the requirements for the parent representatives are less specific and there is only one representative of the Alumni Association. The bill also amends the powers and duties of the Board of Visitors to include supervising the superintendent, other officers, and the faculty of the school. The bill provides that, in accordance with the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, any notice of a meeting of the Board of Visitors shall state whether public comment will be received and, if so, the approximate point at which it will be received. The bill requires that at each meeting at which public comment will be received each interested individual is allotted three minutes to speak and prohibits limiting that allotted time without adequate notice prior to the date of the meeting. The bill also requires the Board of Visitors to meet no less than four times each year. Current law provides that the Board of Visitors shall meet no more than four times each year. Finally, the bill defines the terms "deaf," "hard of hearing," and "vision impaired."

Public schools; Department of Education to review physical accessibility challenges, report. HB 618 (Price) would have required the Department of Education, in consultation with each school board, the Virginia Board for People with Disabilities, and such other stakeholders as it deems appropriate, to review the extent to which (i) public elementary and secondary school buildings and grounds in the Commonwealth present physical accessibility challenges and barriers for individuals with disabilities, including challenges and barriers that may prevent such individuals from fully participating in school activities; (ii) such schools have begun or plan to address and eliminate such challenges and barriers; and (iii) state agencies can assist such schools to address and eliminate such challenges and barriers and fully comply with all applicable state and federal laws. The bill would have required the Department of Education to report its findings and any associated recommendations to the Board, the Governor, the General Assembly, and each local school board no later than November 1, 2024.

Minors admitted to inpatient treatment; discharge plans. HB 1017 (Wilt) and SB 575 (Obenshain) 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.  HB 1017 failed to pass, while SB 575 was Continued to 2025 in House Education.

Community services boards, local; waiver usage flexibility HB 1021 (Wilt) would have directed the Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS) and the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to amend their regulations to allow local community services boards the discretion to convert allocated Community Living waivers to Family and Individual Support waivers and Building Independence waivers if the Community Living waivers are not being utilized and will not be utilized in the foreseeable future. The bill would have required DMAS to seek any necessary federal approvals to effectuate this modification through the submission of a state plan for medical assistance services amendment to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Standards of Learning assessments; virtual assessment administration. HB 1212 (Scott, P.A.) would have required the Board of Education to offer virtual assessment administration as an alternative method of Standards of Learning assessment administration for any student with an Individualized Education Program (IEP) who meets the criteria established by the Board to demonstrate achievement of the Standards of Learning. The bill would have provided that such virtual assessment administration shall be available at the option of such student and such student's parent subject to the final determination of such student's IEP team as to the virtual setting and conditions appropriate for such student. The bill would have further permitted the Board to adopt policies providing for such virtual assessment administration as an alternative for any student who does not receive special education or does not have an IEP, provided that such alternative is equally available to any such student subject to through-year growth assessment requirements. Finally, the bill would have required the Board to develop guidance to implement the provisions of the bill by January 1, 2025.

Students with individualized education programs or Section 504 Plans; emergency protocol and guide. HB 1283 (Willett) would have required a protocol for individualized accommodations and supports during emergency situations at school and a step-by-step guide on how to execute such protocol to be included in each individualized education program implemented for a public school student with a disability in accordance with the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and in each Section 504 Plan implemented for a public school student in accordance with § 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and provided to all of such student's teachers for implementation.

Information Technology Access Act; numerous organizational changes to Act. HB 1355 (Tran) would have made numerous organizational changes to the Information Technology Access Act. The bill defined "information and communications technology" as it relates to digital accessibility, defined in the bill, for all persons with disabilities. The bill would have permitted the head of each covered entity, defined in the bill, to designate an employee to serve as such covered entity's digital accessibility coordinator and provides that such digital accessibility coordinator is responsible for developing and implementing such covered entity's digital accessibility policy. The bill had a delayed effective date of July 1, 2025. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in Senate General Laws and Technology.

Persons with disabilities; creates a helpline program within disAbility Law Center of Virginia. SB 43 (Favola) would have established a helpline program within the disAbility Law Center of Virginia for persons with disabilities. The bill would have provided that such program may receive and respond to questions regarding state-operated programs that provide services to persons with disabilities and directs the disAbility Law Center of Virginia to publicize a toll-free phone number and web-based portal for receiving questions and the procedures for contacting the helpline program.

Parental Behavior Technician Registration and Participation Pilot Program; established. SB 96 (Stanley) would have established the Parental Behavior Technician Registration and Participation Pilot Program (the Pilot Program), to be developed and administered by the Board of Education in collaboration with the Department of Health and the Advisory Board on Behavioral Analysis, for the purpose of assisting parents of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with becoming a registered behavior technician (RBT) in order to provide assistance to their children both in the classroom as a volunteer under the supervision of a licensed behavior analyst or other qualified Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) individual and outside the classroom in the home environment. The bill would have provided that the Pilot Program shall assist any eligible parent, defined as any parent of a child with ASD who is enrolled in a public school in the Commonwealth and receives special education, by (i) providing assistance, resources, and support to any eligible parent in meeting the requirements to receive an RBT credential and (ii) coordinating with the school board of the school division in which the child of an RBT-credentialed parent is enrolled to set up a volunteer position for the parent to provide assistance as an RBT in his child's special education program under the supervision of a licensed behavior analyst or other qualified ABA individual.  This legislation was Continued to 2025 in Senate Education and Health.

Public elementary and secondary schools; cardiac emergency response plans required.  SB 181 (Rouse)  would have required each public elementary or secondary school to develop a cardiac emergency response plan (CERP) that addresses the appropriate use of school personnel to respond to incidents involving an individual who is experiencing sudden cardiac arrest or a similar life-threatening emergency while on school grounds and, in the event that such school has an athletic department or organized athletic program, while attending or participating in an athletic practice or event. The bill would have required each such CERP to integrate nationally recognized evidence-based core elements such as those recommended by the American Heart Association guidelines and to integrate certain provisions and guidelines, including those relating to establishing a cardiac emergency response team, activating such team in response to a sudden cardiac event, and integrating the CERP into the local community's emergency medical services response protocols. The bill also would have required, with such funds as may be appropriated for such purpose pursuant to the general appropriation act, the Department to establish and administer the CERP Grant Program for the purpose of awarding grants, on a competitive basis, to any public elementary or secondary school to assist such school in the development or implementation of its CERP or in the purchase or funding of activities or equipment that further promotes CERP preparedness, giving priority to certain high-need schools.  This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Appropriations.

Public secondary schools; satisfaction of physical education requirements; participation in Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps. HB 98 (Green) permits each local school board to accept participation in the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps as fulfillment of any physical education requirements applicable to students in grades nine through 12.

Public schools; opioid antagonist procurement, possession, and administration; school board employee training and certification; opioid overdose prevention and reversal instruction; guidelines and requirements. HB 732 (Sewell) and SB 726 (Pillion) require each local school board to develop, in accordance with the guidelines developed by the Department of Health in collaboration with the Department of Education, plans, policies, and procedures for (i) providing at each public secondary school that includes grades nine through 12 a program of instruction on opioid overdose prevention and reversal and for encouraging each student to complete such program of instruction prior to graduation; (ii) the procurement, placement, and maintenance in each public elementary and secondary school of a supply of opioid antagonists in an amount equivalent to at least two unexpired doses for the purposes of opioid overdose reversal; and (iii) the possession and administration of an opioid antagonist by any employee of the school board who is authorized by a prescriber and trained in the administration of an opioid antagonist, including policies (a) requiring each public elementary and secondary school to ensure that at least one employee is authorized by a prescriber and trained and certified in the administration of an opioid antagonist, (b) for partnering with a program administered or approved by the Department of Health to provide such training and certification, and (c) for maintaining records of each such trained and certified employee.

The bills provide for the disciplinary, civil, and criminal immunity of any employee of a public school, school board, or local health department, regardless of whether such employee was trained or certified in opioid antagonist administration, for any act or omission made in connection with the good faith administration of an opioid antagonist for the purposes of opioid overdose reversal during regular school hours, on school premises, or during a school-sponsored activity, unless such act or omission was the result of gross neglect or willful misconduct. The bills require each school board to adopt and each public elementary and secondary school to implement policies and procedures in accordance with the provisions of the bill and, in doing so, to utilize to the fullest extent possible programs offered by the Department of Health for the provision of opioid antagonist administration training and certification and opioid antagonist procurement. In addition, the bills modify the school board employees who are authorized to administer opioid antagonists to include any school board employee who has completed training and is certified in the administration of an opioid antagonist by a program administered or authorized by the Department of Health. Finally, the bills direct the Department of Health and the Department of Education to collaborate to develop guidelines and policies for the implementation of the provisions of the bill and requires each school board to implement the provisions of the bill by the beginning of the 2025–2026 school year. 

Student transportation; innovative alternatives to school buses. HB 937 (Bolling) states that the intent of the General Assembly is that school boards encourage the implementation of innovative low-cost or no-cost alternatives to transporting students to and from school on school buses, including organizing or otherwise facilitating, encouraging, or supporting biking or walking school buses whereby groups of students ride bicycles or walk to and from school.

Public school staffing ratios; teachers; English language learner students. HB 1247 and SB 272 require state funding to be provided pursuant to the general appropriation act to support ratios of instructional positions to English language learner students based on each such student's English proficiency level, as established in the general appropriation act. 

High school graduation requirements; satisfaction of certain course credits with workforce credentials; development and maintenance of list of accepted credentials. HB 1345 (Anthony) and SB 199 (Diggs) require the Board of Education, in collaboration with the Virginia Community College System, Career and Technical Education directors, and industry partners, to develop and maintain a current, comprehensive, and uniform list of industry-recognized workforce credentials that students may take as a substitute for certain units of credit required for graduation, including such credentials that are accepted as substitutes for electives credits and credentials completed outside of regular school hours. The bills require each school board to accept as a substitute for a required credit any credential listed as an accepted substitute for such required credit. The bill also requires any College and Career Access Pathways Partnership entered into between a school board and a comprehensive community college to specify, consistent with the list, industry-recognized credentials that are accepted as substitutes for certain credits required for high school graduation. Finally, the bills require the Board, in establishing graduation requirements, to permit any student to substitute elective credits for completion of any industry-approved workforce credential that is included on the list as an accepted substitute for such credits. HB 1345 incorporates HB 1009 (Lovejoy).

Public schools; instructional time; competency-based education. HB 1477 (Rasoul) requires the Board of Education to provide local school boards maximum flexibility to waive existing instructional clock hour requirements by developing alternative instructional time models in accordance with the Board's regulations and guidelines relating to instructional time waivers. The bill directs the Board, when revising its regulations and adopting Standards of Accreditation, to provide flexibility for school boards to develop programs that provide for acceleration, remediation, and multiple pathways to graduation that permit students to demonstrate competency at different rates. The bill also requires the Board to update, by December 1, 2024, its Guidelines for Graduation Requirements: Local Alternative Paths to Standard Units of Credit (Alternatives to the 140-Clock-Hour Requirement) to include guidance regarding (i) waiver pathway options to allow students time within the school day to complete work-based learning opportunities; (ii) advanced learning opportunities focused on problem-solving, critical and creative thinking, communication, collaboration, and citizenship skills; (iii) content that provides technical knowledge, skills, and competency-based applied learning; (iv) a method for approving alternative programs, including dual enrollment courses as specified in the bill; (v) other instructional time models adopted to meet instructional hour requirements through a variety of learning modalities; and (vi) offering instructional and learning opportunities including innovative, advanced, and enrichment programs for the full school year. Finally, the bill requires the Board to submit to the Chairs of the Senate Committee on Education and Health and the House Committee on Education by November 1, 2024, a report on its progress in implementing the provisions of the bill. This legislation incorporates HB 663 (Tata) and HB 1081 (Coyner).

Study; joint committee of the House Committee on Education and the Senate Committee on Education and Health to study fair school funding reform; report. HJ 67 (Simonds) would have established a joint committee consisting of five members of the House Committee on Education and three members of the Senate Committee on Education and Health to study fair school funding reform by, among other things, utilizing the recommendations from the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission in its July 2023 report, "Virginia's K-12 Funding Formula," and any stakeholder input and feedback received by the joint committee to produce and submit to the Division of Legislative Automated Services by the first day of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly an executive summary of its findings and recommendations. This resolution was Continued to 2025 in Senate Finance and Appropriations.

High school graduation requirements; passing score on select questions from the U.S. Naturalization Test. HB 10 (Ware) would have required the Board of Education, in establishing high school graduation requirements, to require, except in the case of a high school student whose individualized education program indicates otherwise, each high school student to take and correctly answer at least 70 percent of the questions on a test composed of at least 50 but not more than 60 of the questions on the civics portion of the U.S. Naturalization Test in order to graduate high school with a standard or advanced studies diploma, provided that such student may take such test at any time during grades nine through 12 and as many times during such period as necessary to achieve the minimum 70 percent passing score.

High school graduation requirements; passing score on select questions from U.S. Naturalization Test. HB 13 (Ware) would have required the Board of Education, in establishing high school graduation requirements, to require, except in the case of a high school student whose individualized education program indicates otherwise, each high school student to take and correctly answer at least 70 percent of the questions on a test composed of at least 25 but not more than 50 of the questions on the civics portion of the U.S. Naturalization Test in order to graduate high school with a standard or advanced studies diploma, provided that such student may take such test at any time during grades nine through 12 and as many times during such period as necessary to achieve the minimum 70 percent passing score.

Public school staffing ratios; school counselors. HB 181 (Feggans) would have decreased from one to 325 to one to 250 the ratio of full-time equivalent school counselors required to be employed by each local school board per student enrolled in the local school division. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Appropriations.

Average teacher salary in the Commonwealth; national average. HB 187 (Clark) and SB 104 (Lucas) would have required the Governor's introduced budget bills for the 2025, 2026, and 2027 Regular Sessions of the General Assembly to propose funding for, and state funding to be provided pursuant to the general appropriation act enacted during any regular or special session of the General Assembly during 2025, 2026, or 2027 to fund, the Commonwealth's share of compensation supplement incentives for Standards of Quality-funded instructional and support positions sufficient to increase the average teacher salary in the Commonwealth to at least the national average teacher salary by the end of the 2026–2028 biennium and establishes a detailed timeline and process for satisfying such requirement. Note that both HB 187 and SB 104 passed the General Assembly but were vetoed by the Governor.  

Public school funding; nonpersonal cost categories; federal fund deduction methodology; support services. HB 359 (Simonds) would have required the Department of Education, (i) in calculating nonpersonal costs in the Standards of Quality funding formula, to include the costs associated with leased facilities and work-related employee travel and (ii) in calculating the deduction of federal funds in the Standards of Quality funding formula, to examine actual school division spending on support costs as a percentage of actual school division spending on all public education costs, with certain exceptions such as food service. The bill would have also required support services positions, which includes positions in each local school division that the school board deems necessary for the efficient and cost-effective operation and maintenance of its public schools, to be funded based on a calculation of prevailing costs and prohibits such positions from being subject to any method of funding calculation that caps the number of funded support services positions based on a ratio of such positions to students enrolled in the local school division. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Appropriations.

Superintendent of Public Instruction; duties; fixed and actual school staffing ratios. HB 360 (Simonds) would have required the Superintendent of Public Instruction to biennially calculate, compare, and report to the Board of Education and the General Assembly the differences between the fixed staffing ratios in the Standards of Quality funding formula and the actual staffing ratios in local school divisions in the Commonwealth so that such fixed staffing ratios can be regularly adjusted as needed to more closely approximate such actual staffing ratios. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in Senate Finance and Appropriations.

Public school staffing ratios; specialized student support positions. HB 386 (Hernandez) would have increased the number of specialized student support positions required to be employed by each local school board from at least three to at least four such positions per 1,000 students in the local school division. Such specialized student support positions include school social workers, school psychologists, school nurses, licensed behavior analysts, licensed assistant behavior analysts, and other licensed health and behavioral positions. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Appropriations.

Board of Education; Standards of Quality; Standards of School Safety. HB 495 (Garrett) would have required the Board of Education, in collaboration with the Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety and such other stakeholders as it deems appropriate, to establish pursuant to regulation the Standards of School Safety for the purpose of assessing school safety in each local school division in the Commonwealth and each school building therein based on such objective, quantifiable measures of safety as the Board deems appropriate. The bill would have required the Board to incorporate compliance with the Standards of School Safety as a school and school division accountability measure for the purposes of the Standards of Accreditation.

Public high schools; personnel; career coach required. HB 582 (Simonds) would have required each school board to employ at least one career coach in each public high school in the local school division whose duties are required to include assisting students with securing internships, externships, and credentialing opportunities as required by the Profile of a Virginia Graduate, providing students with information on apprenticeship programs, and connecting students to career opportunities. The bill would have provided that each such individual shall be employed in addition to and not as a replacement for the required school counselor positions, specialized student support positions, or support services positions. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Appropriations. 

Public school staffing and funding; National Teacher Certification Incentive Reward Program and Fund; At-Risk Program; English language learner students. HB 624 (Rasoul) and SB 105 (Lucas) would have renamed the National Teacher Certification Incentive Reward Program and Fund as the National Board Certification Incentive Reward Program and Fund, expands eligibility for incentive grant awards from such Fund pursuant to such Program from solely teachers who have obtained national certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards to all public school staff who are candidates for initial national certification or maintenance of national certification to cover certain costs of obtaining or maintaining such certification and all public school staff who have successfully obtained or maintained such certification, and permits certain teachers to apply for additional incentive grants pursuant to such Program and Fund. The bills also would have established the At-Risk Program for the purpose of supporting programs and services for students who are educationally at risk, including prevention, intervention, or remediation activities required pursuant to relevant law, teacher recruitment programs and initiatives, programs for English language learners, the hiring of additional school counselors and other support staff, and other programs relating to increasing the success of disadvantaged students in completing a high school degree and providing opportunities to encourage further education and training. The bills also contained provisions relating to certain funding requirements for the At-Risk Program. Finally, the bills would have required state funding to be provided pursuant to the general appropriation act to support ratios of instructional positions to English language learner students based on each such student's English proficiency level, as established in the general appropriation act. Note that both HB 624 and SB 105 passed the General Assembly but were vetoed by the Governor. 

Public school funding; At-Risk Program established. HB 825 (Cousins) would have established the At-Risk Program for the purpose of supporting programs and services for students who are educationally at risk, including prevention, intervention, or remediation activities required pursuant to Standard 1 (§ 22.1-253.13:1); teacher recruitment programs and incentives; Dropout Prevention; community and school-based truancy officer programs; Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID); Project Discovery; programs for English language learners; the hiring of additional school counselors, testing coordinators, and licensed behavior analysts; and programs relating to increasing the success of disadvantaged students in completing a high school degree and providing opportunities to encourage further education and training and requires a portion of the state funding provided for such At-Risk Program to be allocated to school divisions on a flat per-student percentage rate set out in the general appropriation act and a portion of such funding to be allocated to school divisions on a variable rate set out in the general appropriation act based on the concentration of poverty in the school division.

Certain school divisions; cost-savings agreements; requirements. HB 1029 (Runion) would have removed the limitation on any school board that enters into certain cost-savings agreements with a school board that governs a contiguous school division for the consolidation or sharing of educational, administrative, or support services and thus qualifies for adjustment of state share of basic aid computed annually on the basis of the composite index of local ability-to-pay of such contiguous school division that caps such adjusted basic aid payment at an amount equal to the basic aid payment appropriated to such locality by the 2007 Session of the General Assembly. The bill would have also permitted, notwithstanding the requirement set forth in relevant law that a school division has 65 percent or more of its local taxes coming from real estate taxes in order for the school board that governs such school division to be eligible to enter into such cost-savings agreements with a contiguous school division, the Bath County School Board to enter into such cost-savings agreements with the Augusta County School Board, provided that all other conditions and limitations set forth in relevant law apply to any such agreement. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Education.

Public education; dual enrollment and concurrent enrollment; high school graduation. HB 1051 (Batten) would have made several changes relating to graduation from a public high school in the Commonwealth, including (i) eliminating the requirement for a student to complete one virtual course in order to graduate from high school and (ii) specifying that various options and requirements relating to earning career and technical education credentials for the purpose of satisfying high school graduation requirements are required to be high-demand career and technical education credentials. The bill also defined and thereby distinguished the concepts of dual enrollment and concurrent enrollment in the context of high school students' participation in college-level coursework and requires the agreements for postsecondary attainment between school boards and comprehensive community colleges to specify the credit available for dual enrollment and concurrent enrollment courses. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Education.

Board of Education; high school graduation; alternative pathways to the advanced studies diploma and associated diploma seals. SB 139 (Carroll Foy) would have directed the Board of Education to establish two pathways to the advanced studies high school diploma, and associated diploma seals for students who successfully follow and demonstrate excellence on such pathways: one pathway that requires advanced coursework in a career and technical education field but does not require coursework in world language and another pathway that requires advanced coursework in world language but does not require coursework in a career and technical education field. The bill would have required such pathways and associated diploma seals to become effective for the 2025–2026 school year and to be available to any student, regardless of the school year during which the student enters ninth grade.

Board of Education; high school graduation; alternative pathway to advanced studies diploma and associated diploma seal; career and technical education. SB 161 (McGuire) would have directed the Board of Education to establish an alternative pathway to the advanced studies high school diploma and an associated diploma seal for students who successfully follow and demonstrate excellence on such pathway, that requires advanced coursework in a career and technical education field but does not require coursework in laboratory science. Under current law, one computer science course credit may count as one of the laboratory science course credits required for an advanced studies high school diploma but there is no pathway to an advanced studies diploma that does not require any laboratory science coursework. The bill would have required such pathway and associated diploma seal to become effective for the 2025-2026 school year and to be available to any student, regardless of the school year during which the student enters ninth grade.

Public schools; instructional time. SB 434 (Sutterlein) would have made several changes relating to student instructional time in public elementary and secondary schools, including (i) defining "instructional hour" for the purpose of minimum annual instructional hour requirements; (ii) establishing several provisions and requirements relating to the enrollment of part-time students in public elementary and secondary schools; (iii) requiring the Board of Education to adopt rules for approving alternative programs for which course credit may be granted for the purpose of satisfying high school graduation requirements to any student who completes such course and masters the course content by demonstrating at least 80 percent of the competencies required by course standards, regardless of time, place, or pace; and (iv) permitting school boards that govern school divisions of innovation to adopt instructional time models that allow students to personalize the pace of learning and accelerate their learning based on the mastery of course content by demonstrating at least 80 percent of the competencies required by course standards, regardless of time, place, or pace.

Public high schools; personnel; college and career specialist required. SB 518 (Williams Graves) would have required each school board to employ at least one college and career specialist, as defined in the bill, in each public high school in the local school division. The bill would have provided that each such individual shall be employed in addition to and not as a replacement for the required school counselor positions, specialized student support positions, or support services positions. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in Senate Education and Health.

Department of Education; Virginia Community College System; regional career and technical education program. SB 563 (Hackworth) would have directed the Department of Education, in collaboration with the Virginia Community College System, the Virginia Board of Workforce Development, the Board of Education, the school board and division superintendent of Tazewell County Public Schools, and representatives of the governing boards of comprehensive community colleges located in Tazewell County and contiguous counties to study the feasibility of and make recommendations on developing a plan for establishing a regional career and technical education program for all students in grade levels six through 12 who reside in Planning District 2. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in House Rules.

Coach Appreciation Week designating as week of October 6, 2024 and each succeeding year thereafter HJ 27 (Price) designates the week of October 6, in 2024 and in each succeeding year, as Coach Appreciation Week in Virginia.

High school student-athletes; use of name, image, or likeness HB 617 (Price) establishes rights, duties, and prohibitions relating to the use of the name, image, or likeness of high school student-athletes that are equivalent to those established in law for college student-athletes. The bill also requires the Department of Education to publish in a publicly accessibly format on its website information about laws that are applicable to any contract entered into by a student-athlete relating to compensation for the use of his name, image, or likeness.

Public middle schools and high schools; career and technical education organizations permitted SB 707 (Subramanyam) permits each public middle school and high school to establish career and technical education student organizations, regardless of whether such school offers career and technical education courses.

Students who receive home instruction; participation in interscholastic programs, fees, etc. HB 17 (Garrett), HB 65 (Campbell), and SB 84 McGuire would have prohibited public schools from joining an organization governing interscholastic programs that does not deem eligible for participation a student who (i) receives home instruction; (ii) has demonstrated evidence of progress for two consecutive academic years; (iii) is in compliance with immunization requirements; (iv) is entitled to free tuition in a public school; (v) has not reached the age of 19 by August 1 of the current academic year; (vi) is an amateur who receives no compensation but participates solely for the educational, physical, mental, and social benefits of the activity; (vii) complies with all disciplinary rules and is subject to all codes of conduct applicable to all public high school athletes; and (viii) complies with all other rules governing awards, all-star games, maximum consecutive semesters of high school enrollment, parental consents, physical examinations, and transfers applicable to all high school athletes. The bill would have provided that no local school board is required to establish a policy to permit students who receive home instruction to participate in interscholastic programs. The bill would have permitted reasonable fees to be charged to students who receive home instruction to cover the costs of participation in such interscholastic programs, including the costs of additional insurance, uniforms, and equipment. The bill would have had an expiration date of July 1, 2029.   HB 411 (Griffin) would have additionally required each school board to adopt a policy to permit any student who receives home instruction and who resides in the local school division to participate in any intramural extracurricular program that is offered to public school students in the same grade level, subject to any reasonable conditions that the school board may establish for such participation such as conditions relating to fees, prerequisites, or space availability.

K-12 schools and higher educational institutions; student participation in women's sports, etc. HB 1120 (Oates) and SB 723 (Mulchi) would have required each interscholastic, intercollegiate, intramural, or club athletic team or sport sponsored by a public school, or any other school that is a member of the Virginia High School League, or by a public institution of higher education to be expressly designated as one of the following based on the biological sex of the students who participate on the team or in the sport: (i) males, men, or boys; (ii) females, women, or girls; or (iii) coed or mixed if participation on such team or sport is open to both males and females. The bill prohibits any such team or sport that is expressly designated for females from being open to students whose biological sex is male. The bill also would have provided that in the event of a dispute as to the biological sex of any student seeking to participate on any interscholastic, intercollegiate, intramural, or club athletic team or sport that is expressly designated for males or females, such student may establish biological sex by presenting to the school or institution a signed physician's statement that attests to such student's biological sex based solely on (a) the student's internal and external reproductive anatomy; (b) the student's normal endogenously produced levels of testosterone; and (c) an analysis of the student's genetic makeup. The bill would have prohibited any government entity, licensing or accrediting organization, or athletic association or organization from entertaining a complaint, opening an investigation, or taking any other adverse action against any such school or institution of higher education based on a violation of the provisions of the bill and creates a cause of action for any school or institution of higher education that suffers harm as a result of a violation of the bill. Finally, the bill would have created a civil cause of action for any student who suffers harm as a result of a knowing violation of a provision of the bill by a school or institution or as a result of the student's reporting a violation of a provision of the bill by a school, institution, athletic association, or organization.

Elementary & secondary schools & higher educational institutions; student participation in sports HB 1229 (Higgins) would have required each interscholastic, intercollegiate, intramural, or club athletic team or sport sponsored by a public school, or any other school that is a member of the Virginia High School League, or by a public institution of higher education to be expressly designated as one of the following based on biological sex: (i) males, men, or boys; (ii) females, women, or girls; or (iii) coed or mixed if participation on such team or sport is open to both males, men, or boys and females, women, or girls. The bill prohibits any such team or sport that is expressly designated for females, women, or girls from being open to students whose biological sex is male. The bill would have created a civil cause of action for any student that suffers harm as a result of a knowing violation of a provision of the bill by a school or institution or as a result of the student's reporting a violation of a provision of the bill by a school, institution, athletic association, or organization. The bill also would have limited access to any restroom or changing room that is capable of being accessed by more than one individual at one time in any public elementary or secondary school building or building owned or controlled by any public institution of higher education exclusively to individuals of the same biological sex.

Elementary and secondary schools; participation in female sports, civil cause of action SB 68 (Peake) would have required each public elementary or secondary school and each private elementary or secondary school that competes in sponsored athletic events against such public schools to designate all interscholastic athletic teams and intramural athletic teams sponsored by such school based on biological sex as follows: (i) for "males," "men," or "boys"; (ii) for "females," "women," or "girls"; or (iii) as "coed" or "mixed" if such team is open to participation by (a) "males," "men," or "boys" and (b) "females," "women," or "girls." The bill would have prohibited any student whose biological sex is male and who has not physically transitioned to female prior to puberty from participating on any school athletic team or squad designated for "females," "women," or "girls." Finally, the bill would have created a civil cause of action for students and schools that suffer harm as a result of a violation of the provisions of the bill, provided that such action is initiated within two years of the harm occurring.

Cardiac emergency response plans required SB 181 (Rouse) would have required each public elementary or secondary school to develop a cardiac emergency response plan (CERP) that addresses the appropriate use of school personnel to respond to incidents involving an individual who is experiencing sudden cardiac arrest or a similar life-threatening emergency while on school grounds and, in the event that such school has an athletic department or organized athletic program, while attending or participating in an athletic practice or event. The bill would have required each such CERP to integrate nationally recognized evidence-based core elements such as those recommended by the American Heart Association guidelines and to integrate certain provisions and guidelines, including those relating to establishing a cardiac emergency response team, activating such team in response to a sudden cardiac event, and integrating the CERP into the local community's emergency medical services response protocols. The bill also would have required, with such funds as may be appropriated for such purpose pursuant to the general appropriation act, the Department to establish and administer the CERP Grant Program for the purpose of awarding grants, on a competitive basis, to any public elementary or secondary school to assist such school in the development or implementation of its CERP or in the purchase or funding of activities or equipment that further promotes CERP preparedness, giving priority to certain high-need schools. The bill was Continued to 2025 in House Appropriations.

Farm to school programs Task Force; guidance and resources HB 830 (Cousins) and SB 314 (Roem) require the Department of Education to establish and appoint such members as it deems necessary or appropriate to the Farm to School Program Task Force for the purpose of increasing student access throughout the Commonwealth to high-quality farm to school programs, defined in the bill as programs (i) whereby public schools purchase and feature prominently in school meals locally produced food or (ii) that involve experiential student learning opportunities relating to local food and agriculture, including school and community garden programs and local farm visits. The bills require the Task Force to collaborate with local school boards, community-based organizations, farmers, relevant state and local agencies, and other relevant stakeholders to (a) assess existing farm to school programs within the Commonwealth to identify and disseminate to each local school board best practices for implementing and sustaining such programs, (b) establish and distribute to each local school board a guidance document for the establishment and operation of school garden programs, (c) provide information and resources to each local school board to assist it in leveraging grant funds to support farm to school programs, and (d) collect such data and make such policy recommendations to local school boards, the Board of Education, and the General Assembly as it deems appropriate.

Commercial driver's licenses & learner's permits; definitions, training, drug & alcohol violations HB 844 (Austin) and SB 353 (French) conform the definition of commercial motor vehicle to federal regulations, codifies the entry-level driver training system required by federal regulations, and removes contradictory provisions. The bills also prohibit the issuance or continued validity of commercial driver's licenses and commercial learner's permits after a drug or alcohol violation by the applicant, licensee, or permittee. 

Innovative alternative school transportation; school boards to implement low/no-cost alternatives HB 937 (LeVere Bolling) states that the intent of the General Assembly is that school boards encourage the implementation of innovative low-cost or no-cost alternatives to transporting students to and from school on school buses, including organizing or otherwise facilitating, encouraging, or supporting biking or walking school buses whereby groups of students ride bicycles or walk to and from school.

School bus video-monitoring system; citations HB 1362 (Maldonado) prohibits a contract between a private vendor and a school division for the operation of school bus video-monitoring systems to capture passing stopped school bus violations from requiring a minimum quota of violations captured or citations issued for the video-monitoring system to be deployed.

Free school meals; work group to study offering to students statewide SB 283 (Roem) requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction, in coordination Secretary of Education, to convene a stakeholder work group to study the estimated impact of offering free school meals to students statewide, identify options for reducing or eliminating student and school meal debt, and make recommendations on options for leveraging other programs funded at state and federal levels for the provision of student school meals. The bill requires the work group to report on its findings and recommendations to the Joint Subcommittee on Elementary and Secondary Education Funding by November 1, 2024.

School buses; increases maximum width of vehicles SB 572 (Obenshain) increases from 100 inches to 102 inches the maximum total outside width permitted for school buses.

Composting programs in local school divisions HB 166 (Keys-Gamarra) would have required the Department of Education to develop, post in a publicly accessible format and location on its website, and make available to any school board, upon request, guidance and resources relating to the establishment of local experiential learning programs on the composting of organic material, including food waste, for sustainable purposes such as horticulture or micro-farming, including guidance and resources on available grants and other sources of funding for such programs.

Commercial driver's license; DMV to convene a work group to develop & implement strategy to promote HB 505 (Cohen) would have directed the Department of Motor Vehicles to convene a work group to develop and implement a statewide strategy to incentivize and promote the issuance of commercial driver's licenses to qualified applicants in the Commonwealth.

School meals; availability at no cost to students HB 686 (Bennett-Parker) would have provided that each school board shall require each public elementary and secondary school in the local school division to participate in the federal National School Lunch Program and the federal School Breakfast Program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture or in the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) as provided in relevant law, if applicable, and to make lunch and breakfast available to any student who requests such a meal at no cost to the student, unless the student's parent has provided written permission to the school board to withhold such a meal from the student. The bill also would have required the Department of Education to reimburse each public elementary and secondary school for each school breakfast and lunch served to a student, with a maximum of one breakfast and one lunch per student per school day and provides the formula for determining the state reimbursement rate for such meals. The bill contained provisions directing each school board to adopt policies and procedures aimed at maximizing access to federal funds available for the cost of participating in school breakfast and lunch programs and maximizing determinations of student eligibility for federal free or reduced cost meal reimbursements rates and participation in CEP. The bill also would have lowered the minimum identified student percentage for a school to be eligible to participate in CEP from 40 to 25 percent in accordance with the updated federal CEP regulations (7 C.F.R. § 245.9(f)(3)(i)). The bill also would have required the Secretary of Education, in coordination with the Secretary of Finance, to convene a stakeholder work group to study and make recommendations on ways to avoid or mitigate the impact of offering statewide free school breakfast and lunches on other state-funded programs and to submit a report on such findings and recommendations by January 15, 2025, to the Senate Committee on Education and Health and the House Committee on Education. The bill also would have repealed provisions of law relating to the federal School Breakfast Program and to school meal debt that are rendered obsolete by the provisions of the bill.

Expands availability of allowable alternatives for pupil transportation HB 842 (Austin) and SB 431 (Suetterlein) would have expanded the availability of allowable alternatives to traditional school bus transportation services relating to the transportation of students to and from school or school-related activities, including permitting any school board of a school division for which providing transportation by school bus is not cost effective to use a portion of its transportation funding to provide a grant to any parent of a student who provides student transportation to and from school, subject to certain conditions enumerated in the bill. HB 842 was Continued to 2025 in Senate Education and Health while SB 431 was Continued to 2025 in Senate Finance and Appropriations.

School board policy on excess food donation HB 963 (Earley) would have required the Department of Education to survey each school board to determine (i) whether it has an existing policy or practice relating to the donation of excess food, as that term is defined in relevant law, from public elementary or secondary schools in the local school division to local food banks or shelters that serve meals or otherwise provide food to individuals in need and (ii) if so, how such policy or practice is implemented and the impact that it has on the local community. The bill would have required the Department of Education, after completing such survey, to compile in a guidance document or Superintendent's Memo and distribute to each school board a list of resources and best practices on the subject of excess food donation.

Compost and other products containing organic soil amendments infrastructure; civil penalty SB 329 (Surovell) would have allowed a locality by ordinance to require certain generators, as defined in the bill, of large quantities of organic waste to separate the organic waste from other solid waste and ensure that the organic waste is diverted from final disposal in a refuse disposal system. The bill would have allowed a locality to establish civil penalties for violations of such ordinance but requires the locality to issue a warning to a generator that violates the ordinance prior to collecting such a civil penalty. Finally, the bill expressed that it is the intent of the General Assembly that new public school buildings and facilities and improvements and renovations to existing public school buildings and facilities include waste disposal infrastructure, as defined in the bill. Note that SB 329 passed the General Assembly but was vetoed by the Governor. court order.