2026 Weekly Legislative Updates

The session started off with a bang on Wednesday, as the House and Senate fast-tracked the four constitutional amendments: HJ 1; HJ 2; HJ 3, and HJ 4.

The Senate Public Education Subcommittee was the only education-related committee meeting this week, reporting several bills back to the full committee:

• SB4 (Roem) School breakfasts; availability at no cost to students.
• SB19 (Locke) DOE; policies relating to instructional material that contains sexually explicit content.
• SB20 (Locke) Child Care Subsidy Program; income-based eligibility for assistance.
• SB39 (Favola) Public schools; best practice of tech. tools to assist w/identifying students at risk of self-harm.
• SB42 (Roem) School boards; powers and duties, school meal policies, payment of school meal debt.
• SB102 (Stanley) School boards; high school courses or dual enrollment programs for certain certifications.
• SB105 (Stanley) STEM+C Competition Team Grant Program; eligibility for grants.
• SB108 (Pekarsky) School boards; student cell phone and smart device possession and use policies, prohibition.
• SB109 (Pekarsky) School boards; parental notification, safe storage of prescription drugs and firearms in household.
• SB110 (Pekarsky) Certified school library specialists; Superintendent of Public Instruction to employ in DOE.
• SB117 (Pekarsky) Public school teachers; reemployment of teacher who has not received continuing contract status.
• SB134 (Locke) Public education; early childhood care and education, funding formula calculations, report.
• SB151 (Craig) Elementary school students; water safety instruction required, guidelines.
• SB174 (Pekarsky) Virginia Student Teacher Scholarship Program; established, report.

The highlight of this meeting was our own Deep Run High School students on the Blue Cheese Robotics team, who testified in favor of the bill. (You can view this at the 46:20 mark of this video: Senate of Virginia: Education & Health: Public Education on 2026-01-15 [Finished]) Another Henrico student, a sophomore, spoke in favor of SB4, the school breakfast bill (at 1:28:10 in this video).

The House Education Committee will hold an organizational meeting on Monday at 8 a.m., but no bills will be heard. This daily schedule of events is a great resource for meeting schedules and agendas.

The festivities of the historic inauguration of Virginia’s new Governor set the tone for the second week of this year’s General Assembly. Gov. Spanberger didn’t waste any time prioritizing education as one of the central themes of her administration by signing an executive order that is designed to improve implementation of the Virginia Literacy Act, expand access to advanced math instruction, implement recommendations of last year’s JLARC review, and for a statewide listening tour for the new state education secretary and superintendent.

All of the bills that passed through the subcommittee mentioned in last week’s report passed through the full Senate Education and Health Committee on Thursday. This week’s Senate subcommittee reported these additional bills:

• SB33 (Favola) Programs for at-risk students; permissible uses of funding.
• SB61 (Mulchi) Nationally Certified School Psychologist Program; established.
• SB63 (Salim) Graduation with an advanced studies diploma; requirements, complet. of Int'l Baccalaureate diploma.
• SB90 (Favola) Equity in public school funding and staffing; at-risk Program established, standards of quality.
• SB119 (Carroll Foy) Employee Child Care Assistance Pilot Program; established, report.
• SB190 (Williams Graves) Public schools; student support services, student personal information and data security, report.
• SB259 (Stanley) Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation Program; established, development of modules, report.
• SB265 (Stanley) Elementary and secondary schools or higher educational institutions; bullying and cyberbullying. (Referred to Courts)
• SB309 (Pekarsky) Driver education programs; voluntary initiatives for drivers with autism spectrum disorder.
• SB341 (Boysko) Private elementary and secondary schools; policies relating to bullying and cyberbullying, etc.
• SB427 (Bagby) High school graduation requirements; history and social studies credits; certain substitutions permitted.
• SB439 (Bagby) College and Career Ready Virginia Program; advisory committee and work group composition.
• SB450 (Bagby) Department of Education; public school teacher licensure requirements; comprehensive review of alternative licensure pathways; stakeholder work group; report. (Referred to Rules)
• SB491 (Pekarsky) Public schools; right to free public elementary and secondary education, discrimination, etc.
• SB592 (Bagby) Board of Education; career and technical education courses, pathways, and credentials; biennial review; report.
• SB678 (Pekarsky) Department of Education; special education and related services; educational rights, protections, and duties relating to the education of children with disabilities; requirements.
• SB685 (Pekarsky) Standards of Quality; school board policies; communication and language accessibility for limited English proficient parents; requirements; report.

On the House side, the following bills reported out of the full Education committee:

• HB38 (Henson) Public schools; mental health awareness training and instruction, requirements.
• HB96 (Bennett-Parker) School breakfast; availability at no cost to students.
• HB116 (Ward) School board employee grievance procedure; timing of dispute resolution.
• HB171 (Askew) Student instruction; internet safety, policy to include key modern digital safety topics.
• HB199 (Rasoul) Through-year growth assessment system; alternatives during 2024-2028 school years permitted.
• HB206 (Keys-Gamarra) College partnership laboratory schools; transparency.
• HB210 (Price) School meal debt; each school board to annually report.
• HB288 (Anderson) Education, Department of; website posting of certain instructional resources.

 Next week’s schedule has already been affected with Monday’s House Education Committee being cancelled. More changes are likely, depending upon the severity of the storm.

The inclement weather this week didn’t affect the work of the House and Senate education committees much at all. In fact, this was the busiest week yet regarding the number of education-related bills making their way through either chamber.

Sixteen House Bills made it out of the K-12 subcommittee. Those recommendations were then approved by the full House Education Committee.

A few highlights and notes from this docket and other House action include:

HB290 (Anderson) - This bill would remove the Class 4 misdemeanor penalty for providing false residency information and replace it with a fine not to exceed $250.

HB1171 (Rasoul) – The bill directs the Board of Education to develop, approve, and implement alternative graduation pathways to earn a Standard Diploma that are designed to expand opportunities for students to complete the verified credit requirements for the Standard Diploma that do not require achieving a passing score on applicable Standards of Learning assessments. 

On the Senate side, bills to note that reported from their Public Education Subcommittee include:

SB217 (Boysko) provides an annual award of $7,500 for each year of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certificate, plus an additional $2,500 for each year of employment in a Title 1 school. Grants would also be available to cover reimbursement of related fees.

SB61 (Mulchi) would establish a Nationally Certified School Psychologist Program. School psychologists obtaining national certification would receive an initial $5,000 award and $2,500 each year after for the life of the certificate. [The House cognate, HB 526 (Downey), died in their Appropriations subcommittee.]

SB284 (Aird) would establish a four-year timeline and process for increasing the average teacher salary in the Commonwealth to the national average. Needless to say, this bill was strongly supported by all the education associations and advocates.

SB785 (Carroll Foy) would require school divisions to include in their annual report to the Department of Education several data points on those who leave employment, including demographics, the reason for the exit, and whether it was voluntary or involuntary. This aggregated data would then be posted to the VDOE website.

Here’s the full list of bills that reported from the Senate Public Education Subcommittee:

• SB73 (Srinivasan) Medicaid billing navigator positions; Superintendent of Public Instruction to establish, report.
• SB122 (McPike) Public elementary and secondary schools; student diabetes medical care and management.
• SB147 (Pekarsky) Alternative graduation pathways to earn Standard Diploma; development, approval, and implementation.
• SB203 (Suetterlein) Teacher licensure; career and technical education or dual enrollment; three-year licenses.
• SB217 (Boysko) National Board Certification Incentive Reward Program and Fund; eligibility.
• SB238 (Head) Board of Visitors of the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind; authority to establish campus police department.
• SB264 (Stanley) Individualized education programs; guidelines, social skills development.
• SB284 (Aird) Teachers; timeline and process for increasing salaries to at least the national average.
• SB529 (Diggs) Public schools; school security and discipline, employment of school security officers, training.
• SB656 (Durant) Standards of Quality; class size limits; exception for certain ensemble music classes.
• SB692 (Suetterlein) Western Virginia Public Education Consortium; funding, duties.
• SB724 (Head) High school graduation requirements and methods; application to entering ninth-grade cohorts; retroactive changes prohibited; public guidance.
• SB757 (Srinivasan) Va. African American, Asian American, etc., & Indigenous Ed. Advisory Board; established, report.
• SB785 (Carroll Foy) Department of Education; teacher, other instructional personnel, and support staff shortages; data collection and reporting; reporting of demographic data and reason for exits required.

Believe it or not, we are more than one-quarter of the way through the regular session, with less than three weeks before crossover.

As the weeks progress, the action intensifies as scores of education bills are making their way out of each chamber with only one full week to go before crossover. In fact, the Senate Public Education Subcommittee wrapped up its precrossover docket yesterday.

Bills of note that made it through on the House side this week include a couple of bills related to English Language Learners:

• HB1278 (Reaser) significantly expands school divisions’ obligations to ensure language accessibility for LEP parents and enhance engagement.
• HB1367 (Reaser) mandates some significant data collection and reporting regarding English language learner students, and the concern is that it would represent an unfunded mandate, as no funds accompany this bill.

(Both of these bills are now in the House Appropriations education subcommittee.)

Other bills related to our Academic Achievement priority include:

• HB182 (Reid) would permit the substitution of an African American History course for a World History or Geography course toward history and social studies credits for high school graduation requirements.
• HB 1171 (Rasoul) provides alternative graduation pathways to earn a standard diploma that do not require achieving a passing score on applicable Standards of Learning assessments. A report from the Virginia Board of Education on the development, approval, and implementation of this bill will come back to the General Assembly next January.  
• HB877 (Rasoul) establishes a program by which qualified high school students can earn an associate degree in a “meta-major” (defined in the bill) via dual enrollment.

Links to a full list of bills that reported from the House Education Committee this week are in the K-12 Subcommittee section of the links below:

• Feb. 2, 2026 Report
• Feb. 4, 2026 Report

The Senate bills highlighted in last week’s report related to teacher pay and incentives that passed from the Senate Public Education subcommittee also advanced from the full committee this week. In addition, the following Senate bills, which are cognates of two House bills listed above, advanced:

• Related to HB1171: SB147 (Pekarsky) - Alternative graduation pathways to earn Standard Diploma; development, approval, and implementation.
• Related to HB1278: SB685 (Pekarsky) - SOQ; communication and language accessibility for limited English proficient parents, report.

Other bills of note advancing from the full committee include:

• SB122 (McPike) was the subject of much favorable testimony to provide additional support for students with diabetes. Versions of this bill have been debated for years, and with several recent amendments, it garnered widespread support and appears poised to finally pass this year.
• SB491 (Pekarsky) is a response to recent immigration enforcement that says nonjudicial warrants can’t be carried out, and otherwise emphasizes that schools must remain safe spaces.
• SB678 (Pekarsky) is a comprehensive bill to help safeguard special education and related services by essentially replicating the Federal IDEA law into state code, something that a few other states have done.

In Thursday’s subcommittee, the much-awaited SB200 (VanValkenburg) included lots of amendments that significantly cleaned up last year’s comprehensive assessment bill by giving more flexibility to the end-of-year two-week testing period, and other flexible measures to allay the statewide concerns that were widely expressed. This bill will be heard by the full committee next Thursday.

This is the complete list of bills passing the full Senate Education and Health Committee:

• SB73 (Srinivasan) Medicaid billing navigator positions; Superintendent of Public Instruction to establish, report.
• SB122 (McPike) Public elementary and secondary schools; student diabetes medical care and management.
• SB147 (Pekarsky) Alternative graduation pathways to earn Standard Diploma; development, approval, and implementation,
• SB203 (Suetterlein) Teacher licensure; career and technical education or dual enrollment; three-year licenses.
• SB217 (Boysko) National Board Certification Incentive Reward Program and Fund; eligibility.
• SB264 (Stanley) Individualized education programs; guidelines, social skills development.
• SB284 (Aird) Teachers; timeline and process for increasing salaries to at least national average.
• SB491 (Pekarsky) Public schools; right to free public elementary and secondary education, discrimination, etc.
• SB529 (Diggs) Public schools; school security and discipline, employment of school security officers, training.
• SB656 (Durant) Standards of Quality; class size limits, exception for certain ensemble music classes, definition.
• SB678 (Pekarsky) Special ed. and related services; rights, etc., relating to education of children with disabilities.
• SB692 (Suetterlein) Western Virginia Public Education Consortium; funding, duties.
• SB724 (Head) High school graduation requirements; consistency for cohorts of ninth grade students.
• SB757 (Srinivasan) Va. African American, Asian American, etc., & Indigenous Ed. Advisory Board; established, report.
• SB785 (Carroll Foy) Teachers, instructional personnel, etc.; reporting of demographic data & reason for exits required.

Next week will just about wrap-up the first half of the session with all bills needing to be cleared from committees and approved on the floor of each body in order to advance to the other chamber.

This week’s committee dockets were long as they all finished their respective slate of bills so they could be sent to the floor before the crossover deadline on Tuesday.

Bills of interest that passed the full House Education Committee include HB299 (Helmer), similar to SB200 (VanValkenburg), which, as mentioned in last week’s report, significantly cleans up last year’s comprehensive assessment bill by giving more flexibility for a number of things, including the end-of-year SOL testing period, retakes, alternative assessments, special education waivers and other concerns widely expressed by stakeholders. With their input incorporated, many stakeholders expressed their satisfaction with the bill's amendments.

The related HB189 (Convers-Fowler), which repeals the provision that 10% of a student’s SOL score must count toward their final grade, passed with a reenactment clause for 2027. HB1243 (O’Quinn) allows the passing SOL score of student retakes to count toward school ratings.

Also related to our Board’s Academic Achievement priority, HB643 (Rasoul) calls for the Virginia Board of Education to consider changes to the School Performance and Support Framework recommended by the recent JLARC study, including the new school performance labeling.

HB1345 (Nivar), a bill that would mandate testing and additional requirements for indoor air quality in schools, passed with a delayed enactment to 2027. There was significant debate that this would pose a large unfunded mandate to schools, as much as $10-25,000 or more per school every four years. For example, using the estimate of $20,000 per school, this would represent a cost of $1.5 million for HCPS every four years. With the delayed enactment, amendments to this bill are anticipated.

Finally, on the House side, HB298 (McQuinn) regarding restorative disciplinary practice, was amended to be permissive (the same as last year before it was ultimately vetoed). While HCPS is in support of and actively utilizes restorative practices, this change will ensure that local authority is maintained.

The Full House Education Committee's complete list of reported bills for the week can be found here:

• Feb 9, 2026
• Feb 11, 2026

On the Senate side this week, SB16 (Suetterlein), extending through-year growth assessments to 2027-28, was incorporated into SB200 (VanValkenburg), listed above.

SB220 (Jones), a residency and eligibility bill relating to high school athletes, which was in response to the dispute of an HCPS football player’s eligibility, was amended to be a Section 1 (uncodified) bill as a compromise after much debate in subcommittee. The bill now requires the VHSL to study the issue and report back to the education committees by Nov. 1, 2026.

A couple of technology-related bills making their way through are SB 245 (Head), which basically states that social media cannot be the only means for communication between school staff and students for extracurricular activities. This would not apply to platforms such as ParentSquare. SB394 (Pekarsky) directs the Virginia Board of Education to establish guidelines for the safe, ethical, and equitable use of artificial intelligence, and also establishes a statewide pilot program to develop innovative uses of AI in schools.

SB815 (Suetterlein) allows the school year to start no earlier than 14 days before September 1, instead of the fluctuating date of Labor Day.

And finally, SB378 (Surovell), a bill to repeal the prohibition on collective bargaining by public employees, made its way through the Senate this week through other committees (not Education). While some educational advocates are seeking additional clarity as it pertains to school divisions’ authority, the bill was amended late Thursday in a subcommittee to delay the enactment until 2028.

This is the complete list of bills passing the full Senate Education and Health Committee this week:

• SB200 (VanValkenburg) SOL assessments and related assessment methods; development, administration, scoring, and release. (Incorporating SB16.)
• SB220 (Jones) High school student athletes; eligibility, residency requirements.
• SB245 (Head) Social media platforms; school boards, artificial intelligence systems, civil penalties.
• SB394 (Pekarsky) AI use in instructional settings; AI Innovation in Education Pilot Program established, report.
• SB511 (Cifers) Career & technical education prog., associate degree programs, etc.; return on investment analysis.
• SB563 (Sturtevant) Public elementary and secondary schools; parent's right to opt children out of certain ed. content.
• SB568 (Sturtevant) Public elementary and secondary schools; use of school-issued devices for instructional purposes.
• SB576 (Reeves) Teacher licensure; three-year license to teach career and technical education, etc.
• SB603 (Reeves) School boards; policies relating to volunteer student life counseling and support services.
• SB639 (Stuart) Motor vehicle registration; authority of school division to request numbers.
• SB733 (Sturtevant) Local government; appropriation of local school funds to families for compulsory student attendance.
• SB815 (Suetterlein) School bds.; opening of school year, certain alternative schedules & schedule flexibility permitted.
• SB817 (Suetterlein) School bds; classes, courses, and prog of instruction, parental notification of course registration.
• SB820 (Suetterlein) Community Builders Pilot Program; name change, sunset repeal.
• SB822 (Pillion) School nurses; sickle cell disease training.
• SB824 (Bagby) School board employee grievance procedure; timing of dispute resolution.

The week of Crossover is like the eye of the storm; it’s the eerie calm period between the hectic stages of the front and back ends of the legislative session. With no bills temporarily in committees, both chambers had marathon floor sessions the first part of the week to get their bills passed by the deadline.

There is an interesting VPAP Crossover visualization that presents a good summary of the fate of the more than 2,300 bills that were introduced in both chambers.

With many of the education bills not making it this far, the focus now becomes sharper on the remaining bills that are more impactful. Following Crossover, the two main education committees had light dockets this week, conforming identical or similar bills from either chamber.

On the House side, this is a list of the bills conformed this week. On the Senate side, here’s the list of bills that were reported, most of which were conformed to their Senate cognates:

• HB116 (Ward) School board employee grievance procedure; timing of dispute resolution.
• HB125 (Reaser) Public school teachers; written notice of noncontinuation of continuing contract.
• HB182 (Reid) High school graduation requirements; history and social studies credits.
• HB195 (McQuinn) Programs for at-risk students; permissible uses of funding.
• HB201 (Cohen) School boards; safe storage of prescription drugs and firearms in the household.
• HB263 (Simonds) Certified school library specialists; Superintendent of Public Instruction to employ in DOE. (Continued.)
• HB332 (Rasoul) Teacher licensure; three-year renewable license to teach career and technical education, etc.
• HB416 (Guzman) School buses; use for public purposes by local governing bodies, insurance reimbursement.
• HB595 (Simonds) Advanced studies diploma; requirements for graduation, approval for certain credit requirements.
• HB705 (Hayes) Health Ed. SOL & Curriculum Framework; Board of Education to include water safety instruction.
• HB1039 (Carr) College and Career Ready Virginia Program; advisory committee and work group composition.
• HB1153 (Rasoul) Community Builders Pilot Program; name change, sunset repeal, statewide demonstration model site.
• HB1208 (Sewell) Public education; early childhood care and education, child care access calculation, report.
• HB1278 (Reaser) School bd. policies; communication & language accessibility for limited English proficient parents.
• HB1437 (Dougherty) Teacher, other instructional personnel, etc., exits; data collection, disaggregation by race.
• HB1499 (LeVere Bolling) DOE; policies relating to instructional material that contains sexually explicit content.

Our education legislative advocates continue to monitor remaining bills and lobby for amendments to a handful to reduce any unfunded mandates to local school divisions or otherwise ensure we retain local autonomy.

The calm between the two halves of Crossover was short-lived, as the education committee dockets were loaded with scores of bills from the other chamber in the short turnaround time remaining before the end of the session.

There was more action on the Senate side, particularly regarding HB1345, the indoor air testing bill. HCPS staff met with various legislators, including the patron, Del. Nivar, and the trade groups behind this bill, to try to reach a consensus and help mitigate what we believe would be a significant unfunded mandate. While we were able to have several of our recommendations included in the amendments to the bill, we still oppose it, and were joined by several other statewide education advocacy groups in testimony against it. It did pass the Senate Public Education Subcommittee, but must now be approved by the full Senate Education Committee.

One other bill of note coming through the Senate side is the seemingly perpetually debated diabetes care and management bill, HB1301 (Thomas), very similar to SB122 (McPike). While these bills are almost identical, the language in the House version appears to be stronger in its training requirements for lay people and more favorable to school divisions. However, the definition of this item was disputed, and the bill was ultimately conformed to the Senate version and referred to their Finance Committee.

(The full list of Senate bills advancing from their full Education committee this week is extremely long and therefore not included here.)

The House Education Committee had fewer bills coming over from the other side, and most were conformed in one way or another with their House companion bills. Those of note include SB685 (Pekarsky), which addresses communication and language accessibility for limited English proficient parents, similar to HB1278 (Reaser); SB109 (Pekarsky), requiring annual notification about safe storage of firearms and prescription drugs; and SB63 (Salim), which clears some obstacles for students transferring into a Virginia school toward simultaneous completion of their International Baccalaureate diploma and advanced studies diploma, similar to HB132 (Simon).

Here is the complete list of the 12 Senate Bills that reported from the full House Education Committee this week.

One other bill of note this week did not come through the education committees, but one we opposed that would mandate an internet domain name change to “.gov” for all public bodies, HB707 (Hayes). Thankfully, it was turned into a work group to study its impact further. This was something our IT staff provided feedback on and flagged as potentially problematic. It was also strongly opposed by most school divisions in the commonwealth.

 The final tranche of Senate bills will make its way through the House Education Subcommittee on Tuesday morning (see agenda) and then be heard in their full Education committee this Wednesday, which will complete the docket for this session. With both the House and Senate education committees wrapping up next week, most remaining activity will be on the floor, and expect to see the state budget take center stage in either chamber.

Both the House and Senate Education Committees wrapped up their work this week, and the main focus for the rest of the session will be the state budget. The two chambers remain far apart, and the two budget bills will now be hashed out in a conference committee. Here is a good resource from the Commonwealth Institute, with a side-by-side comparison of the House and Senate budget versions, compared to the originally introduced version. (Page 4 is dedicated to K-12 Education.)

One item that appeared out of the blue this week in the Senate budget was a provision that would negatively impact school divisions with data centers. The amendment adds the value of computer equipment used in data centers as part of the computation of the LCI beginning with the 2028-30 biennium. The larger school divisions and general government lobbyists and leadership are aware of this potentially significant negative impact, so there will be significant pushback.

The collective bargaining bills (SB378/HB1263) are also headed for a conference committee after making their way through a myriad of labor and finance committees. While there are significant differences overall, the bills are similar as it relates to school divisions. The primary item needing clarification is the final arbitration authority between school and county boards. Both bills have a delayed enactment of July 1, 2028, and there continues to be active lobbying among a variety of groups.

Back to the committees: There is very good news to report regarding HB1345, and the potentially large unfunded mandate the additional indoor air testing would impose. Thanks in large part to our HCPS lobbying efforts, Sen. Aird put forward a motion to continue the bill, which was overwhelmingly approved, effectively killing it for this session.

Here is the full list of bills reporting from the final Senate Education and Health Committee:

• HB199 (Rasoul) Through-year growth assessment system; alternatives during 2024-2028 school years permitted.
• HB253 (Glass) Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact; enters the Commonwealth into Compact.
• HB255 (Glass) School Psychologists, Interstate Compact for; membership of the Commonwealth into compact.
• HB298 (McQuinn) Public elementary or secondary school students; evidence-based restorative disciplinary practices.
• HB299 (Helmer) SOL assessments and related assessment methods; development, administration, scoring, and release. (Conformed to SB200.)
• HB410 (Reid) School boards; participation in SAT School Day program required, student participation.
• HB413 (Guzman) High School Certified Nurse Aid Training/Certification Program; established, requirements, report.
• HB461 (Cohen) Special education; certain educational settings, student age range restriction.
• HB614 (Rasoul) Historically marginalized communities; inclusion in History/Soc. Science SOL & Curriculum Framework.
• HB913 (Lopez) Public Instruction, Superintendent of; reverse certain recent actions, etc.
• HB1095 (Singh) High school students; completion of certain applications for student financial aid required.
• HB1186 (Rasoul) Artificial intelligence; use of systems for student instruction. (Conformed to SB394.)
• HB1229 (Scott) Public schools; use of seclusion and restraint, report.
• HB1243 (O’Quinn) Standards of Quality; state accountability, Standards of Learning assessment expedited retake score.
• HB1352 (Cohen) Driver education; dangers of reckless driving, including driving at excessive speeds.
• HB1387 (Cherry) Teaching licenses; automatic revocation upon certain convictions.
• HB1503 (Hayes) Public high school athletic coaches; guidance and resources on sickle cell trait.

In the final House Education Committee meeting, the diabetes care and management bill SB122 was conformed to HB1301. There is a reenactment clause and an effective implementation date of the 2028-29 school year. Also, SB108, strengthens the prohibition of the usage (but not possession) of cell phones and smart devices from “bell-to-bell.”

Here is the full list of bills reporting from this last meeting of the full committee.

Believe it or not, next week is the final week of the 2026 regular session with all eyes on the budget and a few other conference committees. The Varina High School football coach and select team members are scheduled to visit the Senate gallery at noon on Thursday, March 12, where a proclamation will be read from the floor by Sen. Aird honoring their state championship team.

Today marks the second Friday the 13th of this session, but we don’t appear to have had too much bad luck, as tomorrow will end the 2026 regular session. However, we will still have to wait for a final determination of our fortune until after a special budget session that appears likely. While the Governor has a week to sign bills during the session, she has 30 days to sign those passed at the end of the session, most of which fall into this category. The General Assembly will then reconvene on April 22 to consider all amendments and vetoes returned by the Governor.  

So, we are down to the nitty-gritty of conference committees and other action on the most meaningful bills, which have to be completed by tomorrow. The following bills of note have now been reported out of conference:

• HB836 (Rasoul)/SB491 (Pekarsky), a response to recent immigration enforcement that addresses law-enforcement activity in schools relating to immigration, and otherwise emphasizes that schools must remain safe spaces;
• HB1186 (Rasoul)/SB394 (Pekarsky), direct the Virginia Board of Education to establish guidelines for the safe, ethical, and equitable use of artificial intelligence, and also establishes a statewide pilot program to develop innovative uses of AI in schools; and,
• SB200 (VanValkenburg), addresses concerns expressed by stakeholders from last year’s comprehensive assessment bill by repealing through-year growth assessments, and giving flexibility in some areas, including alternative assessments, and also implements a 100-point scale.

As of today, bills of note still in conference are:

• SB378 (Surovell)/HB1263 (Tran), the much-discussed and debated collective bargaining bills that repeal the existing prohibition on collective bargaining by public employees;
• HB1301 (Thomas)/SB122 (McPike), the diabetes care and management bills that keeps flipping back and forth between the House and Senate amendments;
• SB220 (Jones), the residency and eligibility bill relating to high school athletes, which was partly in response to the dispute of an HCPS football player’s eligibility. The bill was amended to direct the VDOE and the VHSL to study the issue and report back to the education committees by Nov. 1, 2026, but some of those details are still being worked out;
• HB1278 (Reaser)/SB685 (Pekarsky), which relate to communication policies & language accessibility for limited English proficient parents; and
• SB190 (Williams Graves)/HB178 (Anthony), which allow for a school board to enter into an MOU with other agencies that seek to provide any student support program. It directs the VDOE to develop guidance and a model MOU. (It also has a reenactment clause.)

Again, all eyes are on the two budget bills from the different chambers that appear to be stalled in their conference committee, so we are anticipating a special session or some form of extension for a final state budget to be resolved.