Governor Glenn Youngkin vetoed Senate Bill 235 (Hashmi) Friday evening. This legislation 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.
In issuing the veto, Governor Youngkin provided the following explanation,
"In accordance with Senate Bill 656 (2022), the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) released "Model Policies on Instructional Materials with Sexually Explicit Content." Developed through collaboration with educational leaders and parents, the model policy bolsters parental rights by granting parents more decision-making authority in their child's education. The model specifically states: “the Act shall not be construed to require or provide for the censoring of books in public elementary and secondary schools.”Despite the proponents’ claim that the current proposal codifies the enactment clause found in Chapter 100 of the 2022 Acts of Assembly, there are significant language differences that may cause confusion among school administrators, divisions, parents, and students.
Current law unequivocally affirms that the adoption of these model policies by a school board should not be interpreted as requiring or providing for the censorship of books in public elementary and secondary schools. Therefore, the bill is unnecessary.
Accordingly, I veto this bill."
