On Wednesday, April 2, 2025, the Virginia General Assembly held its Reconvene Session to consider recommendations and vetoes from Governor Glenn Youngkin to legislation passed during the 2025 session. The list below reflects K-12 legislation with recommendations that were adopted by the Virginia General Assembly. Several bills with amendments related to K-12 education were rejected by the Senate and House and will return to the Governor for his final action. VSBA will report on these bills in early-May or upon action by the Governor.
Governor's Recommendations Adopted
HB 1766- Unemployment compensation; increase weekly benefit amounts; report. Provides that, for unemployment compensation claims effective on or after January 1, 2026, an eligible individual's weekly benefit amount shall be $100 higher than the current weekly benefit amount, as denoted in the table in the printed bill. The bill directs the Commission on Unemployment Compensation, in consultation with the Virginia Employment Commission, to convene a work group to study making annual adjustments to individual weekly benefit amounts based on the average weekly wage. The bill also provides that, beginning July 1, 2025, for claims effective on or after July 1, 2025, an eligible individual's weekly unemployment compensation benefit amount shall be paid for a maximum duration of 26 weeks. As introduced, this bill was a recommendation of the Commission on Unemployment Compensation. This bill is identical to SB 1056.
HB 1924- School boards; prohibition against hiring or contracting for the services of certain individuals; certain criminal convictions. Prohibits each school board from employing or contracting for the services of any individual who has been convicted of any felony crime of violence as defined in the bill or any offense involving a child. Current law prohibits each school board from employing or contracting for the services of any individual who has been convicted of any violent felony set forth in a certain statutory definition of "barrier crime" or any offense involving the sexual molestation, physical or sexual abuse, or rape of a child, or the solicitation of any such offense.
HB 1936- Department of Education; index of required teacher training. Requires the Department of Education (the Department) to establish and maintain an index of each training in which any public elementary and secondary school teacher in the Commonwealth is required to participate pursuant to state or federal law or regulation, including training required as a condition of licensure by the Department. The bill requires such index to include information on the classification of teacher required to complete each training; the topic, length, and frequency of each training activity; and the total number of hours of training that each teacher is required to complete in a specific period of time. The bill requires the Department to review and update such index annually, when a training is added, or when an existing training on the index is changed in length or frequency to ensure that the information therein is accurate and to post such index in an easily and publicly accessible format and location on its website no later than August 1, 2025.
HB 1957- Board of Education; Standards of Learning assessments and related student assessment methods; assessment development, implementation, and administration reform. Modifies provisions relating to assessment methods for determining the level of achievement of the Standards of Learning objectives by all students, including (i) requirements relating to assessment administration aimed at maximizing instructional time and optimizing time used for assessment administration; (ii) criteria and guidelines for the structure and content of Standards of Learning assessments and alternative assessments developed by local school boards, including criteria for the types of assessment items that shall be included; (iii) provisions relating to eligibility and timelines for students to retake assessments; and (iv) the scoring of Standards of Learning assessments and related assessments, including a requirement that all such assessments be scored on a 100-point scale. The bill contains a provision exempting from the requirement that all end-of-course assessments be administered no earlier than two weeks prior to the last day of the school year any assessments administered as a part of a competency-based assessment system. The bill requires the Board of Education to provide any teacher who participates in the scoring of Standards of Learning assessments professional development points toward renewal of his license for the time spent scoring such assessments. The bill also requires the Board of Education to develop and make available to each school board certain templates and guidelines relating to assessment content and structure and assessment scoring. Certain provisions of the bill do not become effective unless reenacted by the 2026 Session of the General Assembly and certain others have a delayed effective date of July 1, 2026.
HB 1961- Public elementary and secondary schools; student discipline; student cell phone possession and use policies; development and implementation. Directs each school board to develop and each public elementary and secondary school to implement age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate policies relating to the possession and use of cell phones by students on school property during regular school hours. The bill requires such policies to (i) restrict, to the fullest extent possible, student cell phone possession and use in the classroom during regular school hours; (ii) aim to reduce or prevent any distraction in or disruption to the learning environment, including bullying or harassment, that could be caused or facilitated by student cell phone possession and use on school property during regular school hours; (iii) ensure that implementation and enforcement of the policy is the responsibility of the administration, minimizes, to the extent possible, any conflict with the instructional responsibilities of teachers or any disruption to instructional time, and does not involve any school resource officer; (iv) include exceptions to such policies permitting any student, pursuant to an Individualized Education Plan or Section 504 Plan or if otherwise deemed appropriate by the school board, to possess and use a cell phone on school property, including in the classroom, during regular school hours to monitor or address a health concern; and (v) expressly prohibit any student from being suspended or expelled as a consequence of any violation of such policies. Finally, the bill clarifies that (a) no violation of any such student cell phone possession and use policy shall alone constitute sufficient cause for a student's suspension or expulsion from attendance at school and (b) any such violation that involves, coincides with, or results in an instance of disruptive behavior, as that term is defined in applicable law, shall be addressed in accordance with the regulations on codes of student conduct adopted by each school board pursuant to applicable law. This bill is identical to SB 738.
HB 2543- Department of Education; model memorandum of understanding; counseling from school counselors by way of telehealth. Provides that the model memorandum of understanding developed by the Department of Education for partnerships with community mental health services providers or school-based telehealth providers shall include procedures allowing for students to receive counseling from school counselors by way of telehealth. This bill is a recommendation of the Joint Subcommittee to Study Pandemic Response and Preparedness in the Commonwealth and is identical to SB 1370.
HB 2618- Public school buildings; indoor air quality; inspection and evaluation. Establishes several enumerated requirements for local school divisions to ensure indoor air quality in each public school building in the local school division, including providing for an inspection and evaluation program at least once every two years and an industry-recognized uniform inspection and evaluation at least once every four years. This bill is identical to SB 1413.
HB 2718- Photo speed monitoring devices; school crossing zones. Requires photographs, microphotographs, or other recorded images, or documentation, produced by a photo speed monitoring device placed in a school crossing zone to depict or confirm a portable sign or tilt-over sign that is in position and blinking or otherwise activated, indicating the school crossing zone, at the time of such vehicle speed violation in order for a sworn certificate to be considered prima facie evidence for purposes of enforcing vehicle speed violations.
