Citizen Portal
Sign In

Committee clears a slate of K–12 bills; subcommittee reports send multiple bills forward

House Education Committee · February 9, 2026

Loading...

AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

The House education committee’s subcommittee reports and full-committee actions advanced a range of K–12 bills — from school meals and post-secondary transition programs for students with disabilities to diploma seals and bleeding-control training — mostly by comfortable margins, with several referred to appropriations.

The committee also considered a number of other K–12 and early-childhood bills in subcommittee reports and brief full-committee actions. Highlights:

- HB 832: Committee substitute requiring the Virginia Department of Education to help governor’s schools identify costs and infrastructure needs for maximizing school meal offerings; reported with substitute (vote: 16–3).

- HB 996: Directs the Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services in collaboration with the Department of Education to expand the Post-Secondary Education Rehabilitation Transition (PERT) program; reported with amendments and, after striking fiscal portions via amendment, no longer needed appropriations (vote to report as amended: 17–3).

- HB 849: Amends suspension procedures to require continued salary for suspended school employees until a board hearing determines otherwise; reported (vote: 20–0).

- HB 125: Requires written notice for noncontinuation of continuing teacher contracts by June 15; reported (vote: 15–5).

- HB 478: Directs the Board of Education to create criteria for a diploma seal for excellence in fine arts; reported (vote: 17–3).

- HB 941: Requires hands-on bleeding-control kit practice for graduation and was reported as amended and referred to appropriations (vote: 14–7).

- HB 955 and HB 957 (higher-education reporting and 988 crisis lifeline promotion) were reported with substitutes (votes: 19–1 and 21–0, respectively).

- HB 1208 (early childhood cost-of-quality calculations) reported as substituted (vote: 18–2).

Most of these items were forwarded to the next step in the process with committee recommendations; several now await appropriations review where indicated for fiscal implications.