The Latest from VEA

2025 is an odd-numbered year and that means it’s a short General Assembly session, just 45 days. The short session was cut even shorter since the first week was lost due to a water outage in Richmond and this second full week of session saw several committees in both chambers holding extra meetings to work through mountains of bills. The GR lobby team has been joined by VEA’s legal team this week and together we’re actively supporting 30 VEA-initiated bills plus over 250 others on which the legislative committee has taken positions. Below is a summary of where the VEA-initiated bills stand as of Thursday night.

Quick refresher on the process: Bills are usually first heard in subcommittee and then the full committee. Those that pass through (“report from”) the full committee are referred to the finance committee if a state cost is anticipated. Bills that are reported from the finance committee are then sent to the floor for a vote by the full chamber. Bills that don’t have a state cost (i.e., those not referred to finance) head straight to a floor vote from the full committee. Bills that pass their chamber of origin cross over to the other chamber and the process is repeated. Those that pass both chambers move on to the governor.

These bills have reported from the full education committees and have been referred to their respective finance committees:

HB1829 (Simonds) and SB978 (Hashmi) – Comprehensive mathematics support  funds additional teacher resources, advanced mathematics courses, and enrichment programs for math education.

HB1831 (Simonds) – Eliminates the support cap and makes other changes to funding methodology included in JLARC recommendation #4.

HB2381 (Maldonado) and SB1129 (Boysko) – Improves the National Board Certification Program to increase the annual award, create reimbursement grants for candidates, and expand eligibility to all certified/candidate school staff.

HB2471 (Rasoul) – Requires VDOE to provide no-cost platform to assist school divisions with Medicaid billing for reimbursable services rendered at school sites. Includes survey and reporting components.

SB820 (Favola) – Establishes school improvement grant program to provide additional support to schools identified as being in the bottom two tiers of the state school accountability system.

SB829 (Locke) – Provides targeted supplemental pay for professionally licensed teachers in the top 10% of schools with the highest teacher vacancy rates across the state.

SB977 (Hashmi) – Omnibus bill implementing several near-term JLARC recommendations for improving the SOQ funding formula including lifting the support cap, more fairly calculating salary costs, creating flexible add-on funding for students with disabilities, and other technical changes.

SB979 (Hashmi) – Delays implementation of the new school accountability system by one year to allow for comprehensive review. By emphasizing raw SOL pass rates, the system will essentially measure a school’s student demographics and privilege over its quality to grow student learning. It is more complex than the previous system, gives misleading information to parents on how to measure a quality school, and is not even ready to implement since metrics are still changing as the state prepares additional assessments.

SB1033 (Pekarsky) – Expands the statutory authority of Virginia school boards to confirm their authority to sign collective bargaining agreements that allow binding arbitration to enforce them.

These bills were heard in subcommittee this week, were recommended for reporting, and should be heard in the full committee next week:

HB1830 (Simonds) – Requires each school board to approve unpaid educational leave for union officers and permit purchase of VRS service credit for the leave.

HB2098 (Maldonado) – Technical amendment to ensure wage protection for school board employees.

These bills reported from the full committee, were not referred to the finance committee, and are now headed for chamber floor:

HB1915 (Reaser) and SB1032 (Pekarsky) – Technical amendment to clarify that continuing contract means continuing contract, specifically that a teacher who has completed the probationary period has earned a continuing contract (assuming good behavior and competent service) unless/until the teacher provides notice of their intent to resign.

HB1988 (Askew) – Expands the statutory authority of Virginia school boards to confirm their authority to sign collective bargaining agreements that allow binding arbitration to enforce them.

SB968 (Carroll Foy) – Requires the VDOE to annually collect and publish average salaries of school support personnel, by career category, in a format similar to the reporting of average teacher salaries. This bill was inspired by an NBI at the 2024 convention.

SB1413 (Surovell) – Establishes requirements for school boards to ensure indoor air quality in every school building, and requires each school board to receive and respond to employee complaints relating to indoor air quality in school buildings.

This bill has passed the House (its chamber of origin) and will cross over to the Senate:

HB1983 (Askew) – Requires the VDOE to annually collect and publish average salaries of school support personnel, by career category, in a format similar to the reporting of average teacher salaries. This bill was inspired by an NBI at the 2024 convention.

Any bills not included here haven’t been heard in any committee yet. We will keep you updated on the progress of VEA bills each week throughout session. Stay tuned!