During his campaign, Governor Youngkin pledged to promote school safety and give parents more of a voice in educational decisions. Working with the House and Senate, Governor Youngkin has kept these promises by signing the following bills into law:
- SB 656: Will require schools to notify parents when a school assignment includes sexually explicit content and will allow parents to review it and request an alternative assignment. A summary article is here. (A similar bill was previously vetoed by Governor McAuliffe, who later remarked in debate “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”)
- HB 4: Will require schools to report crimes like sexual battery and stalking to law enforcement. This law will reverse the worst parts of a bill that was passed over Republican objections in 2020 when Democrats were in the majority.
- HB741: This was Delegate Rob Bell’s school safety bill, and will require each school to prepare a detailed floor plan for use by responders in the event of an emergency.