Virginia House Bill 837 (Prior Session Legislation)

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Completed Legislative Action
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: Passed on April 6 2020 - 100% progression
Action: 2020-04-06 - Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0678)
Text: Latest bill text (Chaptered) [HTML]

Board of Education; school boards; dress or grooming codes. Requires the Board of Education to include in its guidelines and model policies for codes of student conduct (i) standards for reducing bias and harassment in the enforcement of any code of student conduct and (ii) standards for dress or grooming codes, which the bill defines as any practice, policy, or portion of a code of student conduct adopted by a school board that governs or restricts the attire of any enrolled student. The bill permits any school board to include in its code of student conduct a dress or grooming code. The bill requires any dress or grooming code included in a school board's code of student conduct or otherwise adopted by a school board to (a) permit any student to wear any religiously and ethnically specific or significant head covering or hairstyle, including hijabs, yarmulkes, headwraps, braids, locs, and cornrows; (b) maintain gender neutrality by subjecting any student to the same set of rules and standards regardless of gender; (c) not have a disparate impact on students of a particular gender; (d) be clear, specific, and objective in defining terms, if used; (e) prohibit any school board employee from enforcing the dress or grooming code by direct physical contact with a student or a student's attire; and (f) prohibit any school board employee from requiring a student to undress in front of any other individual, including the enforcing school board employee, to comply with the dress or grooming code.

Dress or grooming codes in schools; school boards may include in its code of student conduct, etc.

Sen. Jennifer Carroll Foy [D]

2020-03-03 - Senate - Senate: Passed Senate (24-Y 15-N) (Y: 24 N: 15 NV: 1 Abs: 0) [PASS]
2020-02-28 - Senate - Senate: Constitutional reading dispensed (37-Y 0-N) (Y: 37 N: 0 NV: 3 Abs: 0) [PASS]
2020-02-27 - Senate - Senate: Reported from Education and Health (8-Y 4-N 3-A) (Y: 8 N: 4 NV: 0 Abs: 3) [PASS]
2020-02-07 - House - House: VOTE: Passage (81-Y 17-N) (Y: 81 N: 17 NV: 2 Abs: 0) [PASS]
2020-02-03 - House - House: Reported from Education with substitute (20-Y 2-N) (Y: 20 N: 2 NV: 0 Abs: 0) [PASS]
2020-01-27 - House - House: Subcommittee recommends reporting (4-Y 3-N) (Y: 4 N: 3 NV: 1 Abs: 0) [FAIL]

Date	Chamber	Action
2020-04-06		Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0678)
2020-04-06		Governor: Approved by Governor-Chapter 678 (effective 7/1/20)
2020-03-12		Governor: Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., April 11, 2020
2020-03-12	House	Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on March 12, 2020
2020-03-06	Senate	Signed by President
2020-03-06	House	Signed by Speaker
2020-03-06	House	Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB837ER)
2020-03-06	House	Enrolled
2020-03-03	Senate	Passed Senate (24-Y 15-N)
2020-03-03	Senate	Read third time
2020-03-02	Senate	Passed by for the day
2020-03-02	Senate	Read third time
2020-02-28	Senate	Constitutional reading dispensed (37-Y 0-N)
2020-02-27	Senate	Reported from Education and Health (8-Y 4-N 3-A)
2020-02-18	Senate	Assigned Education sub: Public Education
2020-02-10	Senate	Referred to Committee on Education and Health
2020-02-10	Senate	Constitutional reading dispensed
2020-02-07	House	VOTE: Passage (81-Y 17-N)
2020-02-07	House	Read third time and passed House (81-Y 17-N)
2020-02-06	House	Engrossed by House - committee substitute HB837H1
2020-02-06	House	Committee substitute agreed to 20107220D-H1
2020-02-06	House	Read second time
2020-02-05	House	Read first time
2020-02-03	House	Committee substitute printed 20107220D-H1
2020-02-03	House	Reported from Education with substitute (20-Y 2-N)
2020-01-27	House	Subcommittee recommends reporting (4-Y 3-N)
2020-01-15	House	Assigned Education sub: Pre-K-12
2020-01-07	House	Referred to Committee on Education
2020-01-07	House	Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/08/20 20104462D

Chapter	Article	Section	Citation Type	Statute Text
22	1	276.01	(n/a)	See Bill Text
22	1	279.6	(n/a)	See Bill Text

Type	Source
Summary	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+sum+HB837
Text	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+HB837+hil
Text	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+HB837H1+hil
Text	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+HB837ER+hil
Text	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+CHAP0678+hil
Roll Call	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+vot+H0901V0035+HB0837
Roll Call	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+vot+H09V0108+HB0837
Roll Call	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+vot+HV0591+HB0837
Roll Call	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+vot+S04V0338+HB0837
Roll Call	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+vot+SV1300HB0837+HB0837
Roll Call	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+vot+SV1448HB0837+HB0837