---
type: "Bill"
title: "Public school students; sight and hearing testing, exceptions."
description: "Excludes from the requirement that the sight and hearing of public school students be tested any student who has an Individualized Education Program or a Section 504 Plan that documents a defect of vision or hearing or a disease of the eyes or ears when the principal determines that such a test would not identify any previously unknown defect of vision or hearing or disease of the eyes or ears."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "HB 1437"
citation: "Virginia HB 1437 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Education"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Christopher T. Head"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 17
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2016-11-22"
last_action: "2017-03-27"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/476e3ffe-e6ac-4b92-b43d-05329ef92b82"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+sum+HB1437"
source_hash: "aefff8ad710961b4a7321f1bd9fa6b4e331674e8654371d89059eb0e5c0e03f6"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia HB 1437 (2017) — Public school students; sight and hearing testing, exceptions.

Excludes from the requirement that the sight and hearing of public school students be tested any student who has an Individualized Education Program or a Section 504 Plan that documents a defect of vision or hearing or a disease of the eyes or ears when the principal determines that such a test would not identify any previously unknown defect of vision or hearing or disease of the eyes or ears.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0765)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+CHAP0765)
2. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB1437ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB1437ER)
3. **House: Committee substitute printed 17104523D-H1** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB1437H1)
4. **House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17101120D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB1437)

## Votes

- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **99–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Education and Health — **15–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reconsideration of Senate passage agreed to by Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **39–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed Senate — **39–0** (pass) · legislature
- Subcommittee recommends reporting — **8–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Education with substitute — **21–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Christopher T. Head — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2016-11-22** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17101120D `introduction`
- **2016-11-22** Referred to Committee on Education `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-13** Assigned Education sub: Elementary and Secondary Education `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-24** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2017-01-25** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2017-01-25** Committee substitute agreed to 17104523D-H1
- **2017-01-25** Engrossed by House - committee substitute HB1437H1
- **2017-01-26** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (99-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2017-01-27** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2017-01-27** Referred to Committee on Education and Health `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-20** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2017-02-23** Enrolled
- **2017-02-23** Signed by Speaker
- **2017-02-24** Signed by President
- **2017-02-28** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on 2/28/17
- **2017-02-28** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 27, 2017
- **2017-03-27** Approved by Governor-Chapter 765 (effective 7/1/17) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/476e3ffe-e6ac-4b92-b43d-05329ef92b82`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).