---
type: "Bill"
title: "Alternatives to suspension; Board of Education shall establish guidelines for local school boards."
description: "Directs the Board of Education to establish guidelines for alternatives to short-term and long-term suspension for consideration by local school boards. This bill is identical to"
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "SB 829"
citation: "Virginia SB 829 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Commissions", "Boards and Institutions Generally", "Education"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Jennifer T. Wexton"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 16
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2016-11-10"
last_action: "2017-03-03"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/44836dfc-c068-4cd3-b3e9-1b27a1fabe8b"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+sum+SB829"
source_hash: "bbf027da864521c2eadd9d718d685706f7af45783639f1fd102a64ec14023cd9"
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 SB 829 (2017) — Alternatives to suspension; Board of Education shall establish guidelines for local school boards.

Directs the Board of Education to establish guidelines for alternatives to short-term and long-term suspension for consideration by local school boards. This bill is identical to

## Version chain

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

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0303)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+CHAP0303)
2. **Senate: Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB829ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB829ER)
3. **Senate: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17100600D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB829)

## Votes

- Reported from Education — **21–1** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Education and Health — **15–0** (pass) · legislature
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed House — **85–13** (pass) · legislature
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **39–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Jennifer T. Wexton — primary (person)
- Jennifer L. McClellan — cosponsor (person)
- Kaye Kory — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2016-11-10** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17100600D `introduction`
- **2016-11-10** Referred to Committee on Education and Health `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-18** Assigned Education sub: Public Education `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-06** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2017-02-08** Placed on Calendar
- **2017-02-08** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2017-02-08** Referred to Committee on Education `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-14** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2017-02-15** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2017-02-15** Passed House (85-Y 13-N) `passage`
- **2017-02-17** Enrolled
- **2017-02-17** Signed by Speaker
- **2017-02-20** Signed by President
- **2017-02-21** Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on 2/21/17
- **2017-02-21** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 27, 2017
- **2017-03-03** Approved by Governor-Chapter 303 (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/44836dfc-c068-4cd3-b3e9-1b27a1fabe8b`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).