---
type: "Bill"
title: "Students; guidelines on excused student absences, civic engagement."
description: "Department of Education; guidelines on excused student absences; civic or political engagement. Provides that, subject to guidelines established by the Department of Education, each school board (i) shall permit one school day-long excused absence per school year for any middle school or high school student in the local school division who is absent from school to engage in a civic or political event and (ii) may permit additional excused absences for such students who are absent for such purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2021"
identifier: "HB 1940"
citation: "Virginia HB 1940 (2021)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Sam Rasoul"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 36
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2021-01-11"
last_action: "2021-03-12"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/d1a5a99e-6a34-454d-aecc-2000dbbb9cbb"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+sum+HB1940"
source_hash: "5597a68f81ace30a8c865e50d7b0431590e3e7ec654d5889a1c1ed67f9011609"
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 1940 (2021) — Students; guidelines on excused student absences, civic engagement.

Department of Education; guidelines on excused student absences; civic or political engagement. Provides that, subject to guidelines established by the Department of Education, each school board (i) shall permit one school day-long excused absence per school year for any middle school or high school student in the local school division who is absent from school to engage in a civic or political event and (ii) may permit additional excused absences for such students who are absent for such purposes.

## Version chain

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

1. **CHAP0104** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+CHAP0104)
2. **HB1940ER** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+HB1940ER)
3. **HB1940H1** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+HB1940H1)
4. **Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/13/21 21100543D** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+HB1940)

## Votes

- VOTE: Passage (62-Y 37-N) — **61–37** (pass) · lower
- Subcommittee recommends reporting (5-Y 3-N) — **5–3** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Education and Health with amendments (9-Y 5-N) — **9–5** (pass) · upper
- Passed Senate with amendments (26-Y 13-N) — **26–13** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Education (17-Y 5-N) — **17–5** (pass) · lower
- VOTE: Adoption (61-Y 38-N) — **60–38** (pass) · lower
- Continued to 2021 Sp. Sess. 1 in Education and Health (15-Y 0-N) — **15–0** (pass) · upper
- Constitutional reading dispensed (39-Y 0-N) — **39–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Sam Rasoul — primary (person)
- Betsy B. Carr — cosponsor (person)
- Dawn M. Adams — cosponsor (person)
- Elizabeth R. Guzman — cosponsor (person)
- Hala S. Ayala — cosponsor (person)
- Ibraheem S. Samirah — cosponsor (person)
- Jennifer B. Boysko — cosponsor (person)
- Joshua G. Cole — cosponsor (person)
- Kaye Kory — cosponsor (person)
- Kenneth R. Plum — cosponsor (person)
- Lashrecse D. Aird — cosponsor (person)
- Lee J. Carter — cosponsor (person)
- Marcus B. Simon — cosponsor (person)
- Mark H. Levine — cosponsor (person)
- Mark L. Keam — cosponsor (person)
- Patrick A. Hope — cosponsor (person)
- Paul E. Krizek — cosponsor (person)
- R. Lee Ware — cosponsor (person)
- Richard C. "Rip" Sullivan, Jr. — cosponsor (person)
- Scott A. Surovell — cosponsor (person)
- Shelly A. Simonds — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2021-01-11** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/13/21 21100543D `introduction`
- **2021-01-11** Referred to Committee on Education `referral-committee`
- **2021-01-13** Assigned Education sub: Pre-K-12 `referral-committee`
- **2021-01-14** Impact statement from DPB (HB1940)
- **2021-01-15** Subcommittee recommends reporting (5-Y 3-N)
- **2021-01-18** Reported from Education (17-Y 5-N) `committee-passage`
- **2021-01-19** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2021-01-20** Passed by for the day
- **2021-01-21** Floor substitute printed 21103483D-H1 (Rasoul)
- **2021-01-21** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2021-01-21** Substitute by Delegate Rasoul agreed to 21103483D-H1
- **2021-01-21** Engrossed by House - floor substitute HB1940H1
- **2021-01-22** Read third time and passed House (62-Y 37-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2021-01-22** VOTE: Passage (62-Y 37-N)
- **2021-01-25** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2021-01-25** Referred to Committee on Education and Health `referral-committee`
- **2021-01-28** Impact statement from DPB (HB1940H1)
- **2021-02-05** Continued to 2021 Sp. Sess. 1 in Education and Health (15-Y 0-N)
- **2021-02-11** Senate committee, floor amendments and substitutes offered
- **2021-02-11** Reported from Education and Health with amendments (9-Y 5-N) `committee-passage`
- **2021-02-12** Constitutional reading dispensed (39-Y 0-N)
- **2021-02-15** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2021-02-15** Reading of amendments waived
- **2021-02-15** Committee amendments agreed to
- **2021-02-15** Engrossed by Senate as amended
- **2021-02-15** Passed Senate with amendments (26-Y 13-N) `passage`
- **2021-02-17** Placed on Calendar
- **2021-02-17** Senate amendments agreed to by House (61-Y 38-N)
- **2021-02-17** VOTE: Adoption (61-Y 38-N)
- **2021-02-22** Enrolled
- **2021-02-22** Impact statement from DPB (HB1940ER)
- **2021-02-22** Signed by President
- **2021-02-24** Signed by Speaker
- **2021-02-25** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on February 25, 2021
- **2021-02-25** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., March 31, 2021
- **2021-03-12** Approved by Governor-Chapter 104 (effective 7/1/21) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/d1a5a99e-6a34-454d-aecc-2000dbbb9cbb`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).