---
type: "Bill"
title: "Public schools; lock-down drills, annual requirement."
description: "Public schools; lock-down drills; annual requirement. Reduces from three to two the minimum number of mandatory annuallock-down drills in each public elementary and secondary school inthe Commonwealth."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2021"
identifier: "HB 1998"
citation: "Virginia HB 1998 (2021)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Kathleen Murphy"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 24
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2021-01-11"
last_action: "2021-02-25"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/7286fe24-9ff2-43cf-a88d-20f3a4ee56d9"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+sum+HB1998"
source_hash: "31a8a17f59b8906b1ef4099c180d0914f87bf3b7201b455f396c72cadc0dcf37"
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 1998 (2021) — Public schools; lock-down drills, annual requirement.

Public schools; lock-down drills; annual requirement. Reduces from three to two the minimum number of mandatory annuallock-down drills in each public elementary and secondary school inthe Commonwealth.

## Version chain

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

1. **CHAP0026** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+CHAP0026)
2. **HB1998ER** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+HB1998ER)
3. **Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/13/21 21101496D** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+HB1998)

## Votes

- Subcommittee recommends reporting (8-Y 0-N) — **8–0** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Education (22-Y 0-N) — **22–0** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Education and Health (14-Y 0-N) — **14–0** (pass) · upper
- Passed Senate (39-Y 0-N) — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Constitutional reading dispensed (39-Y 0-N) — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Continued to 2021 Sp. Sess. 1 in Education and Health (15-Y 0-N) — **15–0** (pass) · upper
- VOTE: Block Vote Passage (100-Y 0-N) — **99–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Kathleen Murphy — primary (person)
- Hala S. Ayala — cosponsor (person)
- Kenneth R. Plum — cosponsor (person)
- Mark L. Keam — cosponsor (person)
- Sam Rasoul — cosponsor (person)
- Shelly A. Simonds — cosponsor (person)
- Suhas Subramanyam — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2021-01-11** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/13/21 21101496D `introduction`
- **2021-01-11** Referred to Committee on Education `referral-committee`
- **2021-01-18** Impact statement from DPB (HB1998)
- **2021-01-19** Assigned Education sub: Pre-K-12 `referral-committee`
- **2021-01-22** Subcommittee recommends reporting (8-Y 0-N)
- **2021-01-25** Reported from Education (22-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2021-01-26** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2021-01-27** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2021-01-28** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (100-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2021-01-28** VOTE: Block Vote Passage (100-Y 0-N)
- **2021-01-29** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2021-01-29** Referred to Committee on Education and Health `referral-committee`
- **2021-02-05** Continued to 2021 Sp. Sess. 1 in Education and Health (15-Y 0-N)
- **2021-02-11** Reported from Education and Health (14-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2021-02-12** Constitutional reading dispensed (39-Y 0-N)
- **2021-02-15** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2021-02-15** Passed Senate (39-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2021-02-17** Enrolled
- **2021-02-17** Impact statement from DPB (HB1998ER)
- **2021-02-17** Signed by President
- **2021-02-18** Signed by Speaker
- **2021-02-19** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on February 19, 2021
- **2021-02-19** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., February 26, 2021
- **2021-02-25** Approved by Governor-Chapter 26 (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/7286fe24-9ff2-43cf-a88d-20f3a4ee56d9`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).