---
type: "Bill"
title: "Confirmatory adoption; expands the stepparent adoption provisions."
description: "Confirmatory adoption. Expands the stepparentadoption provisions to allow a person who is not the child's stepparentbut has a legitimate interest in the child to file a joint petitionfor adoption with the child's birth parent or parent by adoption."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2021"
identifier: "SB 1321"
citation: "Virginia SB 1321 (2021)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Jennifer B. Boysko"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 37
vote_count: 10
first_action: "2021-01-12"
last_action: "2021-03-18"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/1da57142-a786-4b6f-81c2-9b552e32c4d4"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+sum+SB1321"
source_hash: "1c050f390f049dd2ed583a75e3ce6af5efdf9476cc185dad578d4936dba78155"
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 1321 (2021) — Confirmatory adoption; expands the stepparent adoption provisions.

Confirmatory adoption. Expands the stepparentadoption provisions to allow a person who is not the child's stepparentbut has a legitimate interest in the child to file a joint petitionfor adoption with the child's birth parent or parent by adoption.

## Version chain

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

1. **CHAP0252** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+CHAP0252)
2. **Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/13/21 21102745D** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+SB1321)
3. **Printed as engrossed 21102745D-E** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+SB1321E)
4. **SB1321ER** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+SB1321ER)

## Votes

- Continued to Special Session 1 in Health, Welfare and Institutions — **0–0** (fail) · lower
- Subcommittee recommends reporting (8-Y 0-N) — **8–0** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Health, Welfare and Institutions (20-Y 2-N) — **20–2** (pass) · lower
- VOTE: Passage (80-Y 20-N) — **79–20** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Rehabilitation and Social Services with amendments (11-Y 1-N 3-A) — **11–1** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Appropriations (20-Y 0-N) — **20–0** (pass) · lower
- Subcommittee recommends reporting (5-Y 1-N) — **5–1** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Finance and Appropriations (11-Y 2-N 2-A) — **11–2** (pass) · upper
- Constitutional reading dispensed (39-Y 0-N) — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Read third time and passed Senate (24-Y 13-N) — **24–13** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Jennifer B. Boysko — primary (person)
- Betsy B. Carr — cosponsor (person)
- George L. Barker — cosponsor (person)
- Jennifer L. McClellan — cosponsor (person)
- Joseph D. Morrissey — cosponsor (person)
- T. Montgomery "Monty" Mason — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2021-01-12** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/13/21 21102745D `introduction`
- **2021-01-12** Referred to Committee on Rehabilitation and Social Services `referral-committee`
- **2021-01-20** Impact statement from DPB (SB1321)
- **2021-01-22** Reported from Rehabilitation and Social Services with amendments (11-Y 1-N 3-A) `committee-passage`
- **2021-01-22** Rereferred to Finance and Appropriations `referral-committee`
- **2021-01-26** Reported from Finance and Appropriations (11-Y 2-N 2-A) `committee-passage`
- **2021-01-27** Constitutional reading dispensed (39-Y 0-N)
- **2021-01-28** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2021-01-28** Reading of amendments waived
- **2021-01-28** Committee amendments agreed to
- **2021-01-28** Engrossed by Senate as amended SB1321E
- **2021-01-28** Printed as engrossed 21102745D-E
- **2021-01-28** Impact statement from DPB (SB1321E)
- **2021-01-29** Read third time and passed Senate (24-Y 13-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2021-02-02** Placed on Calendar
- **2021-02-02** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2021-02-02** Referred to Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions `referral-committee`
- **2021-02-08** Continued to Special Session 1 in Health, Welfare and Institutions
- **2021-02-09** Assigned HWI sub: Social Services `referral-committee`
- **2021-02-16** Subcommittee recommends reporting (5-Y 1-N)
- **2021-02-16** Subcommittee recommends referring to Committee on Appropriations
- **2021-02-16** Assigned App. sub: Health & Human Resources `referral-committee`
- **2021-02-16** Reported from Health, Welfare and Institutions (20-Y 2-N) `committee-passage`
- **2021-02-16** Referred to Committee on Appropriations `referral-committee`
- **2021-02-17** Subcommittee recommends reporting (8-Y 0-N)
- **2021-02-17** Reported from Appropriations (20-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2021-02-19** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2021-02-22** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2021-02-22** Passed House (80-Y 20-N) `passage`
- **2021-02-22** VOTE: Passage (80-Y 20-N)
- **2021-02-24** Enrolled
- **2021-02-24** Impact statement from DPB (SB1321ER)
- **2021-02-24** Signed by President
- **2021-02-25** Signed by Speaker
- **2021-03-01** Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on March 1, 2021
- **2021-03-01** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., March 31, 2021
- **2021-03-18** Approved by Governor-Chapter 252 (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/1da57142-a786-4b6f-81c2-9b552e32c4d4`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).