---
type: "Bill"
title: "Students; guidelines on excused student absences, civic engagement."
description: "Department of Education; guidelines on excused student absences; civic engagement. Requires, subject to guidelines established by the Department of Education, each local school board to permit at least 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 event. The bill allows local school boards to require that a student provide advance notice of the intended absence and documentation of participation in a civic event to be granted an excused absence."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2021"
identifier: "SB 1439"
citation: "Virginia SB 1439 (2021)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Jennifer L. McClellan"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 38
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2021-01-15"
last_action: "2021-03-12"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/b1331960-b238-4200-84f8-e7cb776d9cca"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+sum+SB1439"
source_hash: "396f38c24b5b91325ebad2dd6e14bc69baf642a06ec05c05c3141aba35ad9348"
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 1439 (2021) — Students; guidelines on excused student absences, civic engagement.

Department of Education; guidelines on excused student absences; civic engagement. Requires, subject to guidelines established by the Department of Education, each local school board to permit at least 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 event. The bill allows local school boards to require that a student provide advance notice of the intended absence and documentation of participation in a civic event to be granted an excused absence.

## Version chain

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

1. **CHAP0105** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+CHAP0105)
2. **Presented and ordered printed 21102439D** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+SB1439)
3. **SB1439ER** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+SB1439ER)
4. **SB1439S1** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+SB1439S1)

## Votes

- Continued to Special Session 1 in Education — **0–0** (fail) · lower
- Read third time and passed Senate (25-Y 14-N) — **25–14** (pass) · upper
- Subcommittee recommends reporting (5-Y 3-N) — **5–3** (pass) · lower
- VOTE: Passage (61-Y 39-N) — **60–39** (pass) · lower
- Constitutional reading dispensed (35-Y 0-N) — **35–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Education with amendment(s) (16-Y 6-N) — **16–6** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Education and Health with amendment (10-Y 5-N) — **10–5** (pass) · upper
- House amendment agreed to by Senate (25-Y 14-N) — **25–14** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

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

## Timeline

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

- **2021-01-15** Presented and ordered printed 21102439D `introduction`
- **2021-01-15** Referred to Committee on Education and Health `referral-committee`
- **2021-01-18** Impact statement from DPB (SB1439)
- **2021-01-20** Assigned Education sub: Public Education `referral-committee`
- **2021-01-28** Reported from Education and Health with amendment (10-Y 5-N) `committee-passage`
- **2021-01-29** Constitutional reading dispensed (35-Y 0-N)
- **2021-02-01** Passed by for the day
- **2021-02-02** Floor substitute printed 21104293D-S1 (McClellan)
- **2021-02-02** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2021-02-02** Reading of amendment waived
- **2021-02-02** Committee amendment rejected
- **2021-02-02** Reading of substitute waived
- **2021-02-02** Substitute by Senator McCLellan agreed to 21104293D-S1
- **2021-02-02** Engrossed by Senate - floor substitute SB1439S1
- **2021-02-03** Read third time and passed Senate (25-Y 14-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2021-02-05** Placed on Calendar
- **2021-02-05** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2021-02-05** Referred to Committee on Education `referral-committee`
- **2021-02-05** Impact statement from DPB (SB1439S1)
- **2021-02-08** Continued to Special Session 1 in Education
- **2021-02-12** Subcommittee recommends reporting (5-Y 3-N)
- **2021-02-15** Reported from Education with amendment(s) (16-Y 6-N) `committee-passage`
- **2021-02-15** House committee, floor amendments and substitutes offered
- **2021-02-15** Senate committee, floor amendments and substitutes offered
- **2021-02-17** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2021-02-18** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2021-02-18** Committee amendment agreed to
- **2021-02-18** Engrossed by House as amended
- **2021-02-18** Passed House with amendment (61-Y 39-N) `passage`
- **2021-02-18** VOTE: Passage (61-Y 39-N)
- **2021-02-22** House amendment agreed to by Senate (25-Y 14-N)
- **2021-02-24** Enrolled
- **2021-02-24** Impact statement from DPB (SB1439ER)
- **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
- **2021-03-12** Approved by Governor-Chapter 105 (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/b1331960-b238-4200-84f8-e7cb776d9cca`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).