---
type: "Bill"
title: "School boards; enrolled students present at meetings, public comment or citizen participation."
description: "School boards; meetings; public comment or citizen participation; enrolled students. Requires each school boardto permit any student enrolled in a public elementary or secondaryschool in the local school division who provides acceptable proofof identification, including any current student identification cardor other school document such as a report card or a personal schoolemail address, and who signs up at least 12 hours in advance of thescheduled start of a school board meeting or is physically presentat a school board meeting to submit oral comments during any publiccomment or citizen participation portion of such meeting."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2024"
identifier: "HB 253"
citation: "Virginia HB 253 (2024)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Joshua G. Cole"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 38
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2024-01-04"
last_action: "2024-04-08"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/e54f008c-7205-42a0-b0bb-aa8022627b52"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+sum+HB253"
source_hash: "3884b3690a48b825a535181f45c20a95d9bd5694a06be1902353edf518646bb7"
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 253 (2024) — School boards; enrolled students present at meetings, public comment or citizen participation.

School boards; meetings; public comment or citizen participation; enrolled students. Requires each school boardto permit any student enrolled in a public elementary or secondaryschool in the local school division who provides acceptable proofof identification, including any current student identification cardor other school document such as a report card or a personal schoolemail address, and who signs up at least 12 hours in advance of thescheduled start of a school board meeting or is physically presentat a school board meeting to submit oral comments during any publiccomment or citizen participation portion of such meeting.

## Version chain

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

1. **CHAP0689** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+ful+CHAP0689)
2. **HB253ER** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+ful+HB253ER)
3. **Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/10/24 24101889D** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+ful+HB253)
4. **Printed as engrossed 24101889D-E** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+ful+HB253E)

## Votes

- VOTE: Adoption (54-Y 45-N) — **53–45** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Education and Health with amendment (15-Y 0-N) — **15–0** (pass) · upper
- VOTE: Passage (56-Y 44-N) — **55–44** (pass) · lower
- Constitutional reading dispensed (38-Y 0-N) — **38–0** (pass) · upper
- Subcommittee recommends reporting with amendments (7-Y 1-N) — **7–1** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Education with amendment(s) (13-Y 8-N) — **13–8** (pass) · lower
- Passed Senate with amendment (38-Y 2-N) — **38–2** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Joshua G. Cole — primary (person)
- Alex Q. Askew — cosponsor (person)
- Bonita G. Anthony — cosponsor (person)
- Debra D. Gardner — cosponsor (person)
- Destiny LeVere Bolling — cosponsor (person)
- Elizabeth B. Bennett-Parker — cosponsor (person)
- Holly M. Seibold — cosponsor (person)
- Karen Keys-Gamarra — cosponsor (person)
- Kathy K.L. Tran — cosponsor (person)
- Kelly K. Convirs-Fowler — cosponsor (person)
- Marcia S. "Cia" Price — cosponsor (person)
- Michael J. Jones — cosponsor (person)
- Rae Cousins — cosponsor (person)
- Rozia A. Henson, Jr. — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2024-01-04** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/10/24 24101889D `filing, introduction`
- **2024-01-04** Referred to Committee on Education `referral-committee`
- **2024-01-15** Impact statement from DPB (HB253)
- **2024-01-19** Assigned Education sub: K-12 Subcommittee `referral-committee`
- **2024-01-23** Subcommittee recommends reporting with amendments (7-Y 1-N)
- **2024-01-24** Reported from Education with amendment(s) (13-Y 8-N) `committee-passage`
- **2024-01-26** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2024-01-29** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2024-01-29** Committee amendments agreed to `amendment-passage`
- **2024-01-29** Engrossed by House as amended HB253E
- **2024-01-29** Printed as engrossed 24101889D-E
- **2024-01-30** Read third time and passed House (56-Y 44-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2024-01-30** VOTE: Passage (56-Y 44-N) `passage`
- **2024-01-31** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2024-01-31** Referred to Committee on Education and Health `referral-committee`
- **2024-02-01** Impact statement from DPB (HB253E)
- **2024-02-14** Assigned Education and Health Sub: Public Education `referral-committee`
- **2024-02-15** Senate committee, floor amendments and substitutes offered
- **2024-02-15** Senate subcommittee amendments and substitutes offered
- **2024-02-22** Senate committee, floor amendments and substitutes offered
- **2024-02-22** Reported from Education and Health with amendment (15-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2024-02-23** Constitutional reading dispensed (38-Y 0-N)
- **2024-02-26** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2024-02-26** Reading of amendment waived
- **2024-02-26** Committee amendment agreed to `amendment-passage`
- **2024-02-26** Engrossed by Senate as amended
- **2024-02-26** Passed Senate with amendment (38-Y 2-N) `passage`
- **2024-02-28** Senate amendment agreed to by House (54-Y 45-N) `amendment-passage`
- **2024-02-28** VOTE: Adoption (54-Y 45-N)
- **2024-03-05** Enrolled `enrolled`
- **2024-03-05** Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB253ER) `passage`
- **2024-03-05** Impact statement from DPB (HB253ER)
- **2024-03-05** Signed by Speaker `passage`
- **2024-03-07** Signed by President `passage`
- **2024-03-11** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on March 11, 2024 `enrolled, executive-receipt`
- **2024-03-11** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., April 8, 2024 `executive-receipt`
- **2024-04-08** Approved by Governor-Chapter 689 (effective 7/1/24) `executive-signature`
- **2024-04-08** Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0689)

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/e54f008c-7205-42a0-b0bb-aa8022627b52`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).