---
type: "Bill"
title: "School building evacuation plans, policies, and protocols; students with mobility impairments."
description: "School building evacuation plans, policies,and protocols; students with mobility impairments. Requires anydivisionwide or public elementary or secondary school-specific schoolbuilding evacuation plan, policy, or protocol to include provisionsthat seek to maximize the opportunity for students with mobilityimpairments to evacuate the school building alongside their non-mobility-impairedpeers."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2024"
identifier: "HB 501"
citation: "Virginia HB 501 (2024)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Laura Jane Cohen"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 26
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2024-01-08"
last_action: "2024-03-28"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/d89d72c5-ce7a-45a6-9a20-48e09c7385f7"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+sum+HB501"
source_hash: "c5691649c3fde6ac50729857bedb8970210c0e742ad2577237cd4c9d6b79b32a"
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 501 (2024) — School building evacuation plans, policies, and protocols; students with mobility impairments.

School building evacuation plans, policies,and protocols; students with mobility impairments. Requires anydivisionwide or public elementary or secondary school-specific schoolbuilding evacuation plan, policy, or protocol to include provisionsthat seek to maximize the opportunity for students with mobilityimpairments to evacuate the school building alongside their non-mobility-impairedpeers.

## Version chain

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

1. **CHAP0194** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+ful+CHAP0194)
2. **HB501ER** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+ful+HB501ER)
3. **Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/10/24 24101047D** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+ful+HB501)

## Votes

- VOTE: Block Vote Passage (99-Y 0-N) — **98–0** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Education and Health (15-Y 0-N) — **15–0** (pass) · upper
- Subcommittee recommends reporting (8-Y 0-N) — **8–0** (pass) · lower
- Passed Senate (40-Y 0-N) — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Constitutional reading dispensed (38-Y 0-N) — **38–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Education (21-Y 0-N) — **21–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Laura Jane Cohen — primary (person)
- Atoosa R. Reaser — cosponsor (person)
- Elizabeth B. Bennett-Parker — cosponsor (person)
- Irene Shin — cosponsor (person)
- Rodney T. Willett — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2024-01-08** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/10/24 24101047D `filing, introduction`
- **2024-01-08** Referred to Committee on Education `referral-committee`
- **2024-01-16** Impact statement from DPB (HB501)
- **2024-01-19** Assigned Education sub: K-12 Subcommittee `referral-committee`
- **2024-01-30** Subcommittee recommends reporting (8-Y 0-N)
- **2024-01-31** Reported from Education (21-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2024-02-02** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2024-02-05** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2024-02-06** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (99-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2024-02-06** VOTE: Block Vote Passage (99-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2024-02-07** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2024-02-07** Referred to Committee on Education and Health `referral-committee`
- **2024-02-14** Assigned Education and Health Sub: Public Education `referral-committee`
- **2024-02-22** Reported from Education and Health (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** Passed Senate (40-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2024-02-29** Enrolled `enrolled`
- **2024-02-29** Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB501ER) `passage`
- **2024-02-29** Signed by Speaker `passage`
- **2024-03-03** Signed by President `passage`
- **2024-03-04** Impact statement from DPB (HB501ER)
- **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`
- **2024-03-28** Approved by Governor-Chapter 194 (effective 7/1/24) `executive-signature`
- **2024-03-28** Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0194)

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/d89d72c5-ce7a-45a6-9a20-48e09c7385f7`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).