republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2020/sb-238.md

type, title, description, jurisdiction, legislature, session, identifier, citation, classification, subjects, status, primary_sponsors, version_count, action_count, vote_count, first_action, last_action, source, source_identifier, source_url, source_hash, vintage, source_snapshot, retrieved_at, confidence, tags

type	title	description	jurisdiction	legislature	session	identifier	citation	classification	subjects	status	primary_sponsors	version_count	action_count	vote_count	first_action	last_action	source	source_identifier	source_url	source_hash	vintage	source_snapshot	retrieved_at	confidence	tags
Bill	Public schools; increases kindergarten instructional time.	Public schools; kindergarten instructional time. Increases from 540 hours to 990 hours the minimum instructional hoursin a school year for students in kindergarten, beginning July 1,2022. The bill directs the Board of Education to adopt regulationsby July 1, 2022, establishing standards for accreditation that includea requirement that the standard school day for students in kindergartenaverage at least 5.5 instructional hours in order to qualify forfull accreditation.	us/states/va	Virginia General Assembly	2020	SB 238	Virginia SB 238 (2020)	bill		enacted	George L. Barker	3	24	6	2020-01-02	2020-03-31	openstates	ocd-bill/5e22111a-0802-461d-9ec6-3c8f8517e7c2	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+sum+SB238	5708915c66d49a12cbde9ca4926c4c4bb2294dea751f1731b6d56f37dfd8ea1d	2026-07-01	https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump	2026-07-06	reported	legislation bill us-va

Virginia SB 238 (2020) — Public schools; increases kindergarten instructional time.

Public schools; kindergarten instructional time. Increases from 540 hours to 990 hours the minimum instructional hoursin a school year for students in kindergarten, beginning July 1,2022. The bill directs the Board of Education to adopt regulationsby July 1, 2022, establishing standards for accreditation that includea requirement that the standard school day for students in kindergartenaverage at least 5.5 instructional hours in order to qualify forfull accreditation.

Version chain

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

1. Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0582) (committee substitute) — source
2. Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB238ER) (committee substitute) — source
3. Impact statement from DPB (SB238) (committee substitute) — source

Votes

• Reported from Education and Health (12-Y 2-N 1-A) — 12–2 (pass) · upper
• Constitutional reading dispensed (37-Y 0-N) — 37–0 (pass) · upper
• Subcommittee recommends reporting (8-Y 0-N) — 8–0 (pass) · lower
• Read third time and passed Senate (32-Y 6-N) — 32–6 (pass) · upper
• Reported from Education (18-Y 4-N) — 18–4 (pass) · lower
• VOTE: Passage (94-Y 6-N) — 93–6 (pass) · lower

Sponsors

• George L. Barker — primary (person)

Timeline

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

• 2020-01-02 Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/08/20 20103301D introduction
• 2020-01-02 Referred to Committee on Education and Health referral-committee
• 2020-01-09 Reported from Education and Health (12-Y 2-N 1-A) committee-passage
• 2020-01-09 Impact statement from DPB (SB238)
• 2020-01-10 Constitutional reading dispensed (37-Y 0-N)
• 2020-01-13 Read second time and engrossed reading-2
• 2020-01-14 Read third time and passed Senate (32-Y 6-N) passage, reading-3
• 2020-02-18 Placed on Calendar
• 2020-02-18 Read first time reading-1
• 2020-02-18 Referred to Committee on Education referral-committee
• 2020-02-18 Assigned Education sub: SOL and SOQ referral-committee
• 2020-02-24 Subcommittee recommends reporting (8-Y 0-N)
• 2020-02-24 Reported from Education (18-Y 4-N) committee-passage
• 2020-02-26 Read second time reading-2
• 2020-02-27 Read third time reading-3
• 2020-02-27 Passed House (94-Y 6-N) passage
• 2020-02-27 VOTE: Passage (94-Y 6-N)
• 2020-03-04 Enrolled
• 2020-03-04 Impact statement from DPB (SB238ER)
• 2020-03-05 Signed by President
• 2020-03-05 Signed by Speaker
• 2020-03-12 Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on March 12, 2020
• 2020-03-12 Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., April 11, 2020
• 2020-03-31 Approved by Governor-Chapter 582 (effective - see bill) executive-signature

Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot 2026-07-01; origin ocd-bill/5e22111a-0802-461d-9ec6-3c8f8517e7c2. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).