republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2021/hb-1904.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Teachers and other licensed school board employees; cultural competency training."
description: "Teachers and other licensed school board employees;cultural competency. The bill requires teacher, principal, and division superintendent evaluations to include an evaluation ofcultural competency. The bill requires every person seeking initiallicensure or renewal of a license from the Board of Education (i)to complete instruction or training in cultural competency and (ii)with an endorsement in history and social sciences to complete instructionin African American history, as prescribed by the Board. The billalso requires each school board to adopt and implement policies that require each teacher and any other school board employee holdinga license issued by the Board to complete cultural competency training,in accordance with guidance issued by the Board, at least every twoyears."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2021"
identifier: "HB 1904"
citation: "Virginia HB 1904 (2021)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Clinton L. Jenkins"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 24
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2021-01-08"
last_action: "2021-02-25"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/d6d156ef-524d-424c-aa69-86f5582db77a"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+sum+HB1904"
source_hash: "636c1901cc2af50dc8e16a47c4996df9678a4263aee29d59034b884e6f4c8a3f"
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 1904 (2021) — Teachers and other licensed school board employees; cultural competency training.

Teachers and other licensed school board employees;cultural competency. The bill requires teacher, principal, and division superintendent evaluations to include an evaluation ofcultural competency. The bill requires every person seeking initiallicensure or renewal of a license from the Board of Education (i)to complete instruction or training in cultural competency and (ii)with an endorsement in history and social sciences to complete instructionin African American history, as prescribed by the Board. The billalso requires each school board to adopt and implement policies that require each teacher and any other school board employee holdinga license issued by the Board to complete cultural competency training,in accordance with guidance issued by the Board, at least every twoyears.

## Version chain

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

1. **CHAP0023** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+CHAP0023)
2. **HB1904ER** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+HB1904ER)
3. **Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/13/21 21101996D** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+HB1904)

## Votes

- Continued to 2021 Sp. Sess. 1 in Education and Health (15-Y 0-N) — **15–0** (pass) · upper
- Constitutional reading dispensed (39-Y 0-N) — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Subcommittee recommends reporting (6-Y 2-N) — **6–2** (pass) · lower
- Passed Senate (21-Y 18-N) — **21–18** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Education (15-Y 6-N) — **15–6** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Education and Health (8-Y 6-N) — **8–6** (pass) · upper
- VOTE: Passage (59-Y 41-N) — **58–41** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Clinton L. Jenkins — primary (person)
- Betsy B. Carr — cosponsor (person)
- Dawn M. Adams — cosponsor (person)
- Delores L. McQuinn — cosponsor (person)
- Elizabeth R. Guzman — cosponsor (person)
- Hala S. Ayala — cosponsor (person)
- Kathleen Murphy — cosponsor (person)
- Kenneth R. Plum — cosponsor (person)
- Lamont Bagby — cosponsor (person)
- Mark H. Levine — cosponsor (person)
- Mark L. Keam — cosponsor (person)
- Sally L. Hudson — cosponsor (person)
- Suhas Subramanyam — cosponsor (person)
- Wendy W. Gooditis — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2021-01-08** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/13/21 21101996D `introduction`
- **2021-01-08** Referred to Committee on Education `referral-committee`
- **2021-01-13** Assigned Education sub: Pre-K-12 `referral-committee`
- **2021-01-15** Subcommittee recommends reporting (6-Y 2-N)
- **2021-01-18** Reported from Education (15-Y 6-N) `committee-passage`
- **2021-01-18** Impact statement from DPB (HB1904)
- **2021-01-19** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2021-01-20** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2021-01-21** Read third time and passed House (59-Y 41-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2021-01-21** VOTE: Passage (59-Y 41-N)
- **2021-01-22** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2021-01-22** Referred to Committee on Education and Health `referral-committee`
- **2021-02-05** Continued to 2021 Sp. Sess. 1 in Education and Health (15-Y 0-N)
- **2021-02-11** Reported from Education and Health (8-Y 6-N) `committee-passage`
- **2021-02-12** Constitutional reading dispensed (39-Y 0-N)
- **2021-02-15** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2021-02-15** Passed Senate (21-Y 18-N) `passage`
- **2021-02-17** Enrolled
- **2021-02-17** Impact statement from DPB (HB1904ER)
- **2021-02-17** Signed by President
- **2021-02-18** Signed by Speaker
- **2021-02-19** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on February 19, 2021
- **2021-02-19** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., February 26, 2021
- **2021-02-25** Approved by Governor-Chapter 23 (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/d6d156ef-524d-424c-aa69-86f5582db77a`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).