republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2022/hb-649.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Children who are deaf or hard of hearing; language development, assessment resources."
description: "Language development for children who are deaf or hard of hearing; assessment resources for parents and educators; advisory committee; report. Requires the Department of Education, in coordination with the Department for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing and Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, to (i) select, with input from an advisory committee that the bill establishes, language developmental milestones and include such milestones in a resource for use by parents of a child from birth to age five who is identified as deaf or hard of hearing to monitor and track their child's expressive and receptive language acquisition and developmental stages toward English literacy; (ii) disseminate such resource to such parents; (iii) select existing tools or assessments for educators for use in assessing the language and literacy development of children from birth to age five who are deaf or hard of hearing; (iv) disseminate such tools or assessments to local educational agencies and provide materials and training on their use; and (v) annually produce a report that compares the language and literacy development of children from birth to age five who are deaf or hard of hearing with the language and literacy development of their peers who are not deaf or hard of hearing and make such report available to the public on its website. The bill states that the advisory committee function shall terminate effective June 30, 2023. This bill is identical to SB 265."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2022"
identifier: "HB 649"
citation: "Virginia HB 649 (2022)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Betsy B. Carr"]
version_count: 6
action_count: 46
vote_count: 10
first_action: "2022-01-11"
last_action: "2022-04-08"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/0deb8599-0f14-4691-af16-21373b266b74"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+sum+HB649"
source_hash: "0127bb3cd73aca4326f096f31fd0b3cb36ea602f534637f7625fc008329f98db"
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 649 (2022) — Children who are deaf or hard of hearing; language development, assessment resources.

Language development for children who are deaf or hard of hearing; assessment resources for parents and educators; advisory committee; report. Requires the Department of Education, in coordination with the Department for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing and Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, to (i) select, with input from an advisory committee that the bill establishes, language developmental milestones and include such milestones in a resource for use by parents of a child from birth to age five who is identified as deaf or hard of hearing to monitor and track their child's expressive and receptive language acquisition and developmental stages toward English literacy; (ii) disseminate such resource to such parents; (iii) select existing tools or assessments for educators for use in assessing the language and literacy development of children from birth to age five who are deaf or hard of hearing; (iv) disseminate such tools or assessments to local educational agencies and provide materials and training on their use; and (v) annually produce a report that compares the language and literacy development of children from birth to age five who are deaf or hard of hearing with the language and literacy development of their peers who are not deaf or hard of hearing and make such report available to the public on its website. The bill states that the advisory committee function shall terminate effective June 30, 2023. This bill is identical to SB 265.

## Version chain

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

1. **CHAP0238** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+ful+CHAP0238)
2. **Committee substitute printed 22106144D-H1** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+ful+HB649H1)
3. **Committee substitute printed 22106319D-H2** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+ful+HB649H2)
4. **Committee substitute printed 22106944D-S1** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+ful+HB649S1)
5. **HB649ER** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+ful+HB649ER)
6. **Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/12/22 22104208D** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+ful+HB649)

## Votes

- Reported from Education and Health with substitute (14-Y 0-N) — **14–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Appropriations with substitute (22-Y 0-N) — **22–0** (pass) · lower
- VOTE: Block Vote Passage (100-Y 0-N) — **99–0** (pass) · lower
- Passed Senate with substitute (39-Y 0-N) — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Finance and Appropriations (14-Y 0-N) — **14–0** (pass) · upper
- Constitutional reading dispensed (39-Y 0-N) — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- VOTE: Adoption (97-Y 0-N) — **96–0** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Education with substitute (22-Y 0-N) — **22–0** (pass) · lower
- Subcommittee recommends reporting with substitute (8-Y 0-N) — **8–0** (pass) · lower
- Subcommittee recommends reporting with substitute (8-Y 0-N) — **8–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Betsy B. Carr — primary (person)
- G. "John" Avoli — cosponsor (person)
- Karen S. Greenhalgh — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2022-01-11** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/12/22 22104208D `introduction`
- **2022-01-11** Referred to Committee on Education `referral-committee`
- **2022-01-26** Assigned Education sub: K-12 `referral-committee`
- **2022-02-01** Impact statement from DPB (HB649)
- **2022-02-07** House subcommittee amendments and substitutes offered
- **2022-02-07** Subcommittee recommends reporting with substitute (8-Y 0-N)
- **2022-02-07** Subcommittee recommends referring to Committee on Appropriations
- **2022-02-07** Reported from Education with substitute (22-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2022-02-07** Committee substitute printed 22106144D-H1 `substitution`
- **2022-02-07** Referred to Committee on Appropriations `referral-committee`
- **2022-02-07** Assigned App. sub: Elementary & Secondary Education `referral-committee`
- **2022-02-08** Impact statement from DPB (HB649H1)
- **2022-02-09** House subcommittee amendments and substitutes offered
- **2022-02-09** Subcommittee recommends reporting with substitute (8-Y 0-N)
- **2022-02-09** Committee substitute printed 22106319D-H2 `substitution`
- **2022-02-09** Reported from Appropriations with substitute (22-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2022-02-11** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2022-02-14** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2022-02-14** Committee on Education substitute rejected 22106144D-H1
- **2022-02-14** Committee on Appropriations substitute agreed to 22106319D-H2
- **2022-02-14** Engrossed by House - committee substitute HB649H2
- **2022-02-15** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (100-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2022-02-15** VOTE: Block Vote Passage (100-Y 0-N)
- **2022-02-16** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2022-02-16** Referred to Committee on Education and Health `referral-committee`
- **2022-02-24** Senate committee, floor amendments and substitutes offered
- **2022-02-24** Reported from Education and Health with substitute (14-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2022-02-24** Committee substitute printed 22106944D-S1 `substitution`
- **2022-02-24** Rereferred to Finance and Appropriations `referral-committee`
- **2022-02-28** Impact statement from DPB (HB649S1)
- **2022-03-02** Reported from Finance and Appropriations (14-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2022-03-03** Constitutional reading dispensed (39-Y 0-N)
- **2022-03-04** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2022-03-04** Reading of substitute waived
- **2022-03-04** Committee substitute agreed to 22106944D-S1
- **2022-03-04** Engrossed by Senate - committee substitute HB649S1
- **2022-03-04** Passed Senate with substitute (39-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2022-03-08** Senate substitute agreed to by House 22106944D-S1 (97-Y 0-N)
- **2022-03-08** VOTE: Adoption (97-Y 0-N)
- **2022-03-10** Enrolled
- **2022-03-10** Signed by Speaker
- **2022-03-11** Impact statement from DPB (HB649ER)
- **2022-03-11** Signed by President
- **2022-03-22** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on March 22, 2022
- **2022-03-22** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., April 11, 2022
- **2022-04-08** Approved by Governor-Chapter 238 (effective 7/1/22) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/0deb8599-0f14-4691-af16-21373b266b74`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).