republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2022/hb-829.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "School counselors; staffing ratios, flexibility."
description: "School counselors; staffing ratios; flexibility. Permits school boards to fulfill the staffing ratio requirements for school counselors by (i) employing, under a provisional license issued by the Department of Education for three school years with an allowance for an additional two-year extension with the approval of the division superintendent, any professional counselor licensed by the Board of Counseling, clinical social worker licensed by the Board of Social Work, psychologist licensed by the Board of Psychology, or other licensed counseling professional with appropriate experience and training, provided that any such individual makes progress toward completing the requirements for full licensure as a school counselor during such period of employment or (ii) in the event that the school board does not receive any application from a licensed school counselor, professional counselor, clinical social worker, or psychologist or another licensed counseling professional with appropriate experience and training to fill a school counselor vacancy in the school division, entering into an annual contract with another entity for the provision of school counseling services by a licensed professional counselor, clinical social worker, or psychologist or another licensed counseling professional with appropriate experience and training."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2022"
identifier: "HB 829"
citation: "Virginia HB 829 (2022)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Tony O. Wilt"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 33
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2022-01-12"
last_action: "2022-04-08"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/7f8cc244-528a-4e8b-a672-6a9dc7e20c1f"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+sum+HB829"
source_hash: "d3fc8e731da32ce87e42398d4e6df60117acb4feaa62897c820171c505035132"
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 829 (2022) — School counselors; staffing ratios, flexibility.

School counselors; staffing ratios; flexibility. Permits school boards to fulfill the staffing ratio requirements for school counselors by (i) employing, under a provisional license issued by the Department of Education for three school years with an allowance for an additional two-year extension with the approval of the division superintendent, any professional counselor licensed by the Board of Counseling, clinical social worker licensed by the Board of Social Work, psychologist licensed by the Board of Psychology, or other licensed counseling professional with appropriate experience and training, provided that any such individual makes progress toward completing the requirements for full licensure as a school counselor during such period of employment or (ii) in the event that the school board does not receive any application from a licensed school counselor, professional counselor, clinical social worker, or psychologist or another licensed counseling professional with appropriate experience and training to fill a school counselor vacancy in the school division, entering into an annual contract with another entity for the provision of school counseling services by a licensed professional counselor, clinical social worker, or psychologist or another licensed counseling professional with appropriate experience and training.

## Version chain

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

1. **CHAP0205** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+ful+CHAP0205)
2. **Committee substitute printed 22106053D-H1** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+ful+HB829H1)
3. **Floor substitute printed 22106408D-H2 (Wilt)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+ful+HB829H2)
4. **HB829ER** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+ful+HB829ER)
5. **Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/12/22 22100734D** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+ful+HB829)

## Votes

- Subcommittee recommends reporting with substitute (7-Y 1-N) — **7–1** (pass) · lower
- Constitutional reading dispensed (38-Y 0-N) — **38–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Education and Health (15-Y 0-N) — **15–0** (pass) · upper
- Passed Senate (39-Y 0-N) — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Education with substitute (19-Y 1-N) — **19–1** (pass) · lower
- VOTE: Passage (99-Y 0-N) — **98–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Tony O. Wilt — primary (person)
- Mark D. Obenshain — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2022-01-12** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/12/22 22100734D `introduction`
- **2022-01-12** Referred to Committee on Education `referral-committee`
- **2022-01-18** Impact statement from DPB (HB829)
- **2022-01-24** Assigned Education sub: Early Childhood/Innovation `referral-committee`
- **2022-02-02** House subcommittee amendments and substitutes offered
- **2022-02-02** Subcommittee recommends reporting with substitute (7-Y 1-N)
- **2022-02-07** House committee, floor amendments and substitutes offered
- **2022-02-07** Reported from Education with substitute (19-Y 1-N) `committee-passage`
- **2022-02-07** Committee substitute printed 22106053D-H1 `substitution`
- **2022-02-08** Impact statement from DPB (HB829H1)
- **2022-02-09** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2022-02-09** Floor substitute printed 22106408D-H2 (Wilt)
- **2022-02-10** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2022-02-10** Committee on Education substitute rejected 22106053D-H1
- **2022-02-10** Substitute by Delegate Wilt agreed to 22106408D-H2
- **2022-02-10** Engrossed by House - floor substitute HB829H2
- **2022-02-11** Read third time and passed House (99-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2022-02-11** VOTE: Passage (99-Y 0-N)
- **2022-02-14** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2022-02-14** Referred to Committee on Education and Health `referral-committee`
- **2022-02-28** Impact statement from DPB (HB829H2)
- **2022-03-03** Reported from Education and Health (15-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2022-03-04** Passed by for the day
- **2022-03-07** Constitutional reading dispensed (38-Y 0-N)
- **2022-03-08** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2022-03-08** Passed Senate (39-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2022-03-10** Enrolled
- **2022-03-10** Signed by Speaker
- **2022-03-11** Impact statement from DPB (HB829ER)
- **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 205 (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/7f8cc244-528a-4e8b-a672-6a9dc7e20c1f`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).