republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2026/hb-1499.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "DOE; policies relating to instructional material that contains sexually explicit content."
description: "Department of Education; policies relating to instructional material that contains sexually explicit content; applicability; construction. Amends current law requiring the Department of Education to develop model policies and each school board to adopt policies consistent with the Department's model policies for ensuring parental notification of any instructional material that includes sexually explicit content by (i) defining \"instructional material\" as any material, regardless of its format, assigned and provided to a student by a public school teacher directly for the completion of an assignment or curricular objective and clarifying that \"instructional material\" does not include any book or audiovisual material available in a public school library unless specifically required or assigned by a public school teacher directly for completion of an assignment or curricular objective and (ii) providing that nothing in the applicable law or any model policy or amendments thereto adopted by the Department or any policy or amendments thereto adopted by a school board pursuant to the applicable law shall be (a) construed to permit the censoring of books in any public elementary or secondary school or (b) utilized as a rationale or basis for the removal of books from any public elementary or secondary school. This bill is identical to SB 19."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2026"
identifier: "HB 1499"
citation: "Virginia HB 1499 (2026)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Destiny LeVere Bolling"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 26
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2026-01-23"
last_action: "2026-04-06"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/e18d95d6-ee62-423e-9a13-94bb7b44d05b"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20261/HB1499"
source_hash: "1425c545eef0bb0260aee0b0d623f8243176f7692b3433647b76ee04a935b35d"
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 1499 (2026) — DOE; policies relating to instructional material that contains sexually explicit content.

Department of Education; policies relating to instructional material that contains sexually explicit content; applicability; construction. Amends current law requiring the Department of Education to develop model policies and each school board to adopt policies consistent with the Department's model policies for ensuring parental notification of any instructional material that includes sexually explicit content by (i) defining "instructional material" as any material, regardless of its format, assigned and provided to a student by a public school teacher directly for the completion of an assignment or curricular objective and clarifying that "instructional material" does not include any book or audiovisual material available in a public school library unless specifically required or assigned by a public school teacher directly for completion of an assignment or curricular objective and (ii) providing that nothing in the applicable law or any model policy or amendments thereto adopted by the Department or any policy or amendments thereto adopted by a school board pursuant to the applicable law shall be (a) construed to permit the censoring of books in any public elementary or secondary school or (b) utilized as a rationale or basis for the removal of books from any public elementary or secondary school. This bill is identical to SB 19.

## Version chain

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

1. **Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://lis.blob.core.windows.net/files/1095946.PDF)
2. **Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.blob.core.windows.net/files/1217426.PDF)
3. **Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://lis.blob.core.windows.net/files/1177967.PDF)

## Votes

- Subcommittee recommends reporting — **7–3** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Education and Health — **9–5** (pass) · upper
- H VOTE: — **62–35** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Education — **14–7** (pass) · lower
- Passage R — **20–18** (pass) · upper
- Constitutional reading dispensed (on 2nd reading) — **40–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Destiny LeVere Bolling — primary (person)
- Laura Jane Cohen — cosponsor (person)
- Nicole Cole — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2026-01-23** Presented and ordered printed 26101382D `introduction`
- **2026-01-23** Referred to Committee on Education `referral-committee`
- **2026-02-02** Assigned HED sub: K-12 Subcommittee `referral-committee`
- **2026-02-03** Subcommittee recommends reporting (7-Y 3-N)
- **2026-02-04** Reported from Education (14-Y 7-N) `committee-passage`
- **2026-02-06** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2026-02-09** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2026-02-10** Read third time and passed House (62-Y 35-N 0-A) `passage, reading-3`
- **2026-02-10** Fiscal Impact Statement from Department of Planning and Budget (HB1499)
- **2026-02-11** Constitutional reading dispensed (on 1st reading)
- **2026-02-11** Referred to Committee on Education and Health `referral-committee`
- **2026-02-19** Reported from Education and Health (9-Y 5-N) `committee-passage`
- **2026-02-20** Rules suspended
- **2026-02-20** Constitutional reading dispensed Block Vote (on 2nd reading) (40-Y 0-N 0-A)
- **2026-02-20** Passed by for the day Block Vote (Voice Vote)
- **2026-02-23** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2026-02-23** Passed Senate (20-Y 18-N 0-A) `passage`
- **2026-02-25** Enrolled `enrolled`
- **2026-02-25** Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB1499ER) `passage`
- **2026-02-25** Fiscal Impact Statement from Department of Planning and Budget (HB1499)
- **2026-02-25** Signed by Speaker `passage`
- **2026-02-25** Signed by President `passage`
- **2026-03-10** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on March 10, 2026 `enrolled, executive-receipt`
- **2026-03-10** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., April 13, 2026 `executive-receipt`
- **2026-04-06** Approved by Governor-Chapter 321 (effective 7/1/2026) `executive-signature`
- **2026-04-06** Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0321)

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/e18d95d6-ee62-423e-9a13-94bb7b44d05b`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).