republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2018/hb-1439.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Assisted living facilities; regulations governing staff."
description: "Directs the State Board of Social Services to amend regulations governing staffing of assisted living facilities that provide care for adults with serious cognitive impairments who cannot recognize danger or protect their own safety and welfare to allow an exception to certain requirements for assisted living facilities that are licensed for 10 or fewer residents if no more than three of the residents have serious cognitive impairments. The bill also directs the Board of Social Services to promulgate regulations to implement the provisions of the bill within 280 days and prohibits the Board of Social Services from enforcing the provisions of 22VAC40-73-1020, as it shall become effective, in cases involving assisted living facilities that are licensed for 10 or fewer residents if no more than three of the residents have serious cognitive impairments. The bill contains an emergency clause and is identical to"
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2018"
identifier: "HB 1439"
citation: "Virginia HB 1439 (2018)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Emergency Legislation", "Welfare (Social Services)"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Mark D. Sickles"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 24
vote_count: 9
first_action: "2018-01-16"
last_action: "2018-03-09"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/d3e46a19-e184-480e-88ee-b19e6fed985d"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?181+sum+HB1439"
source_hash: "a9f01aab1610356f2edacfad0d4396d69453ed6ccc35f42bd280d42a8a857ad4"
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 1439 (2018) — Assisted living facilities; regulations governing staff.

Directs the State Board of Social Services to amend regulations governing staffing of assisted living facilities that provide care for adults with serious cognitive impairments who cannot recognize danger or protect their own safety and welfare to allow an exception to certain requirements for assisted living facilities that are licensed for 10 or fewer residents if no more than three of the residents have serious cognitive impairments. The bill also directs the Board of Social Services to promulgate regulations to implement the provisions of the bill within 280 days and prohibits the Board of Social Services from enforcing the provisions of 22VAC40-73-1020, as it shall become effective, in cases involving assisted living facilities that are licensed for 10 or fewer residents if no more than three of the residents have serious cognitive impairments. The bill contains an emergency clause and is identical to

## Version chain

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

1. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB1439ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?181+ful+HB1439ER)
2. **House: Presented and ordered printed 18104728D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?181+ful+HB1439)
3. **House: Printed as engrossed 18104728D-E** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?181+ful+HB1439E)

## Votes

- Subcommittee recommends reporting with amendment — **6–0** (pass) · legislature
- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **98–0** (pass) · legislature
- Senate amendments agreed to by House — **98–0** (pass) · legislature
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reconsideration of Senate passage agreed to by Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed Senate with amendments — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Health, Welfare and Institutions with amendment — **20–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Rehabilitation and Social Services with amendments — **14–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed Senate with amendments — **40–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Mark D. Sickles — primary (person)
- Dawn M. Adams — cosponsor (person)
- Eileen Filler-Corn — cosponsor (person)
- Jennifer B. Boysko — cosponsor (person)
- Marcus B. Simon — cosponsor (person)
- Mark H. Levine — cosponsor (person)
- Paul E. Krizek — cosponsor (person)
- Wendy W. Gooditis — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2018-01-16** Presented and ordered printed 18104728D `introduction`
- **2018-01-16** Referred to Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions `referral-committee`
- **2018-01-22** Assigned HWI sub: Subcommittee #3 `referral-committee`
- **2018-02-05** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2018-02-06** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2018-02-06** Committee amendment agreed to
- **2018-02-06** Emergency clause added
- **2018-02-06** Engrossed by House as amended HB1439E
- **2018-02-06** Printed as engrossed 18104728D-E
- **2018-02-07** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (98-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2018-02-08** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2018-02-08** Referred to Committee on Rehabilitation and Social Services `referral-committee`
- **2018-02-20** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2018-02-20** Reading of amendments waived
- **2018-02-20** Committee amendments agreed to
- **2018-02-20** Engrossed by Senate as amended
- **2018-02-22** Placed on Calendar
- **2018-02-22** Senate amendments agreed to by House (98-Y 0-N)
- **2018-02-26** Enrolled
- **2018-02-26** Signed by Speaker
- **2018-02-28** Signed by President
- **2018-03-02** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on March 2, 2018
- **2018-03-02** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 9, 2018
- **2018-03-09** Approved by Governor-Chapter 248 (effective 3/9/18) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/d3e46a19-e184-480e-88ee-b19e6fed985d`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).