Title 22.1, Title 22.1. Education

A. From such funds as may be appropriated for this purpose and from such gifts, donations, grants, bequests, and other funds as may be received on its behalf, there is hereby created in the Department of the Treasury a special nonreverting fund known as the Virginia Public School…

The Board shall issue guidelines for the administration of the Program as it may deem necessary and appropriate. The guidelines shall include, but shall not be limited to, provisions which address compliance with other law or Board requirements for educational technology, the app…

Grants pursuant to this chapter shall be awarded upon a determination of the Governor of the appropriate funding source and amounts for the Fund established in § 22.1-175.7. Funds appropriated for financial assistance for the purposes of this chapter shall be apportioned and dist…

A. School boards may provide for the transportation of pupils, but nothing herein contained shall be construed as requiring such transportation except as provided in § 22.1-221. B. When a school board provides transportation to pupils for extracurricular activities, other than th…

Local school boards may enter into agreements with nonpublic schools within the school division to provide student transportation to and from such schools and school field trips under such terms and conditions as the local school boards deem appropriate and responsible. Such term…

Each school board that provides for the transportation of students pursuant to § 22.1-176 and that has established a rule, regulation, or policy to exclude certain students who reside within a certain distance from the school at which they are enrolled from accessing such transpo…

A. The Board may make regulations relating to the construction, design, operation, equipment, and color of public school buses and shall have the authority to issue an order prohibiting the operation on public streets and highways of any public school bus that does not comply wit…

A. No school board shall hire, employ, or enter into any agreement with any person for the purposes of operating a school bus transporting pupils unless the person proposed to so operate such school bus shall: 1. Have a physical examination of a scope prescribed by the Board with…

No person, partnership, association or corporation operating any religious or private school shall hire, employ or enter into any agreement with any person for the purpose of transporting pupils by motor vehicle unless such person shall present the documents and meet the qualific…

A. The Board shall promulgate regulations requiring persons applying for employment, and employed, to operate school buses to complete a training program developed by the Board. B. For applicants not currently possessing a commercial driver's license, such regulations shall requi…

The school board of any school division may enter into agreements with any third-party logistics company, the governing body of any county, city, or town in the school division, any state agency, or any agency established or identified pursuant to P.L. 89-73 or any law amendatory…

It is unlawful for a school bus licensed in the Commonwealth to be operated on the public highways of the Commonwealth for the purpose of transporting persons or commodities other than school personnel, school children, elderly individuals, or individuals with mental or physical …

At every public school having public school buses there shall be held, at least once during the first ninety calendar days of each school session and oftener if necessary, a drill in leaving school buses under emergency circumstances.

The governing body of any county, city or town may expend funds for the construction and maintenance at points on school bus routes of such shelters, platforms or other structures as it may deem necessary or convenient for the protection and comfort of children of school age who …

The regulations of the Board of Education governing state payments for pupil transportation shall provide for payments to school divisions for pupil transportation provided by the school divisions both through systems operated by the school divisions and through contracts with pu…

It shall be unlawful to collect any toll for the use of any road, highway, bridge, or ferry in the Commonwealth, except those financed under the Transportation Development and Revenue Bond Act (§ 33.2-1700 et seq.) or other act authorizing the construction by the State or a polit…

As used in this article: 1. "Vehicle" means any vehicle owned or operated by, or owned or operated by any person under contract with, a county, city, town or school board in which any school pupils or personnel are transported at public expense to or from any public school. 2. "S…

No school division in which any school pupils or personnel are transported at public expense to or from any public school in any vehicle shall receive any state school funds unless it complies with all applicable requirements of this article and submits satisfactory evidence to t…

A. Every vehicle shall be covered in a policy of liability and property damage insurance issued by an insurance carrier authorized to transact business in this Commonwealth, in the amounts of at least $50,000 for injury, including death, to one person; $500,000 for injury, includ…

In every case in which a locality or its school board fails to obtain, or to require vehicles operated under contract with it to be covered by, the requisite insurance by the twentieth of July of any year or fails to notify the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the effectua…

Every policy of insurance issued in pursuance of the provisions of this article, in addition to compliance with other requirements of this article and with the requirements of other applicable laws, shall cover: 1. Injury, including death, to school pupils and personnel, except t…

In case any school pupil or personnel, except the driver when not a pupil, whether riding in a vehicle or not, or any other person suffers injury, including death, or property damage, including destruction, through the ownership, maintenance, use or operation of a vehicle, it sha…

In case the locality or the school board is the owner, or operator through medium of a driver, of, or otherwise is the insured under the policy upon, a vehicle involved in an accident, the locality or school board shall be subject to action up to, but not beyond, the limits of va…

In case a vehicle involved in an accident is not owned by the county, city, town or school board but is operated under contract with the locality or school board, recovery may be had as provided for in § 22.1-193.

If insurance is obtained but lapses while a vehicle is still being used or is proposed to be used to transport school pupils or personnel, no school funds remaining to be distributed to the school board so in default shall be distributed to it until the terms of this article in t…

When the Superintendent of Public Instruction effects insurance as required by this article, he shall nevertheless not make any distribution of state school aid funds to the school board so in default until he has been furnished with satisfactory assurances that all vehicles requ…

The provisions of this article apply to all vehicles whether or not the regulations of the Board of Education established pursuant to § 22.1-177 have been complied with and irrespective of whether or not any state aid for transporting school pupils and personnel in the particular…

A. The kindergarten program in each school division shall include a program suitable for children who will reach their fifth birthday on or before September 30 of the school year. The school board's plan for such program shall be furnished to the Board of Education and shall incl…

A. The General Assembly finds that Virginia educational research supports the conclusion that children from low income homes are more at risk of educational failure than children from more affluent homes and that reduced pupil/teacher ratios and class sizes result in improved aca…

The Board of Education shall promulgate regulations for establishing standards for remediation programs that receive state funding, without regard to state funding designations, which shall be designed to strengthen and improve the effectiveness of such programs in increasing the…

A. From such funds as may be appropriated for such purpose and from such gifts, donations, grants, bequests, and other funds as may be received on its behalf, there is hereby established the At-Risk Student Academic Achievement Program, to be administered by the Board of Educatio…

A local school board may establish after school programs designed to prevent at-risk youth from engaging in illegal or gang-related activities for school aged children. Local funds appropriated for K through 12 education may be used to support such after-school programs.

A. In order to remove nonacademic barriers to learning as a means to enhance student academic success in public elementary and secondary schools throughout the Commonwealth, the Department shall establish an interagency task force composed of state and local agencies and entities…

A. In the elementary grades of every public school the following subjects shall be taught: Spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, geography, health and physical education, drawing, civil government, history of the United States and history of Virginia. B. Physical educa…

Local school divisions shall provide students with alternatives to animal dissection techniques within the relevant public school curriculum or course. The Board of Education shall establish guidelines to be implemented by local school divisions regarding such alternative dissect…

A. Instruction in the principles of the American economic system shall be required in the public middle and high schools of the Commonwealth to promote economics education and financial literacy of students and to further the development of knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed…

In lieu of §§ 22.1-277, 22.1-277.07, and 22.1-277.08, a school board may establish optional age-appropriate education programs for young students in grades kindergarten through five who require guidance, supervision, and discipline in a structured learning environment and who nee…

A. Local school boards shall provide (i) a minimum of 680 hours of instructional time to students in elementary school, except for students in half-day kindergarten, in the four academic disciplines of English, mathematics, science, and history and social science and (ii) a minim…

The Board shall provide local school boards maximum flexibility to waive existing instructional clock hour requirements by developing alternative instructional time models in accordance with regulations adopted by the Board and Board guidelines related to instructional time waive…

To increase knowledge of citizens' rights and responsibilities thereunder and to enhance the understanding of Virginia's unique role in the history of the United States, the Declaration of American Independence, the general principles of the Constitution of the United States, inc…

A. Instruction in the history and principles of the flag of the United States and the flag of the Commonwealth shall be given in one or more grades in every school division. The instruction shall include the pledge of allegiance and the appropriate etiquette and conventions for r…

The Board of Education shall authorize local school boards to offer, as an elective in grades nine through 12 with appropriate credits toward graduation, a comparative religion class that focuses on the basic tenets, history, and religious observances and rites of world religions…

In order that the right of every pupil to the free exercise of religion be guaranteed within the schools and that the freedom of each individual pupil be subject to the least possible pressure from the Commonwealth either to engage in, or to refrain from, religious observation on…

In order that the right of every pupil to the free exercise of religion be guaranteed within the schools and that the freedom of each individual pupil not be subject to pressure from the Commonwealth either to engage in, or to refrain from, religious observation on school grounds…

To promote compliance with constitutional restrictions as well as observance of constitutional rights, the Board of Education shall, in consultation with the Office of the Attorney General, develop guidelines on constitutional rights and restrictions relating to prayer and other …

Students may express their beliefs about religion in homework, artwork, and other written and oral assignments free from discrimination based on the religious content of their submissions. Home and classroom work shall be judged by ordinary academic standards of substance and rel…