Skip to Content

Search

Filters

Last week, the Virginia General Assembly completed its 60-day Regular Session where legislators considered a total of 3,294 bills and resolutions. Twenty-seven of those bills were championed by LAJC as part of our top legislative priorities, with hundreds more that we supported and co-led with fellow advocates and organizers. Twenty-one of LAJC’s bills are now on Governor Spanberger’s desk to be amended, signed into law, or vetoed.

Here are details on these bills, with further information on our policy page:

  • SB 121 / HB 20 includes farmworkers in the minimum wage protection. Despite this win, the General Assembly made an amendment exempting guest workers in the H-2A and H-2B visa programs from also receiving the minimum wage. These are the workers in Virginia’s agricultural, construction, and tourism industries—often doing back-breaking work that is vital to Virginia’s economy. It is very important to include these workers in the minimum wage, and we will continue fighting to expand these protections. 
  • SB 288 / HB 1092 requires the Health and Safety Codes Board to develop and implement heat stress protections for workers. 
  • SB 685 / HB 1278 ensures that translation of vital documents and equal access to academic processes are available to students and parents. 
  • SB 491 / HB 836 strengthens privacy protections, prevents immigration-based discrimination for students and families, and creates a required process for police arrests at public schools.  
  • SB 283 / HB 933 defines intentional evasion of court to allow consideration for missed childcare, transportation and other similar challenges when someone misses court. 
  • SB 180 / HB 17 consolidates reforms to reduce long-term harms from unpaid court debt by delaying when delinquent debt is sent to collections (90→180 days), shortening the statute of limitations for collecting criminal court debt to 10 years, and incorporating a concept for a post-incarceration grace period before repayment. 
  • HB 16 allows community service or work hours of currently incarcerated individuals to count towards their court debt; 
  • SB 480 / HB 1084 will allow local and statewide pretrial data to be shared with the Virginia Longitudinal Data System (VLDS). This will result in researchers being able to understand the effect of pre-trial detention and look for connecting outcomes and variables with other data from the Department of Juvenile Justice, Department of Social Services, K-12 data, and higher education data. 
  • SB 446 / HB 911 extends Driver Privilege Card (DPC) duration to match standard licenses. 
  • HB 667 aligns Virginia code with federal law so that young vulnerable immigrant youth ages 18-21, who have been neglected, abused or abandoned, can find a pathway to protection and stability through Special Immigration Juvenile Status. 
  • HB 879 strengthens privacy protections in public assistance programs by requiring public notice when agencies receive large-scale requests for personal data of applicants and recipients of public benefits. 
  • SB 783 / HB 1441 severely limits local law enforcement collaboration with ICE by setting clear conditions for entering into any 287(g) and other intergovernmental agreements. The bills also present local diversion of resources by restricting informal collaboration between local law enforcement and ICE without a judicial warrant. 

LAJC also partnered with RISE for Youth to support legislation to improve conditions at Bon Air Juvenile Correctional Center and reduce over-reliance on the juvenile court system. We backed several Commission on Youth bills to address issues at Bon Air: 

  • HB 91 limits room confinement. 
  • SB 64 increases judicial oversight. 
  • SB 125 expands the Children’s Ombudsman’s authority for foster youth in DJJ custody.  
  • SB 70 / HB 438 expands diversion of youth  
  • SB 60 / HB 318 strengthens the juvenile parole procedures to give people convicted as children a meaningful chance at release.

Finally, these are the bills worked on by our partners at the Fund Our Schools Coalition that are headed to the Governor’s desk: 

  • HB 298 promotes evidence-based restorative discipline practices in public schools. 
  • HB 544 extends the existence of the Virginia Commission on School Construction. 
  •  SB 73 creates Medicaid billing navigators for school divisions.  

Watch our Facebook Live discussions of where LAJC’s priority bills stand at the end of the 2026 General Assembly Session, in English and Spanish below:

Back to top