Bill Commons

VA HB 721

Status unknown

Parents of public school children; fundamental right to opt children out of certain ed. content.

Virginia · 2026 Regular Session · lower

Quick answers

Did VA HB 721 pass?

The current status of VA HB 721 is not known from the official record. Latest recorded action (2026-02-18): Left in Education

What is VA HB 721 about?

Parents of public school children; fundamental right to opt children out of certain educational content. Provides that parents of public school children have the fundamental right to opt their children out, without penalty, of any instruction, reading, discussion, presentation, including any audio-visual presentation, school assembly, or activity that includes any gender identity, sexual orientation, transgenderism, or drag show theme or content, and the school shall make reasonable accommodations during such opt-out period.

Who sponsors VA HB 721?

Eric R. Zehr is the primary sponsor of VA HB 721.

Description

Parents of public school children; fundamental right to opt children out of certain educational content. Provides that parents of public school children have the fundamental right to opt their children out, without penalty, of any instruction, reading, discussion, presentation, including any audio-visual presentation, school assembly, or activity that includes any gender identity, sexual orientation, transgenderism, or drag show theme or content, and the school shall make reasonable accommodations during such opt-out period.

Introduced
2026-01-13
Latest action
2026-02-18 — Left in Education
Bill type
bill
Last updated
—

Sponsors

  • Eric R. Zehrprimary

Committees

Not provided by source.

Action timeline

  1. 2026-01-13

    Prefiled and ordered printed; Offered 01-14-2026 26103884D

    filing,introduction

  2. 2026-01-13

    Referred to Committee on Education

    referral-committee

  3. 2026-01-19

    Fiscal Impact Statement from Department of Planning and Budget (HB721)

  4. 2026-02-05

    Assigned HED sub: K-12 Subcommittee

    referral-committee

  5. 2026-02-10

    House subcommittee offered

  6. 2026-02-10

    Subcommittee recommends laying on the table (7-Y 3-N)

  7. 2026-02-18

    Left in Education

Versions

Documents

Votes

  • Subcommittee recommends laying on the table

    2026-02-10 · pass · 7-3

    Member-level votes (11)
    • Shelly A. Simonds: yes
    • Alex Q. Askew: yes
    • Rae Cousins: yes
    • Destiny LeVere Bolling: yes
    • Jessica L. Anderson: yes
    • Lindsey Dougherty: not voting
    • Gretchen M. Bulova: yes
    • Mike A. Cherry: no
    • Anne Ferrell Tata: no
    • Hillary Pugh Kent: no
    • Sam Rasoul: yes

Related bills

No related bills recorded for this bill.

Official source

https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20261/HB721

Attribution

Data from openstates_bulk_csv, retrieved 2026-07-24T05:35:59.552682Z

Inspect retained evidence for changes recorded after evidence tracking began:

Source and document changesStatus and relationship changes

Use this data

Every field on this page is available from the free public API — no key or licence required. Fetch this bill as JSON: GET /api/v1/bills?jurisdiction=VA&identifier=HB 721. See the API docs or the MCP server for AI assistants.

Known limitations

  • Sponsor party and chamber affiliation are not yet captured by this API.
  • Committee referrals are not yet captured.

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