Bipartisan Virginia Legislature Improves Early Literacy, Career Pathways and Teacher Pipelines 

“I commend Virginia lawmakers for working across the aisle to pass legislation that supports strong readers, provides opportunities for high schoolers to earn college credits and strengthens the teacher pipeline. Thanks to the legislature’s dedication to improving education, students and educators in the Commonwealth are on a path to a brighter future.  

“We are grateful to Delegate Carrie Coyner and Senators Louise Lucas, Mark Peake and Tammy Brankley Mulchi for creating a student-centered environment that fosters the growth and development of every child and for boldly addressing the challenges facing the Virginia education system.”  

About the Legislation: 

• Virginia Delegate Carrie Coyner’s HB 647 and Sen. Louise Lucas’s SB 624 improve provisions of the Virginia Literacy Act and include an explicit ban on harmful three-cueing literacy instruction and materials. Gov. Glenn Youngkin has already signed these bills into law. 
• Virginia Delegate Coyner’s HB 1087 requires the Department of Education and the Virginia Community College System to establish the College and Career Ready Virginia Program to provide dual enrollment opportunities for all students in Virginia.  
• Virginia Delegate Coyner’s HB 1083 creates a task force to make recommendations to retool the Virginia Longitudinal Data System and the Virginia Education and Workforce Longitudinal Data System to better reflect the link between education and workforce data in the Commonwealth. 
• Virginia Sen. Tammy Brankley Mulchi’s SB 142 directs the Board of Education to allow local school boards to issue one-year renewable teacher licenses to qualified individuals to teach solely within their district.  
• Virginia Sen. Mark Peake’s SB 352 creates alternate routes for teacher licensure, including for teachers of career and technical education (CTE) programs.