HB 2158 Virginia House of Delegates · 2025 Regular Session

DOC; functional literacy program for inmates, etc.

Summary

Department of Corrections; functional literacy program for inmates; data sharing and tracking; salary schedules for teachers; Virginia Prison Education Task Force established; report. Requires the Superintendent employed by the Director of Corrections to (i) include in the functional literacy program for inmates developed pursuant to applicable law evidence-based literacy instruction, as defined in accordance with applicable law; (ii) share data with (a) the state entity that oversees the management, direction, and governance of the Commonwealth's education and workforce data for the purpose of developing educational, health, social service, and employment outcome data and improving the efficacy of state services and (b) the Virginia Community College System necessary for comprehensive community colleges to apply for and maintain eligibility as Federal Pell Grant-eligible prison education programs; and (iii) track and publicly report at least annually the number of incarcerated individuals eligible for, enrolled in, and waitlisted for the functional literacy program. The bill also establishes the Virginia Prison Education Task Force for the purpose of implementing a consistent education program across all state correctional facilities operated by the Department. The bill requires the Task Force to complete its work by July 1, 2030. Finally, the bill requires the Department of Education to, by November 1, 2025, (a) review and update the salary schedules for teachers licensed by the Board of Education and employed by the Department of Corrections to provide instruction in the schools of the correctional centers to be competitive with those in effect for the school division in which the correctional facility is located and (b) make recommendations for the inclusion of such teacher salary increases in the appropriation act.

Issues: ✓ Criminal Justice

Bill status vetoed 4 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2025

Committee Review

Feb 2025

House of Delegates Passage

Apr 2025

Senate Passage

Mar 2025

Vetoed

May 2025

Introduced Jan 7, 2025 Vetoed May 2, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 4 comparisons

What changed between versions

Finance and Appropriations Substitute → Conference Substitute · 6 edits

MODERATE

The bill transitioned from a Senate substitute establishing a Prison Education Task Force to a House conference substitute that focuses on amending existing Department of Corrections statutes. The Task Force provisions were removed, and the bill now concentrates on updating teacher salary schedules, establishing a functional literacy program, and creating data sharing requirements.

Scope change

The bill's scope narrowed from establishing a new oversight Task Force to amending existing Department of Corrections operational statutes regarding education programs and teacher compensation.

REQUIREMENT

The Virginia Prison Education Task Force and its Higher Education Advisory Group were completely removed from the bill.

Teacher salary schedule updates were changed from a one-time review by November 1, 2025 to an ongoing requirement for the Department of Human Resource Management to establish competitive salary schedules.

New requirements for data sharing between the Department of Corrections and state education/workforce entities were added.

Requirements for tracking and publicly reporting incarcerated individuals eligible for education programs were added.

TIMELINE

The requirement for the Task Force to submit annual reports and complete work by July 1, 2030 was eliminated.

DEFINITION

A new definition of 'functional literacy' was added, specifying skills necessary to function independently in society.

Engrossed → Enrolled · 7 edits · Mar 10, 2025

MODERATE

The bill was finalized from its Engrossed version to Enrolled status, removing all amendments from other committees and consolidating the legislation into a single section (53.1-10) focused exclusively on the Department of Corrections' education programs. The substantive policy content remains largely the same, with the primary change being the removal of broader provisions related to the Chief Information Officer and other state agencies that were part of the original Engrossed version but excluded from the final Enrolled bill.

Scope change

The bill's scope was narrowed from multiple sections covering various state agencies (CIO, Department of Education, Community College System) to focus solely on the Department of Corrections and its education programs for incarcerated individuals.

SCOPE

Removed all provisions related to the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA) that were present in the Engrossed version but not included in the final Enrolled bill.

Removed provisions related to the Superintendent of Public Instruction and Department of Education that were present in the Engrossed version but not included in the final Enrolled bill.

Removed provisions related to the Chancellor of the Virginia Community College System that were present in the Engrossed version but not included in the final Enrolled bill.

TIMELINE

Changed the deadline for implementing the functional literacy program from a bracketed range (2026-2027) to a specific date of January 1, 2027.

REQUIREMENT

Removed bracketed text that created ambiguity about whether waitlists should be eliminated or reduced, clarifying the intent to reduce waitlists.

TECHNICAL

Removed bracketed text that was left unresolved during the legislative process, such as references to 'Department of Corrections' in places where it was redundant.

Added formal Enrolled bill formatting including chapter title, act number, and approval language that was not present in the Engrossed version.

Floor votes · Senate Feb 19, 2025 · House of Delegates Feb 4, 2025

How they voted

40–0

Passed

Total votes 40

Feb 19, 2025

D Democratic21

21 Yea

100% Yea

R Republican19

19 Yea

100% Yea

Vote distribution

All Yea All Nay Mixed No data

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Amendments

May 2, 2025

Vetoed

Vetoed by Governor

executive

Apr 2, 2025

Lower · Passed

Passed by for the day (47-Y 46-N)

lower

Mar 24, 2025

Vetoed

Governor's recommendation received by House

executive

Mar 10, 2025

Upper · Passed

Signed by President

upper

Mar 7, 2025

Lower · Passed

Signed by Speaker

lower

Mar 7, 2025

Lower · Passed

Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB2158ER)

lower

Feb 21, 2025

Upper · Passed

Conference report agreed to by Senate (39-Y 0-N)

upper

Feb 21, 2025

Lower · Passed

Conference report agreed to by House (81-Y 13-N)

lower

Feb 21, 2025

Legislature · Passed

Amended by conference committee

legislature

Feb 20, 2025

Committee

Senate requested conference committee

upper

Feb 20, 2025

Upper · Passed

Passed Senate with substitute (39-Y 0-N)

upper

Feb 20, 2025

Amended

Education and Health Amendments rejected

upper

Feb 19, 2025

Upper · Passed

Passed by for the day

upper

Feb 17, 2025

Upper · Passed

Reported from Finance and Appropriations with substitute (14-Y 0-N)

upper

Feb 13, 2025

Upper · Passed

Reported from Education and Health with amendments and rereferred to Finance and Appropriations (15-Y 0-N)

upper

Feb 10, 2025

Committee

Assigned Education sub: Higher Education

upper

Feb 5, 2025

Committee

Referred to Committee on Education and Health

upper

Feb 4, 2025

Lower · Passed

Read third time and passed House (81-Y 18-N)

lower

Feb 3, 2025

Introduced

Engrossed by House as amended

lower

Feb 3, 2025

Lower · Passed

Education Amendments agreed to

lower

Jan 29, 2025

Lower · Passed

Reported from Education with amendment(s) (16-Y 6-N)

lower

Jan 27, 2025

Lower · Passed

Subcommittee recommends reporting with amendment(s) (8-Y 0-N)

lower

Jan 23, 2025

Committee

Assigned Educ sub: K-12 Subcommittee

lower

Jan 7, 2025

Introduced

Introduced bill reprinted 25104313D

lower

Jan 7, 2025

Committee

Referred to Committee on Education

lower

1 primary · 14 co-sponsors