HB 131 Virginia House of Delegates · 2026 Regular Session

Higher educational institutions, public; reasonable accommodations for religious beliefs, etc.

Summary
Public institutions of higher education; reasonable accommodations for the religious beliefs and practices of individual students. Requires each public institution of higher education to provide reasonable accommodations, as defined in the bill, for the religious beliefs and practices of individual students with regard to admissions, class attendance, and the scheduling of examinations and work assignments and to provide and describe in the institution's student handbook or an equivalent document and in the institution's faculty handbook or an equivalent document a grievance procedure for any student to seek redress when the student believes that he has been unreasonably denied such reasonable accommodations for his religious beliefs and practices.
Bill status signed all 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2026
Committee Review
Feb 2026
House of Delegates Passage
Mar 2026
Senate Passage
Mar 2026
Signed into Law
Apr 2026
Introduced Jan 3, 2026 Signed Apr 6, 2026
Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

Enrolled Chaptered · 1 edit
MINOR
The bill was formally enacted into law as Chapter 74 of the 2026 Virginia Acts of Assembly. The substantive text of the new section 23.1-401.4, which mandates reasonable accommodations for students' religious beliefs in public higher education, remained unchanged from the enrolled version. The primary differences are formatting adjustments, such as the addition of approval dates and spacing, indicating the bill has completed its legislative process.
TECHNICAL

The text was reformatted to include official chapter numbering, approval dates, and spacing consistent with the final published laws, but the actual legal requirements and definitions did not change.

Floor votes · Senate Feb 27, 2026 · House of Delegates Feb 3, 2026

How they voted

360
Passed · 3 other
Total votes 39
Feb 27, 2026
D Democratic20
18 Yea 2
90% Yea
R Republican19
18 Yea 1
94% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea All Nay Mixed No data
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
28
Key actions
10
Committee
7
Apr 6, 2026
Signed into law
Approved by Governor-Chapter 74 (effective 7/1/2026)
executive
Mar 6, 2026
Upper · Passed
Signed by President
upper
Mar 6, 2026
Lower · Passed
Signed by Speaker
lower
Mar 6, 2026
Lower · Passed
Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB131ER)
lower
Mar 2, 2026
Upper · Passed
Passed Senate (39-Y 0-N 0-A)
upper
Feb 27, 2026
Upper · Passed
Passed by for the day Block Vote (Voice Vote)
upper
Feb 26, 2026
Upper · Passed
Reported from Education and Health (13-Y 0-N 2-A)
upper
Feb 23, 2026
Committee
Assigned Education sub: Higher Education
upper
Feb 4, 2026
Committee
Referred to Committee on Education and Health
upper
Feb 3, 2026
Lower · Passed
Read third time and passed House (94-Y 2-N 0-A)
lower
Jan 28, 2026
Lower · Passed
Reported from Education (21-Y 0-N)
lower
Jan 27, 2026
Lower · Passed
Subcommittee recommends reporting (9-Y 0-N)
lower
Jan 23, 2026
Committee
Assigned HED sub: Higher Education
lower
Jan 3, 2026
Committee
Referred to Committee on Education
lower
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Photo of Marcus Simon
Marcus Simon
DDemocratic
VA
13