HB 495 Virginia House of Delegates · 2026 Regular Session

School boards; mental health awareness training for full-time school bus drivers.

Summary

School boards; mental health awareness training; full-time school bus drivers. Permits any school board to require each school bus driver employed on a full-time basis in the local school division to complete mental health awareness training at least once. The bill requires the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to consider condensing and abbreviating the existing mental health first aid training program into a two-hour module that any school board may utilize in order to train full-time school bus drivers.

Issues: ✓ Education ✓ Healthcare

Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2026

Committee Review

Feb 2026

House of Delegates Passage

Feb 2026

Senate Passage

Governor

Introduced Jan 12, 2026 Last action Mar 5, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

Education Substitute → K-12 Subcommittee Subcommittee Substitute · 3 edits

MINOR

This document appears to be a formatting diff between two versions of the same legislative bill (HB 495) rather than substantive policy changes. The bill itself remains unchanged, maintaining requirements for mental health awareness training for teachers and full-time bus drivers. The differences are primarily related to document layout, spacing, and formatting rather than any modifications to the actual legislative content.

TECHNICAL

Document formatting and layout changes including spacing, header positioning, and line numbering adjustments between the original and substitute versions.

Added document identifiers (26106248D, HB495HC2) and timestamp information (2/3/26 12:03) to the substitute version.

Removed original document header formatting and replaced with substitute version layout structure.

Floor votes · House of Delegates Feb 17, 2026

How they voted

51–33

Passed · 3 other

Total votes 87

Feb 17, 2026

D Democratic52

51 Yea 1

98% Yea

R Republican35

33 Nay 2

94% Nay

Vote distribution

All Yea All Nay Mixed No data

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Feb 26, 2026

Committee

Assigned Education sub: Public Education

upper

Feb 18, 2026

Committee

Referred to Committee on Education and Health

upper

Feb 17, 2026

Lower · Passed

Read third time and passed House (62-Y 34-N 0-A)

lower

Feb 11, 2026

Lower · Passed

Reported from Education with substitute (14-Y 7-N)

lower

Feb 11, 2026

Lower · Passed

House committee offered

lower

Feb 3, 2026

Lower · Passed

House subcommittee offered

lower

Jan 30, 2026

Committee

Assigned HED sub: K-12 Subcommittee

lower

Jan 12, 2026

Committee

Referred to Committee on Education

lower

1 primary · 2 co-sponsors