HB 495 Virginia House of Delegates · 2027 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.
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 Jul 21, 2026
Floor votes

How they voted

This bill passed the House of Delegates by voice vote (no roll call recorded).
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
20
Key actions
4
Committee
7
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 · 3 co-sponsors

Sponsors