Rep. Geary Higgins

Sanctuary policies prohibited. Provides that no locality shall adopt any ordinance, procedure, or policy intended to restrict the enforcement of federal immigration laws. The bill also requires an official in charge of a correctional facility to transfer custody of certain persons to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement upon receipt of a detainer. Under current law, the official may make such transfer.

Elections; absentee voting; drop-off locations for return of absentee ballots; 24-hour video surveillance requirement. Requires 24-hour video surveillance of all absentee ballot drop-off locations.

Estimated tax; failure by individual, trust, or estate to pay. Increases from $150 to $1,000 the maximum underpayment of estimated tax for which no addition to tax shall be added.

Highway rights-of-way; invasive species. Requires the Commonwealth Transportation Board to establish and implement a policy for identifying, digging up, and destroying any invasive plant on the list of invasive plants created by the Department of Conservation and Recreation on any state highway right-of-way.

Land preservation tax credit; maximum amount increase. Increases from $75 million to $100 million, beginning in 2025, the maximum amount of land preservation tax credits that may be issued in a calendar year and adjusts such amount each year for inflation using the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers. The bill also requires the Governor to submit a recommended appropriation each year in the Budget Bill, or as amendments to the general appropriations act, from the General Fund in an amount equal to the difference between the inflation adjusted annual credit cap and $100 million, but not more than $25 million, for purposes described in the bill.

Home instruction; parents; criteria. Removes the four enumerated criteria—holding a high school diploma, being a teacher of qualifications prescribed by the Board of Education, providing the child with a program of study or curriculum that may be delivered through a correspondence course or distance learning program or in any other manner, or providing evidence of the ability to provide an adequate education for the child—by which a parent is permitted to provide home instruction for his school-age child. The bill does not affect the requirement for such a parent to annually provide a description of the home instruction curriculum before the school year begins and evidence of the child's academic progress after the school year ends.

Department of Education; statewide mobile application for student reporting of suspicious activity. Requires the Department of Education, with such funds as may be appropriated for such purpose pursuant to the general appropriation act or provided from any other source, and alone or in partnership with another state agency or a nonprofit organization, or a combination thereof, to develop or procure a multiplatform compatible mobile application that is made available at no cost to each public elementary and secondary school student and that permits each such student to report suspicious activity, including by attaching screenshots, other photographs, and videos, to the appropriate school and local law-enforcement officials for analysis and potential response. The bill requires the Department to assist each school board to coordinate student awareness of and access to such mobile application but provides that no school board shall bear any cost or additional administrative burden relating to such mobile application.

Public institutions of higher education; admissions and enrollment; certain Virginia student yields required. Requires, beginning with the incoming freshman class in the fall semester of the 2026-2027 academic year and for each admissions and enrollment period thereafter, each public institution of higher education to establish and implement admissions practices that yield total Virginia student enrollment of at least 78.5 percent at the institution.

School boards; employment of school resource officers in each public elementary and secondary school. Requires each school board to enter into a collaborative agreement with the local law-enforcement agency to employ at least one school resource officer in each public elementary and secondary school in the local school division and provides that no school board shall be granted any full or partial waiver from such staffing requirements. The bill contains a contingent effective date that states that the foregoing requirement shall become effective beginning with the fiscal year in which funding has been provided pursuant to the general appropriation act to fully fund such requirement.

Virtual Virginia; availability to every public middle school in the Commonwealth. Requires Virtual Virginia to be made available to every public middle school in the Commonwealth. Under current law, Virtual Virginia is only required to be made available to every public high school in the Commonwealth.