Paid family and medical leave program. Requires the Virginia Employment Commission to establish and administer a paid family and medical leave program with benefits beginning January 1, 2026. Under the program, benefits are paid to eligible employees for family and medical leave. Funding for the program is provided through premiums assessed to employers and employees beginning in 2025. The amount of a benefit is 80 percent of the employee's average weekly wage, not to exceed 80 percent of the state weekly wage, which amount is required to be adjusted annually to reflect changes in the statewide average weekly wage. The measure caps the duration of paid leave at 12 weeks in any application year. The bill provides self-employed individuals the option of participating in the program. Paid family and medical leave program. Requires the Virginia Employment Commission to establish and administer a paid family and medical leave program with benefits beginning January 1, 2026. Under the program, benefits are paid to eligible employees for family and medical leave. Funding for the program is provided through premiums assessed to employers and employees beginning in 2025. The amount of a benefit is 80 percent of the employee's average weekly wage, not to exceed 80 percent of the state weekly wage, which amount is required to be adjusted annually to reflect changes in the statewide average weekly wage. The measure caps the duration of paid leave at 12 weeks in any application year. The bill provides self-employed individuals the option of participating in the program.

Department of Housing and Community Development; powers and duties of the Director; Virginia Residential Sites and Structures Locator. Instructs the Director of the Department of Housing and Community Development to develop and operate a Virginia Residential Sites and Structures Locator database to assist localities in marketing publicly owned, privately owned, or publicly and privately owned structures and parcels determined by the locality to be suitable for residential or mixed-use development or redevelopment when the owner or owners have authorized the locality to market the structure or parcels for residential or mixed-use development or redevelopment. Department of Housing and Community Development; powers and duties of the Director; Virginia Residential Sites and Structures Locator. Instructs the Director of the Department of Housing and Community Development to develop and operate a Virginia Residential Sites and Structures Locator database to assist localities in marketing publicly owned, privately owned, or publicly and privately owned structures and parcels determined by the locality to be suitable for residential or mixed-use development or redevelopment when the owner or owners have authorized the locality to market the structure or parcels for residential or mixed-use development or redevelopment.

Workplace violence; violence in certain public places; penalty. Makes it a Class 3 felony for any person to commit an act of violence at (i) such person's place of employment or former place of employment, or a franchise thereof, whether on or off duty and whether during or outside of normal business hours; (ii) a place of worship; (iii) a courthouse; or (iv) a hospital. The bill provides that such offense is a separate and distinct offense, punishment for which shall be consecutive to any punishment received for the act of violence. Workplace violence; violence in certain public places; penalty. Makes it a Class 3 felony for any person to commit an act of violence at (i) such person's place of employment or former place of employment, or a franchise thereof, whether on or off duty and whether during or outside of normal business hours; (ii) a place of worship; (iii) a courthouse; or (iv) a hospital. The bill provides that such offense is a separate and distinct offense, punishment for which shall be consecutive to any punishment received for the act of violence.

Board of Education; Standards of Learning; revision; consultation. Requires the Board of Education, at least 30 days prior to the public hearings that it is required to hold prior to establishing revised Standards of Learning, to publish on its website in a publicly accessible format a list of each individual and organization that has been consulted regarding the revision of such Standards of Learning and the amount paid by any state agency or entity for any such consultation, if applicable.

Employment of teachers; English as a Second Language Incentive Reward Program and Fund; established. Provides that each local school board shall adopt employment policies and practices designed to promote the employment of highly qualified teachers to effectively serve the educational needs of students who are English language learners, including providing financial support for teachers seeking and obtaining an endorsement in English as a second language pre-kindergarten through grade 12. The bill also establishes the English as a Second Language Incentive Reward Program and Fund for the purpose of awarding incentive grants to public school teachers in the Commonwealth who obtain an endorsement in English as a second language pre-kindergarten through grade 12. The bill provides that the Board of Education shall award to any teacher who obtains such endorsement an initial incentive grant of $5,000 and a subsequent incentive grant of $2,500 each year for the life of the endorsement, with such incentive grants to resume upon renewal of the endorsement. Finally, the bill directs the Board to establish such guidelines as it deems necessary for the administration of the Program and to establish procedures for the award of such incentive grants in the event that the moneys in the Fund are not sufficient to award each eligible teacher the appropriate award amount.

Department of Education; Virginia-based nonprofit organizations; schools for adults to earn credentials, college credit, and high school diplomas. Requires the Department of Education to authorize a Virginia-based nonprofit organization with demonstrated evidence of positive student outcomes to provide schools for adults to earn (i) (a) an industry-recognized credential awarded through a partnership with a Virginia-based community college or an approved training provider or (b) dual college credit awarded through a partnership with a Virginia-based community college and (ii) a high school diploma on one or more diploma pathways set forth in the relevant Board of Education regulation in which enrollment is open, on a space-available basis, to adults who reside throughout the Commonwealth.

Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act; landlord remedies; noncompliance with rental agreement. Increases from five days to 14 days the mandatory waiting period after a landlord serves written notice on a tenant notifying the tenant of his nonpayment of rent and of the landlord's intention to terminate the rental agreement if rent is not paid before the landlord may pursue remedies for termination of the rental agreement.

Consumer Data Protection Act; protections for children. Requires an operator, defined in the bill, to obtain verifiable parental consent prior to registering any child with the operator's product or service or before collecting, using, or disclosing such child's personal data and prohibits a controller from knowingly processing the personal data of a child for purposes of (i) targeted advertising, (ii) the sale of such personal data, or (iii) profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects concerning a consumer. The bill also amends the definition of child for purposes of the Consumer Data Protection Act to include any natural person younger than 18 years of age.

Conformity with the Internal Revenue Code; cannabis licensees. Deconforms from federal law, as it applies to Virginia medical cannabis licensees, the prohibition on a deduction for any amount paid or incurred during the taxable year in carrying on any trade or business if such trade or business consists of trafficking in a controlled substance prohibited by federal law. Conformity with the Internal Revenue Code; cannabis licensees. Deconforms from federal law, as it applies to Virginia medical cannabis licensees, the prohibition on a deduction for any amount paid or incurred during the taxable year in carrying on any trade or business if such trade or business consists of trafficking in a controlled substance prohibited by federal law.

Revenue Stabilization Fund and Revenue Reserve Fund; required deposits. Eliminates the requirement that certain revenues be deposited in the Revenue Stabilization Fund that are in excess of the deposits required by the Constitution of Virginia and adds a new requirement that additional deposits be made to the Revenue Reserve Fund if general fund revenues exceed certain amounts in a fiscal year. Revenue Stabilization Fund and Revenue Reserve Fund; required deposits. Eliminates the requirement that certain revenues be deposited in the Revenue Stabilization Fund that are in excess of the deposits required by the Constitution of Virginia and adds a new requirement that additional deposits be made to the Revenue Reserve Fund if general fund revenues exceed certain amounts in a fiscal year.

Investigation prior to release; input from the attorney for the Commonwealth. Provides that when the Parole Board is conducting the required investigation to determine if a prisoner will be released on parole the Board must notify the attorney for the Commonwealth in each jurisdiction in which an offense occurred for which the prisoner is incarcerated, and the attorney for the Commonwealth may submit his input to the Board regarding the impact that the release of the prisoner will have on the jurisdiction.

Child care; background checks. Allows applicants for employment and applicants to serve as volunteers to work in certain child day centers, family day homes, and family day systems pending the results of a full background check, provided that (i) the applicant has received qualifying results on a fingerprint-based background check through the Central Criminal Records Exchange or the Federal Bureau of Investigation and (ii) the applicant is supervised at all times by a person who received a qualifying result on a full background check within the past five years.

Health insurance; coverage for breast examinations. Requires health insurance carriers to provide coverage for diagnostic breast examinations and supplemental breast examinations, as those terms are defined in the bill. The bill provides that such examinations include examinations using diagnostic mammography, breast magnetic resonance imaging, or breast ultrasound. The bill prohibits such examinations from being subject to cost-sharing requirements, including annual deductibles, coinsurance, copayments, or similar out-of-pocket expenses, or any maximum limitation on the application of such a deductible, coinsurance, copayment, or similar out-of-pocket expense.

Possession, purchase, sale, and transportation of catalytic converters; penalty. Makes it a Class 6 felony for any person to sell, offer for sale, or purchase a catalytic converter from a motor vehicle exhaust system that has been detached from a motor vehicle. The bill also makes it a Class 6 felony for any person to transport from inside the Commonwealth to outside of the Commonwealth a catalytic converter from a motor vehicle exhaust system that has been detached from a motor vehicle with the intent to sell such catalytic converter. The bill provides that a person who is in possession of a catalytic converter that has been removed from a motor vehicle is presumed to have criminally obtained such catalytic converter unless the person is an authorized agent or employee acting in the performance of his official duties for a motor vehicle dealer, motor vehicle garage or repair shop, or salvage yard that is licensed or registered by the Commonwealth or a person who possesses vehicle registration documentation indicating that the catalytic converter in the person's possession is the result of a replacement of a catalytic converter from a vehicle registered in that person's name.

Department of Labor and Industry; Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation; notice of disciplinary action; method of delivery to allow for confirmation of delivery. Authorizes the use of commercial delivery services with signed and dated acknowledgment of delivery by the Commissioner of Labor and Industry when providing notice to an employer of any proposed penalty for a violation of a safety or health provision or of the employer's failure to abate a violation of a safety or health provision. Under current law, the Commissioner is authorized to provide such required notices only through certified mail or personal service. The bill also requires the regulatory boards of the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation to send to any regulant subject to a disciplinary action notice in a manner that allows for confirmation of delivery. The bill removes the current requirement that such notice be sent by certified mail, return receipt requested, and retains the provision allowing delivery through electronic means, if agreed to by the parties.