Charitable gaming; common interest communities; bingo. Allows common interest communities that serve residents age 55 or older to become a qualified organization for the purposes of conducting bingo in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

School-connected student overdoses; policies relating to parental notification. Requires public school principals and heads of private schools in the Commonwealth to report certain information to the parents of enrolled students within 24 hours of a confirmed or suspected school-connected student overdose, as defined in the bill. This bill is identical to HB 2774.

Alcoholic beverage control; food-to-beverage ratio. Reduces the current 45 percent food-to-beverage ratio for certain mixed beverage licensees. The bill requires a mixed beverage restaurant, caterer's, or limited caterer's licensee with monthly food sales of at least $4,000 to have a food-to-beverage ratio that meets or exceeds 30 percent. The bill also requires that restaurants have at least as many seats at tables as at counters and prohibits mixed beverage licensees from serving mixed beverages once food is no longer being sold for on-premises consumption. The bill sunsets on July 1, 2027, and requires the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority to collect data regarding the compliance of mixed beverage licensees with the provisions of the bill and the impact of the change to the food-to-beverage ratio on the gross amount of food consumed on a licensee's premises. The bill requires the Authority to report such data to the Chairmen of the House Committee on General Laws and the Senate Committee on Rehabilitation and Social Services by November 1, 2026.

Study; Department of Transportation; bridge from Surry County to James City County or Charles City County; report. Requests the Department of Transportation to study the need and options for constructing a bridge from Surry County to James City County or Charles City County and to submit a report of its findings no later than the first day of the 2026 Regular Session of the General Assembly.

Professions and occupations; alternative to education requirement for licensure of architects. Requires the Board for Architects, Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, Certified Interior Designers and Landscape Architects to adopt regulations establishing work and education experience equivalencies that shall provide an alternative to the requirement of a professional degree in architecture from a program accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board. The bill also requires the Board to adopt regulations establishing a credit system to account for varying degrees of work and education experience and to develop requirements for applicants seeking licensure to certify work and education experience on an annual basis. The bill requires the Board to evaluate any past work or education experience of any applicant under this bill until July 1, 2028. This bill is identical to HB 2154.

Public middle and high school students; interscholastic athletics; preparticipation physical evaluations; form; timeline. Prohibits middle or high school students from participating in or trying out for any interscholastic athletic team unless such student has submitted a signed Preparticipation Physical Evaluation form from certain licensed providers attesting the student received a physical examination and was found fit for athletic competition no more than 14 calendar months prior to the date on which such form was signed.

Limited-duration licenses, driver privilege cards and permits, and identification privilege cards; expiration. Extends the validity of limited-duration licenses, driver privilege cards and permits, and identification privilege cards, other than REAL ID credentials, as defined in the bill, and commercial driver's licenses and permits, to a period of time consistent with the validity of (i) driver's licenses, which under current law is a period not to exceed eight years or for a person age 75 or older, a period not to exceed five years; (ii) permits, which under current law is the period of time until a driver's license is issued or the person is no longer eligible for such permit, a period of 12 months for motorcycle permits, or a period of the 60 days prior to the person's first behind-the-wheel exam for persons 25 years of age or older; and (iii) special identification cards, which under current law is a period between three and eight years, with exceptions, or for a person younger than the age of 15, until such person's sixteenth birthday, unless extended under certain circumstances for a period no longer than 90 days. The bill directs the Department of Motor Vehicles to implement the extended validity periods for such documents upon reissuance.

Health insurance; reimbursement for services rendered by certain practitioners other than physicians. Requires health insurers and health service plan providers whose accident and sickness insurance policies or subscription contracts cover services that may be legally performed by a physician assistant to provide equal coverage for such services when rendered by a licensed athletic trainer when such services are performed in an office setting. Additionally, the bill requires the reimbursement or payment for a service provided by certain licensed practitioners listed in the bill to be in the same amount as the reimbursement or payment paid under such policy or subscription contract to a licensed physician performing such service in the area served.

Self-reporting of PFAS manufacture and use for PFAS assessment; Department of Environmental Quality; industrial wastewater; publicly owned treatment works. Requires every publicly owned treatment works to require certain new or existing industrial users to self-report use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) as part of a pretreatment program. The bill requires every publicly owned treatment works receiving such self-report of PFAS from an industrial user to convey the information to the Department of Environmental Quality within 90 days of receipt. The bill amends the defined meaning of "use of PFAS" to exclude use of surface water or groundwater supply from the definition. Currently, "use of PFAS" does not include manufacturing equipment that contains PFAS. The bill also directs any industrial user required to self-report use of PFAS to submit such report within 90 days of notification from the publicly owned treatment works of this reporting requirement and requires the publicly owned treatment works to notify relevant industrial users of the requirement to self-report use of PFAS within 90 days of notification from the Department to make such notification. The bill requires the Department to notify publicly owned treatment works of the industrial user self-reporting requirements within 30 days of the bill's effective date. Finally, the bill directs the PFAS Expert Advisory Committee to include in its 2025 annual report recommendations on the development of an inventory of PFAS testing methodologies and control technologies for industrial sources.

Virginia Access to Justice Act. Establishes a public defender office in each judicial circuit. Currently, public defender offices have been established in certain localities. The bill also establishes an appellate defender office to represent indigent persons in appeals of their convictions to the Court of Appeals of Virginia or Supreme Court of Virginia. The bill raises the limitation of fees that court-appointed counsel can receive for representation on various offenses in district and circuit courts. Further, the bill requires the attorney for the Commonwealth and assistant attorney for the Commonwealth to prosecute Class 1, 2, and 3 misdemeanors, or any other violation, the conviction of which carries a penalty of confinement in jail, or a fine of $500 or more, or both such confinement and fine. Current law allows discretion for prosecuting such misdemeanors and violations. Lastly, the bill expands the definition of "victim" as it relates to compensating victims of crime to include persons awarded restitution pursuant to relevant law.

Elections; absentee voting in person; uniform availability. Requires absentee voting in person to be available from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday during early voting and between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. on the first Saturday and second Saturday and Sunday immediately preceding all elections. Under current law, local electoral boards have some discretion to decide certain hours and days when absentee voting in person is available.

Virginia Retirement System; enhanced retirement benefits for 911 dispatchers. Allows local governments to provide enhanced retirement benefits for hazardous duty service to full-time salaried 911 dispatchers. The bill provides that such enhanced retirement benefits apply only to service earned as a full-time salaried 911 dispatcher on or after July 1, 2026, but allows an employer, as that term is defined in relevant law, to provide such enhanced retirement benefits for service earned as a full-time salaried 911 dispatcher before July 1, 2026, in addition to service earned on or after that date. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2026.

Elections; voter identification; identification containing a photograph required. Requires presentation of a form of identification containing a photograph in order to vote. The bill repeals the provisions of law permitting a voter who does not have one of the required forms of identification to vote after signing a statement, subject to felony penalties for false statements, that he is the named registered voter he claims to be. Instead, the bill provides that such voter is entitled to cast a provisional ballot.

Virginia Community College System; Solar Workforce Development Incentive Grant Program; established. Requires the Chancellor of the Virginia Community College System to establish and implement the Solar Workforce Development Incentive Grant Program. Under the program, any comprehensive community college that enters into a power purchase agreement, either alone or in partnership with any local school division in the region that it serves, and that provides workforce development opportunities such as internships, apprenticeships, or project-based learning tied to such renewable energy projects on their campuses are eligible to apply for (i) a grant in an amount of $100,000 per megawatt purchased and (ii) an additional grant in an amount of up to $100,000 for projects that implement solar and battery microgrid systems in furtherance of developing community resiliency hubs in coordination with the Department of Energy's Renewables Advancing Community Energy Resilience (RACER) program.

School board policies; parental notification; safe storage of prescription drugs and firearms in the household. Requires each local school board to develop and implement a policy to require the annual notification of the parent of each student enrolled in the local school division, to be sent by email and, if applicable, SMS text message within 30 calendar days succeeding the first day of each school year, of (i) the importance of securely storing any prescription drug, as defined in relevant law, present in the household and (ii) the parent's legal responsibility to safely store any firearm present in the household. The bill requires each school board to make such parental notification available in multiple languages on its website. This bill is identical to HB 1678.