A BILL to amend and reenact § 22.1-279.8 of the Code of Virginia and to amend the Code of Virginia by adding in Article 2 of Chapter 8 of Title 23.1 a section numbered 23.1-808.3, relating to public elementary and secondary schools and public institutions of higher education; certain federal immigration investigation and enforcement activities; certain notifications and prohibitions.
HB1260 would revise Virginia’s school safety audit and emergency planning law and add a new higher-education provision addressing federal immigration enforcement activity on campus. For public elementary and secondary schools, the bill requires annual school safety audits using standardized review criteria, including physical security, technology systems, incident reporting, and public-health-related closure planning. It also requires each school division to maintain detailed floor plans, create a school safety audit committee with local stakeholders, and ensure that every school has a written crisis, emergency management, and medical emergency response plan reviewed annually by school and public-safety officials.
The bill also adds specific notice and access rules when an individual is present at a school or public college or university to investigate or enforce federal civil or criminal immigration law. In K-12 schools, the superintendent must notify school employees and parents when such a presence is confirmed, and the bill bars access to nonpublic areas without a judicial warrant. In public higher education, institutions must notify students, faculty, and staff of such activity and adopt a policy requiring a judicial warrant for access to nonpublic areas. The bill sets a July 1, 2027 deadline for local school boards and public institutions to adopt or amend policies needed to comply.
HB1260 would amend § 22.1-279.8 and create new § 23.1-808.3, expanding state requirements for school safety audits, emergency response planning, and reporting obligations in public schools, while imposing new notification and warrant-based access rules for immigration enforcement activity at public schools and public colleges. It would affect local school boards, division superintendents, school administrators, public institutions of higher education, and state agencies involved in school safety and emergency management, including the Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety and the Department of Education. The bill also interacts with public records and security-related exemptions by allowing certain security plans and vulnerability assessments to be withheld or limited from disclosure.
The available context suggests generally favorable treatment in committee, as the bill was incorporated by Public Safety (HB650-Callsen) by voice vote. That indicates the proposal was at least acceptable to the committee at that stage and may have been folded into a broader public safety measure. No recorded floor votes or transcript debate were provided, so the broader political sentiment cannot be measured precisely from the available materials.
The most likely points of contention are the bill’s immigration-related notification and warrant requirements, which could be viewed by supporters as protecting students, parents, faculty, and staff, but by opponents as constraining federal immigration enforcement or creating operational burdens for schools and colleges. Another possible area of debate is the public disclosure of school safety audits, floor plans, and related materials, since the bill requires publication of audit results while preserving the ability to withhold sensitive security information. The bill also imposes new administrative duties on school divisions and higher-education institutions, including annual reviews, committee participation, and policy updates by July 1, 2027.