As the General Assembly session continues, dLCV is looking for volunteers to help track legislation that impacts people with disabilities. If you are interested in serving as a Bill Reviewer, please email ga@dlcv.org with “Bill Reviewer” in the subject line. A member of our team will follow up with the next steps.
During the upcoming 2026 General Assembly Session, dLCV is reviewing several bills focused on mental health policy, especially those that affect students and people with disabilities. While these bills show that lawmakers are paying more attention to mental health needs, dLCV is carefully looking at how they would work in practice and whether they could create challenges or unintended effects.
HB 43 (Simon, Feggans) removes suicide as a common-law crime and directs the State Corporation Commission to study the impact on insurance. While there is no current punishment against suicide, ending this as a crime would help to destigmatize mental health and encourage people to seek help. This bill aligns Virginia law with a public health approach while responsibly examining the implications for insurance. The bill will be heard by the House Committee on Courts of Justice
HB 495 (Guzman, Anderson, Carnegie) has two parts: 1) school boards must pay employees for completing mental health awareness training and adds school bus drivers to complete the training and 2) school boards are encouraged to contract with a private nonprofit agency to develop an anonymous student reporting system to be used if a student has concerns about a peer that might be a danger to themselves or others. While we believe it is important for schools to have a way for students to report concerns, we worry about the integrity of the reports and how students will utilize anonymous reporting, especially if the reports could be used to bully classmates. The bill will be heard in the House Committee on Education.
HB 38 (Henson) updates public school mental health training requirement to be evidenced-based best practices and developed by the American Psychological Association. The training must focus on high at-risk youth populations to include those who have mental health needs, physical disabilities, chronic health conditions, housing instability, or are in foster care. Encouraging a stronger emphasis on cultural responsiveness and implementation quality is a great step towards reducing discriminatory discipline and misinterpretation of mental health needs. The bill will be heard by the House Committee on Education.
HB 355 (Gardner, Anderson, Carnegie) establishes an annual mental health screening program for public school students grades 6-12. The tool must be provided to local school boards at no cost. A student’s parents have the option to opt the student out of the screening. This bill ensures same-day intervention if appropriate. It recognizes the accommodations needed by students with developmental disabilities, intellectual disabilities, as well as low reading proficiency. We appreciate the goal of early mental health identification and the emphasis on getting students help quickly, particularly for students with disabilities, who often experience delayed mental health diagnosis or misdiagnosis. We have questions about the qualifications of those conducting the screenings and how results will be interpreted.
Our mission is to advance independence, choice and self-determination; protect legal, human and civil rights; and eliminate abuse, neglect and discrimination of people with disabilities through zealous and uncompromising legal advocacy and representation. We are available to educate policy makers about the potential impact of legislative proposals. Please let us know of any legislation that you think we should be following, by emailing us at ga@dlcv.org.
Our thanks to our MSW intern Alma Dominguez for this analysis of mental health bills!