Empower Parents and Teachers
Governor Youngkin has made significant strides in enhancing educational outcomes by focusing on improving parent-teacher partnerships, bolstering the teacher experience, and addressing critical gaps in student performance and resources.
Since Day One, Governor Youngkin has prioritized the restoration of parents' constitutional and statutory right to have a say in their child's education. On his first day in office, Governor Youngkin signed Executive Order 1 Ending the Use of Inherently Divisive Concepts, Including Critical Race Theory, and Restoring Excellence in K-12 Public Education in the Commonwealth to and Executive Order 2 Reaffirming the Rights of Parents in the Upbringing, Education, and Care of Their Children.
Additionally, Governor Youngkin and the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) released updated Model Policies on Ensuring Privacy, Dignity, and Respect for All Students and Parents in Virginia's Public Schools to guarantee that parents and teachers can work together rather than against one another.
Parent-Teacher Partnerships
Governor Youngkin and VDOE released a range of resources to foster strong, ongoing partnerships between parents and teachers. These include a comprehensive webpage of parent resources and a portal designed for continuous collaboration. Tools such as Virginia's Visualization and Analytics Solution (VVASS) and Bridging the Gap have enabled parents and teachers to engage in meaningful discussions about student data, helping to tailor support to each child's unique needs. The state also leveraged ESSER III funding to sustain these efforts through the 2025-2026 school year. This investment followed extensive parent feedback through focus groups and surveys, ensuring the resources meet the needs of the community.
Virginia's Visualization and Analytics Solution
The WAAS portal displays measures of students' academic growth over time based on SOL testing data, diagnostic reports for student groups, and student projections to help educators improve student achievement and inform classroom instruction. Reports provided by WAAS, in tandem with other data sources, can help educators make decisions regarding curriculum changes, identify and support long-term student goals, and help reveal trends of student groups in need of additional support.
Bridging the Gap
Bridging the Gap is a critical piece of the Commonwealth's effort to restore educational excellence to Virginia's public schools. The transformational approach will provide individualized student data reports, ensure every student who I not on track hasa Personalized Learning Plan, and provide comprehensive training to teachers on how to communicate with parents and students about where a student is academically.
Targeted Supports to Students
To continue the work to rebuild after the COVID-19 pandemic learning loss, Virginia provided significant funding to provide targeted supports to students. This included $68 million in Learning Acceleration Grants for tutoring, specialized therapies, and assistive technology to nearly 400,000 students -- 223,181 of which were students with economic needs.
Teacher Pay and Supports
Governor Youngkin has advocated for and made historic investments in teacher pay, spurring a 23% total teacher salary increase[1] for Virginia teachers throughout his Administration.
In January 2024, the Competitive Teacher Pay workgroup released a report informing the General Assembly about best practices in regard to teacher pay. Though their proposal related to incentive pay was ultimately stifled by political opposition, Governor Youngkin's investments in teacher pay put Virginia on track to exceed the national average.
Additionally, Governor Youngkin has prioritized celebrating the achievements and accomplishments of great teachers across the Commonwealth. Each year, Virginia acknowledges those who are making a difference in and out of the classroom, including with the annual Teacher of the Year award.
Addressing the Teacher Shortage
Governor Youngkin has also introduced innovative approaches to addressing the teacher shortage across Virginia. In 2024, the state made progress by passing a landmark universal teacher licensure law (HB 632), which enables out-of-state teachers to receive licensure via reciprocity. This move addresses teacher shortages by expanding the pool of qualified educators. Furthermore, Governor Youngkin, VDOE, and the Virginia Board of Education have worked to streamline and automate the teacher licensure process, improving efficiency and reducing barriers for teachers entering the workforce. Additionally, in 2025, Governor Youngkin signed into law a bill to streamline provisional licensure for CTE teachers (HB2018).
Governor Youngkin has also provided significant investment in reducing the teacher shortage. Virginia invested $240K per year to provide a Grow Your Own teacher program for low-income high school graduates who attended a Virginia institution of higher education to teach in high-need public schools in the school divisions where they graduated high school. Governor Youngkin has provided:
- $2.28 million per year for grants, scholarships, and incentive payments to attract, recruit, and retain high-quality teachers and fill critical teacher shortage disciplines in public schools;
- $396,000 each year to help school divisions with their substantial teacher recruitment and retention challenges "to implement a statewide strategic plan for recruiting and retaining teachers in the most critical shortage areas;"
- $558,000 each year to support the automated teacher licensure and intake process; and
- $2.85 million per year for teacher residency partnerships with universities in underserved school divisions, such as those in Petersburg, Norfolk, and Richmond City, aiming to fill critical teacher shortages.