Innovation
Ensuring every student has access to the educational model that works best for them and their families has been a top priority for Governor Youngkin since day one. Breaking the "one size fits all" culture of education in Virginia continues to drive our efforts to expand educational opportunity and to think differently about the classroom.
Educational Opportunity
Throughout his time in office, Governor Youngkin has continued to expand educational opportunities across the Commonwealth. In 2024, the Virginia Board of Education re-established the authorization process for public charter schools. Governor Youngkin has also worked to remove homeschooling regulations, including successfully blocking a bill intruding on religious exemption for homeschool families.
Governor Youngkin has continued to invest in the Education Improvement Scholarships Tax Credit (EISTC), including a revamp of the website.
In 2025, Governor Youngkin signed into law HB1881 to promote out-of-division enrollment for active-duty military students, providing flexibility for military-connected families and supporting active-duty parents to find the school that best fits their student.
Integral to educational opportunity and the college- and career-ready pipeline is Governor Youngkin's lab school effort. Lab Schools are designed to stimulate the development of innovative education programs for preschool through grade 12 students; provide opportunities for innovative instruction and assessment; provide teachers with a vehicle for establishing schools with alternative innovative instruction and school scheduling, management, and structure; encourage the use of performance-based educational programs; establish high standards for both teachers and administrators; encourage greater collaboration between education providers from preschool to the postsecondary level; and develop models for replication in other public schools.
6 lab schools opened in the 2024-25 school year, and 9 more will open in 2025.
Opened Fall 2024:
Opened Fall 2025:
Transportation Innovation
In 2025, Governor Youngkin signed into law HB 2720, which allows certain school boards to pursue student transportation alternatives, expanding innovation and flexibility for schools, students, and families. This legislation placed Virginia among nine other states with school transportation flexibility.
Previously, as of 2024, Virginia school divisions collectively utilized 16,000 80-passenger yellow school buses to transport students to and from school each day. This one-size-fits-all solution creates significant operational inefficiencies, high costs, and hampers families' access to school options outside of the neighborhood, college classes, CTE courses, or high-demand apprenticeships or internships. Since 1980, the average cost per student transported has increased by over 75 percent.
However, because of HB 2720, 79 Virginia school divisions -- all with less than 4,500 students -- will have expanded options for entering transportation contracts with other educational entities and alternative providers.
Recovering from Learning Loss
Governor Youngkin has also prioritized innovative approaches to recovering from the catastrophic learning loss resulting from the COVID-19 school closures. He invested $418 million in Virginia's ALL IN plan to improve attendance, accelerate literacy, and prioritize math and reading learning in grades 3-8. SOL results from 2023-2024 showed that these investments are working, with the stopping of learning loss and turning around the dial.
Governor Youngkin also provided over $68 million in microgrants to nearly 400,000 Virginia students for tutoring, specialized therapies, and assistive technology. 223,181 of those students were students with economic needs. This includes a digital wallet program.
We also created and launched the Chronic Absenteeism Task Force comprised of parents, educators, and community members. Created the absenteeism toolkit and provided resources for parents and educators on ways to improve student attendance.
Classroom Innovation
In 2024, Governor Youngkin signed into law HB1477 to promote seat time flexibility, empowering our students and schools to redesign time in the classroom to best fit students' individual paces and needs. The Virginia Board of Education is now updating guidance and guidelines to help interested school divisions rethink where, when, and how learning occurs and utilize competency-based approaches in public schools.
Seat time flexibility allows students to move at the pace that works best for them, prioritizing content mastery rather than satisfying time quotas for subjects.
Early Childhood
Additionally, Virginia completed its first full year of Virginia Quality Birth to Five (VQB5) quality measurement and improvement system of early childhood care and education with around 30,000 classroom observations and other key data for 3,400 sites in Link B5. Virginia now has a leading national presence as the best public-private system for early childhood, including the use of digital wallets.
Technological Innovation
Virginia continues to prioritize modernized educational approaches to technology, including the use of Artificial Intelligence. In 2024, Virginia became the first state to release education guidance on AI through higher education. Additionally, Governor Youngkin created an AI task force to make Virginia a leader in the AI space while establishing appropriate guardrails.
Governor Youngkin also released Executive Order 33 establishing Bell-to-Bell Cell Phone-Free Education and later signed into law a bill codifying it, ensuring that our classrooms remain conduits of curiosity and innovation.