Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. Photo by Demure Storyteller on Unsplash.
A revised version of Virginia's House Bill 1037, requiring the state board of education to take steps to improve climate change education in the state's public schools, was signed into law by Governor Abigail Spanberger (D) on April 22, 2026.
As passed by the legislature, the bill would have required the board to "make available to each local school board instructional materials on climate change and environmental literacy that are based on and include peer-reviewed scientific sources" and also to "develop, adopt, and make available to each model school board model policies and procedures ... pertaining to the selection of instructional materials on climate change and environmental literacy."
On receiving the bill, however, Governor Spanberger recommended a substitute (as permitted by the Virginia constitution), which would require the board
during its next regularly scheduled revision of the Science Standards of Learning and Curriculum Framework and in its subsequent selection of associated textbooks and high-quality instructional materials, [to] (i) include instructional materials on climate change and environmental literacy that are based on and include peer-reviewed scientific sources relating to changes in weather and climate patterns over time, the impacts of human activity on changes in weather and climate patterns, and the effects of climate change on people and resources and (ii) provide to each school board guidance on the selection of instructional materials on climate change and environmental literacy in accordance with clause (i).
The House and the Senate concurred with the recommendation on a 64-36 vote and a 21-18 vote, respectively, on April 22, 2026; Governor Spanberger then signed the bill into law.
The reference to the state science standards in the revised version of the bill is significant. Virginia's standards received a grade of F for their treatment of climate change in "Making the Grade," the 2020 study by NCSE and the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund, although it's true that climate change is discussed further in the Curriculum Framework provided to help local school districts develop their curricula.
The sponsor of the bill was Betsy B. Carr (D-District 78). In 2024, Carr introduced the identical House Bill 1088, which passed the legislature but was then vetoed by then-Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) on April 2, 2024, as NCSE previously reported.
