Welcome to Civics Currents, your in-depth resource for teaching Virginia government and politics. As the 2025 General Assembly session has just concluded, we're excited to provide you with tools and insights to bring the legislative process to life in your classroom.

In This Edition:

• Session Spotlight: Follow the journey of key bills that made it through the legislative process

• Data Discussions: Using VPAP Visuals to strengthen data literacy skills

• Civics in Practice: Opportunities for college students to simulate a legislative session

• Test Your Knowledge: Quiz your students with our end-of-session trivia

• Civics in Context: Important dates and what's next in Virginia's political calendar

Ready to dive in? Let's get started!

Heads up, all civics and government educators!

Looking for a way to bring the recently concluded General Assembly session to life? Want to show your students how a bill becomes a law in Virginia?

Join us on the journey of six bills that spanned the topics of schools, technology, child labor, animal welfare, elections, and environment. Two key bills successfully passed both chambers during the session that ended February 22nd and now await the Governor's decision.

Featured Bills:

• HB2479 (Synthetic Media) - Requires labeling of AI-generated content in political ads; includes penalties up to $25,000
• SB738 (Cell Phones in Schools) - Directs school boards to develop policies restricting classroom cell phone use while maintaining exceptions for health needs

Our top bills page offers a front-row seat to the legislative process with:

• Complete bill journeys from pre-filing through final passage
• Easy-to-view video clips of actual floor debates
• Explanations comparing Virginia's process to the federal government
• Plain-language summaries of complex legislation

Your learners can examine the process and potentially simulate their own session debates on the issues and/or follow another bill on an issue that matters to them using VPAP’s bill tracker .  This is also a great opportunity for students to learn parliamentary language and procedures, as well as how citizens and interest groups influenced the legislative process throughout the session. (Perfect for 1-3 class periods, grades 6-12)

For any teacher looking to talk about data with their students!

Just as civics shouldn't be confined to a single course, data literacy skills shouldn't be confined to STEM classrooms. Frequent practice across content areas is the best way to strengthen these skills. To help your students fine-tune their pattern recognition skills, data analysis, and talking about data in context, consider using VPAP Visuals as a springboard for data chats.

VPAP Visuals offers excellent non-political data under the "demographics " tab - perfect for quick, engaging data chats with students of any age. (Ideal for 10-15 minute warm-ups, grades 6-12)

Try this simple 3-step activity:

1. Ask students which Virginia locality they think grew the most/least and to guess your local population change percentage (2023-2024)

2. Reveal actual data using "Recent Population by Locality" visual

3. Discuss push and pull factors affecting population changes

For extended learning, explore the interactive "Virginia Population Change" visual showing births, deaths, and migration patterns over four years.

At all levels in all content areas, the Virginia Standards of Learning essentially call for students to “Use data to answer questions, draw conclusions, and make predictions.” What better way to do that than with real-world data from around Virginia?

Virginia Government Simulation: Spring Regional Conference - March 22, 2025 (9am-4pm)

College students from across Virginia can apply their civics knowledge at one of four convenient locations (Eastern, Central, Western regions, or virtual). Participants will collaborate on drafting legislation while networking with peers. This one-day conference feeds directly into the fall three-day simulation where students role-play as legislators.

Registration closes March 1st. Details at idpce.vcu.edu/va-government-simulation

Test your knowledge of Virginia's legislative process!

Use these questions to spark classroom discussions:

1. When did the Virginia General Assembly session adjourn sine die this year?
2. What does adjourned sine die mean?
3. What percentage of floor votes took place in the final two days prior to crossover* in the House of Delegates? Hint: For contrast, only 27% of floor votes were crossover buzzer beaters in the Senate.
4. What percentage of votes for bills that survived crossover had unanimous support?

(answers at the end)

*Crossover is the General Assembly's deadline for bills to pass out of their chamber of origin to be considered by the other chamber. From that point forward, the House may only consider bills passed by the Senate and the Senate can only consider bills passed by the House.

Key Dates in Virginia's Political Calendar:

• February 22 : Session adjourned sine die

• March 24 : Last day for governor’s action on legislation

• April 2 : Reconvened Session

• July 1 : Common effective date of enacted legislation

1. When did the Virginia General Assembly session adjourn sine die this year?

Saturday, February 22nd

2. What does adjourned sine die mean?

In Latin, it translates to “without a day.” It indicates the conclusion of a deliberative assembly, like the Virginia General Assembly, without setting a day to reconvene in its present or reconstituted form – although House Joint Resolution No. 430 , establishing the schedule for the conduct of business this session, reiterates Article IV of the Constitution of Virginia in setting Wednesday, April 2, 2025 as a date to reconvene to consider bills returned by the governor with recommendations.

The phrase “adjourned sine die” could also refer to a court case being brought to an end indefinitely, or without setting a date for the next hearing.

3. What percentage of floor votes took place in the final two days prior to crossover in the House of Delegates? Hint: For contrast, only 27% of floor votes were crossover buzzer beaters in the Senate.

The House of Delegates faced a busy floor schedule before crossover, with 67% of floor votes taking place in the final two days prior to crossover. Check out this interactive VPAP Visual on legislative actions pre-crossover .

4. What percentage of votes for bills that survived crossover had unanimous support?

A whopping 75% of votes for these bills had unanimous support. Learn more in this VPAP Visual, “At Crossover, Most Votes Aren’t Close.”