Code of Virginia — Title 22.1 (Education), Chapter 1 (SYSTEM OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS; GENERAL PROVISIONS)
§ 22.1-1. (Effective until July 1, 2026) Definitions.
As used in this title, unless the context requires a different meaning:

"Board" or "State Board" means the Board of Education.

"Department" means the Department of Education.

"Division superintendent" means the division superintendent of schools of a school division.

"Dual enrollment" means the enrollment of a qualified high school student in a postsecondary course that is creditable toward high school completion and a career certificate or an associate or baccalaureate degree at a public institution of higher education. "Dual enrollment" does not include the enrollment of a qualified high school student in a postsecondary course that is not creditable toward high school completion.

"Elementary" includes kindergarten.

"Elementary and secondary" and "elementary or secondary" include elementary, middle, and high school grades.

"Evidence-based literacy instruction" means structured instructional practices, including sequential, systematic, explicit, and cumulative teaching, that (i) are based on reliable, trustworthy, and valid evidence consistent with science-based reading research; (ii) are used in core or general instruction, supplemental instruction, intervention services, and intensive intervention services; (iii) have a demonstrated record of success in adequately increasing students' reading competency, vocabulary, oral language, and comprehension and in building mastery of the foundational reading skills of phonological and phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, phonics, spelling, and text reading fluency; and (iv) are able to be differentiated in order to meet the individual needs of students. "Evidence-based literacy instruction" does not include practices that instruct students to gain meaning from print through the use of (i) three-cueing, which includes semantic, syntactic, and graphophonic cues; (ii) meaning, structure, and visual cues; or (iii) visual memory for word recognition.

"Governing body" or "local governing body" means the board of supervisors of a county, council of a city, or council of a town, responsible for appropriating funds for such locality, as the context may require.

"Middle school" means separate schools for early adolescents and the middle school grades that might be housed at elementary or high schools.

"Parent" or "parents" means any parent, guardian, legal custodian, or other person having control or charge of a child.

"Person of school age" means a person who will have reached his fifth birthday on or before September 30 of the school year and who has not reached twenty years of age on or before August 1 of the school year.

"School board" means the school board that governs a school division.

"Science-based reading research" means research that (i) applies rigorous, systematic, and objective observational or experimental procedures to obtain valid knowledge relevant to reading development, reading instruction, and reading and writing difficulties and (ii) explains how proficient reading and writing develop, why some children have difficulties developing key literacy skills, and how schools can best assess and instruct early literacy, including the use of evidence-based literacy instruction practices to promote reading and writing achievement.

"Superintendent" means the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

1980, c. 559; 1985, c. 407; 1991, c. 178; 1995, c. 852; 2000, c. 629; 2001, c. 828; 2020, cc. 860, 861; 2022, cc. 549, 550; 2024, cc. 12, 44, 647, 684.