2025 SESSION

INTRODUCED

24104258D

HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 21

Offered January 10, 2024

Prefiled January 8, 2024

Requesting the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia to study the feasibility of implementing a guaranteed first-year admission policy at each public institution of higher education for certain high school graduates in the Commonwealth. Report.

—————

Patrons—Seibold, Clark, Cousins, Henson, Hope, Keys-Gamarra, Lopez, Martinez, Simon and Simonds; Senator: Boysko

—————

Referred to Committee on Rules

—————

WHEREAS, several other states have laws or policies that guarantee first-year admission to certain individuals who graduate from a high school in the state and demonstrate high academic achievement; and

WHEREAS, such laws and policies have proven to be effective tools for the recruitment of the highest achieving in-state high school students and the retention of such individuals in their respective states during and after college; and

WHEREAS, in recognition of such fact, several public institutions of higher education in the Commonwealth, including George Mason University and Virginia Commonwealth University, have piloted similar guaranteed admission policies at the institutional level; and

WHEREAS, it is now imperative to determine whether such programs could be scaled statewide and standardized across each public institution of higher education in the Commonwealth; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia be requested to study the feasibility of implementing a guaranteed first-year admission policy at each public institution of higher education for certain high school graduates in the Commonwealth.

In conducting its study, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (the Council) shall collaborate with each public institution of higher education to analyze best practices for guaranteed first-year admission in other states and at individual institutions of higher education within and outside of the Commonwealth and to make recommendations for a Commonwealth-specific law or policy that properly balances the concerns and needs of and the differences between public institutions of higher education while achieving the purpose of the statewide recruitment and retention of talented high school graduates.

Technical assistance shall be provided to the Council by each public institution of higher education in the Commonwealth. All agencies of the Commonwealth shall provide assistance to the Council for this study, upon request.

The Council shall complete its meetings by November 30, 2024, and shall submit to the Governor and the General Assembly an executive summary and a report of its findings and recommendations for publication as a House or Senate document. The executive summary and report shall be submitted as provided in the procedures of the Division of Legislative Automated Systems for the processing of legislative documents and reports no later than the first day of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly and shall be posted on the General Assembly's website.