On February 20, HB1408 passed the Senate on a 38-2 vote and was returned back to the House for a vote on the Senate amendments. Today, the Senate-amended HB1408 passed the House on a 98-0 vote! Virginia has taken the first step toward improving vision outcomes for students and working to eliminate undetected and untreated vision problems as barriers to success in school.
Conexus is grateful for the good work of Delegate Lee Ware to see this bill through and also for the unexpected and very timely support of Ken Hutcheson, who offered his professional guidance in support of HB1408 as the bill made its way through crossover.
There is still much work to be done, but the passage of HB1408 with such strong bipartisan support demonstrates awareness of the need of improved vision programming in schools, which is the first step in active program implementation.
