The School Division Criteria Study Commission was established in 1971 to study and recommend conditions and criteria to govern the Board of Education in dividing the State into school divisions pursuant to § 5(a) of Article VIII of the Constitution of Virginia. Section 5(a) was added when the Constitution was amended in 1971 and reads as follows:

(a) Subject to such criteria and conditions as the General Assembly may prescribe, the Board shall divide the Commonwealth into school divisions of such geographical area and school-age population as will promote the realimtion of the prescribed standards of quality, and shall periodically review the adequacy of existing school divisions for this purpose.

The Commission was continued in 1973, 1975 and in 1977 pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution No. 84.