House Joint Resolution 216 of the 1977 Acts of Assembly directed the Virginia Code Commission to make a thorough and comprehensive study of the laws governing public elementary and secondary education in the Commonwealth. The Commission was further directed to recommend to the House Education Committee and the Senate Education and Health Committee such legislation as the members of the Commission deemed advisable or necessary. In accordance with that directive, the Commission has examined the present laws in the Code of Virginia relating to public education. The result of the Commission's study is a proposed revision of Title 22 which will be designated as Title 22.1.

Pursuant to the mandate of House Joint Resolution 216, it has been the intention of the Commission to eliminate outdated provisions of the Code, to provide for uniformity in the school laws, and to make other appropriate deletions, revisions and additions.

Generally, the revision rewrites and combines many sections in Title 22 so as to simplify and clarify them, as well as to eliminate language that is archaic, unnecessary or redundant. It also attempts to place sections in a more logical order and to group together sections dealing with a particular subject.

Throughout this revision, where possible, separate provisions governing city and county school boards and divisions have been eliminated. Sections are changed to refer simply to school boards or school divisions. Referring only to school boards or divisions has the effect of including the town school boards and divisions, which are sometimes overlooked in existing law. This change also permits the elimination of a great deal of redundant material. Also, this revision takes into account where appropriate the fact that it is possible for a school division to be composed of more than one county or city under a single school board and that counties and cities can be divided in forming school divisions. The term "school board member'' is used consistently and in place of the term "school trustee" where that term still appears for the sake of uniformity and to conform with the wording used in the 1971 revision of the Constitution of Virginia. References to "town school districts operated as separate school districts" have been deleted as obsolete and, where appropriate, references to town school divisions are substituted instead. These are to be distinguished from "special town school districts that now exist for the purposes of representation on division school boards," some of which still exist.