House Bill 178 and Senate Bill 190, passed during the 2026 General Assembly session, instructed the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE, or the Department) to assess the impact of developing a state program in which certified student support agencies, defined in the legislation as a nonprofit organization certified by the Commonwealth to provide student support programs, would provide services to students enrolled in Virginia's public elementary and secondary schools. Under the proposed structure, the VDOE would certify the nonprofits, after which divisions could enter into memorandums of understanding with the organizations. The legislation defined student support programs as a program administered for the purpose of providing direct services to at-risk students, including housing stabilization, case management, tutoring or instructional support, youth mentoring and development, or summer enrichment services.

The VDOE was asked to evaluate the impact on the agency of developing a framework and program to certify student support agencies serving students in public schools in the Commonwealth. Specifically, the VDOE was charged with reporting on:

(i) a framework by which a certified student support agency would enter into a memorandum of understanding with a school board for the purpose of providing student support programs and suggested components of such memorandums of understanding, such as

(a) documentation establishing the organization's nonprofit status,

(b) a description of each student support program that such organization provides,

(c) policies and procedures relating to privacy, background checks, mandated reporting, and the transmission, collection, use, and disposal of student personal information, and (d) consent forms and procedures to be used by such student support programs to obtain the necessary consent from the parent of any student under 18 years of age;

(ii) the feasibility of establishing and administering a certification process for certified student support agencies;

(iii) potential compliance monitoring and enforcement mechanisms and subsequent penalties for noncompliance to ensure that each certified student support agency complies with such program;

(iv) policies and procedures for the secure disposal of a student's personal information upon such student's withdrawal from a student support program, upon the cessation of any such program, or upon such student's graduation or transfer from the school division; and

(v) cost estimates, including staffing needs, for the development and implementation of such program.

In developing the report, VDOE looked for other comparable programs around the county, examined the current context for nonprofit entities partnering with school divisions, considered components of the proposed legislation, and assessed the cost of creating a new infrastructure at the Department.