Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has signed a bill into law that gives students across the state an excused absence when they use it to “engage in a civic or political event,” such as a protest. Fairfax County Public Schools, the largest public school system in Virginia, began giving students from 7th-12th grade a day off to protest in January 2020. House Bill 1940, which was signed by Northam, a Democrat, last Friday, seeks to expand Fairfax’s policy statewide. It directs the Virginia Department of Education to establish guidelines that grant more than 680,000 middle and high school students in over 130 school systems access to one excused absence every year for a protest they may want to attend. “Having them be engaged in the civic process will make us all better citizens and it was great to have young Republicans, young Democrats and teachers coming together to work on this …