The Commission on Youth received a briefing from its staff at its October 22 meeting with the results of a study and several proposed recommendations regarding the increased use of petitions for temporary or permanent relief of custody to place children in foster care. Virginia Code allows parents to petition a court to be relieved of their responsibility for care and custody of a child through a judicial process. Such a petition is first referred to the local department of social services for investigation and the provision of services. After a court hearing, if the petition is granted, the child may be placed in the custody of a person with a legitimate interest, a licensed child-placing agency, or a local board of social services. The Commission approved a study resolution in November 2023 on this topic, which was raised by local departments of social services and the Office of the Children’s Ombudsman during the Commission’s 2023 foster care study. Commission staff convened an advisory group and held regional roundtables as part of the process of developing recommendations for the Commission to consider.
Staff reported a number of themes emerging from the roundtable discussions. Summarizing these points, the Commission’s Senior Policy Analyst Will Egen noted that by the time a petition has been filed, it is often too late for interventions to support the family; parents may not know how to avail themselves of services earlier in the process, or services may not be available. There is variation across the state in the number of these cases seen by judges; during a five-year period examined by staff, 48 percent of petitions for relief of custody were filed in the western part of the state. Some concerns were expressed about families’ interactions with court services units and law enforcement and these entities’ ability to refer parents to appropriate services.
Key recommendations proposed by staff include the following:
- Standardize the pre-hearing investigation by the local department of social services to require a written home study report on the child and family, based on a template to be developed by the Department of Social Services, and require the local department to refer the parent to the local Family Assessment and Planning Team for potential services to be provided through the Children’s Services Act.
- Include the parent’s efforts to use available services offered by the local department of social services or other agencies as part of the judge’s consideration of the parent’s desire to be relieved of custody.
- Clarify in statute that Children in Need of Services are eligible for CSA parental agreements and community-based services, and request the Office of Children’s Services to make local partners and agencies aware of these options for families.
- Request that the Department of Social Services strengthen the ability of adoptive families to obtain services in a new locality if the family has moved after an adoption is finalized.
- Request that organizations representing licensed child-placing agencies ensure that pre-adoption training includes a focus on trauma-informed parenting, mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions, and supports available to adoptive families.
- Require the Department of Education to survey local school divisions to review the access available to local departments of social services and Community Services Boards and what school-based mental health options are available at each school division.
- Request the Virginia League of Social Services Executives to compile information on best practices regarding collaboration between local agencies and judges on relief of custody cases. Request the Department of Juvenile Justice to distribute best practices to court services units for their use in discussing services available in the community with parents who may seek relief of custody. Request the Department of Social Services to work with law enforcement associations to distribute best practices for informing families about available services when law enforcement encounters families in crisis.
Staff’s presentation is available at this link, and the full list of proposed recommendations is available at this link. Public comments are due by 5:00 p.m. on November 21 and may be directed to Commission Director Amy Atkinson at aatkinson@vcoy.virginia.gov. Public comments will be considered by the Commission at its November 25 meeting.
The Commission also received an update on a series of listening sessions and an advisory group meeting held as part of the Commission’s study of Virginia’s special education dispute resolution system. This is a two-year study, with a final report due to the General Assembly by November 1, 2025. VACo participated in the advisory group meeting.
The Virginia Department of Social Services also provided an update on its efforts to promote kinship care for children who must be removed from their homes. Children who are placed with relatives or fictive kin have better outcomes, and placement with relatives can reduce the trauma of being removed from the home. Virginia has increased the percentage of children who are placed in kinship care from 12.9 percent in January 2023 to 18.4 percent in September 2024. The Department’s presentation also included an update on the implementation of the Parental Child Safety Placement Program, which was authorized by legislation passed in 2024. This legislation outlined the process for voluntary agreements among parents, relative or fictive kin caregivers, and local departments to avoid entry into foster care while ensuring that children are safe in these placements. The State Board of Social Services adopted regulations to implement the program at its October meeting. Relatives and fictive kin who are participating in the Program are eligible for additional financial assistance, which is funded out of the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families allocation; Senator Barbara Favola, who carried the implementing legislation in the Senate, encouraged the Department to track use of these funds to determine whether additional state support might be needed.
VACo Contact: Katie Boyle