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UPDATES
FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION...
SB 217...this bill is still alive and moving. We need your help to get this bill through the House of Delegates. Why do we need this bill???
- Foster Care Prevention: When localities can find relatives who will care for children, then they can make those placements before the child enters government custody. The relatives, however, need to have a way to register the children for their local school. Currently, many localities are requiring families to take legal custody through a court process. Since these placements are often temporary, this creates an divisive process for the family and delays school enrollment.
- Relatives stepping in to help: Often families become aware on their own that they need to step up and help the children in their extended family. This maintains family continuity and is less frightening for children than being placed with strangers. This also helps to prevent foster care. When relatives can do this without requesting public benefits such as TANF, Medicaid, or Child Care there should be NO need for court intervention. Many school districts require these families to go to court and get legal custody before they are allowed to enroll the children in their local school. This practice can delay school enrollment and disrupt family helping practices.
SB 217 will help children remain in their families without requiring court action. This reduces demand on courts for matters that can and should be handled by families for families. And, most importantly, reduces stress on children by keeping them out of the court and social services system.
Please write your Delegate, this weekend, and request their support of SB 217. The vote will likely come with a substitute amendment. We are working in collaboration with the bill's sponsor Senator Barker as well as advocacy organizations such as Voices for Virginia's Children and Virginia Poverty Law Center.
To contact your Delegate in the Virginia House, please click here; then, insert your address and zip code. You will be able to click on your Delegate's name and send them an email. The message is simple...
"Please support the passage of SB 217 and help children receive their free public education when they are being cared for by relatives. This keeps them out of foster care and reduces reliance on government programs and other benefits."
FOR YOUR INFORMATION...
SB 84...a bill to allow youth 180 days to decide to sign back into foster care after they have signed themselves out.
This bill ended up with a $200,000 fiscal note...this is down from $3.5 million and $400,000. So...good work advocates! UNFORTUNATELY, the bill, though it passed through the Senate Rehabilitation Committee, was tabled in House Appropriations.
We will rise from these ashes next year with this bill plus one to extend foster care to all youth up to age 21. So...stay tuned. There has been lots of legislative support for the policies of the bill...we just have to work out the money issues.
Please send a note to Senator Barbara Favola thanking her for working so hard for kids this session. She is ready to do more next year!
SB 299...a bill to allow local departments to seek a state variance on certain foster home requirements for children being placed in a relative's foster home.
This legislation brings Virginia into compliance with provisions of the federal Fostering Connections Act which allows certain approval criteria, not related to safety, to be waived when agencies are placing children in kinship foster homes. In addition, the bill allows for a variance on certain barrier crimes:
- misdeamnor arson (such as throwing a lit cigarette out and causing a fire) and
- misdeamnor drug possession without intent to distribute.
These convictions must be 10 years old or older for the kinship foster home to get this waiver.
A thank you to the Virginia Crime Commission and Senator Janet Howell for their work on this legislation.
Budget Update...a big thank you to Voices for Virginia's Children on the following update and their work on these budget issues. We are happy to be partners with them in the legislative process.
Mental Health: The Senate included $2.2 million for child psychiatry demonstration projects, fully funding one of the budget amendments for which we were advocating. The House included $1 million for crisis services.
Early Care and Education: The Senate proposed increasing the per-pupil amount in the Virginia Preschool Initiative from $6000 to $6800; the House did not. In the area of home visiting, the Senate restored funding to Healthy Families, but the House did not. Both the House and Senate restored some funds to CHIP of Virginia.
Health: Both the House and Senate funded Medicaid and FAMIS coverage for legal immigrant pregnant women, which will produce better outcomes for babies by providing pre-natal care to moms. Both also restored funding to the so-called “health safety net,” including funding for free health clinics.
CSA and Child Welfare: Both the House and Senate recalculated enrollment trends in CSA, projecting that caseloads will continue to drop, and reduced funding to the program by $17 million over the biennium. The Senate reinvested some of these funds (about $5 million) by restoring funds to wrap-around services for certain CSA children in special education the first year. Only the Senate restored funding for Child Advocacy Centers.
Thanks for everything each of you are doing for children in Virginia!
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