The Commission on Youth held its final meeting of 2025 on December 2, revisiting the subject of its first meeting of the year – concerns about conditions at the Bon Air Juvenile Correctional Facility – and discussing several other issues related to the child welfare system.
Juvenile justice: The Commission had convened a small workgroup this spring following an initial presentation from the Department of Juvenile Justice about issues at Bon Air, and Commission members endorsed the group’s recommendations at the December 2 meeting. These recommendations included:
- Clarifying that a court has the authority to refer a delinquency charge back to the Court Services Unit intake officer for diversion at any point prior to the commencement of an adjudication hearing (with the concurrence of the juvenile and the Commonwealth’s Attorney, if the prosecutor is a party to the case).
- For juveniles who are committed to the Department for an indeterminate length of stay, requiring the Department of Juvenile Justice to petition the court if it determines that a juvenile’s length of stay should be longer than the Board of Juvenile Justice’s estimated length of stay guidelines.
- Directing the Commission on Youth to work with the Office of the Children’s Ombudsman to determine what changes would be necessary to expand the Office’s jurisdiction to include juveniles committed to the Department of Juvenile Justice.
- Directing the Department of Juvenile Justice to convene a workgroup to develop clear standards for maximizing out-of-room time for committed youth and minimizing reliance on room confinement.
- Hiring two additional employees to provide mental health services for juveniles at Bon Air.
The Commission had also sent a letter to the Governor requesting an investigation of conditions at Bon Air, which was conducted by the Office of the State Inspector General; a report was released late last week.
Office of the Children’s Ombudsman Annual Report: Eric Reynolds, Director of the Office of the Children’s Ombudsman, presented an overview of the Office’s annual report. The Office is empowered to protect the rights of children receiving child protective services, in foster care, or placed for adoption; review child-serving agencies’ policies and make recommendations for improvement; investigate administrative actions by child serving agencies, including the Virginia Department of Social Services and local departments of social services; and investigate child fatalities due to abuse.
Mr. Reynolds outlined several findings in the annual report, including local departments’ lack of participation in multidisciplinary teams that are intended to ensure a coordinated response to a report of abuse; deficiencies in local departments’ follow-up with mandated reporters of abuse; problems with transferring cases between local departments; and a lack of engagement with fathers in child protective services (CPS) cases.
The report includes a series of recommendations, including:
- Improving support for the local child welfare workforce, to include providing competitive salaries for child welfare workers and parity across departments to avoid employees leaving one department for better pay at another; reinstating in-person training for local department staff; funding workforce supports, including a peer support line and on-site crisis response after critical incidents; creating a state pool of emergency CPS and foster care workers to assist short-staffed local departments with timely responses to CPS reports; and authorizing more consolidation of local departments in order to pool resources.
- Centralizing the intake system for CPS referrals so that the Virginia Department of Social Services would receive referrals and make validity determinations (with the exception of local departments with dedicated intake staff and processes that meet state standards).
- Requiring local departments to respond to CPS reports within 24 hours of receipt if the child is younger than three years old (this response time currently applies to children younger than two).
- Improving efforts to address parental substance use, such as implementation of Plans of Safe Care (which are plans to be followed when a CPS report is received alleging a child has been born substance-exposed, ensuring that the baby is safe and the family receives supportive services) and training for professionals and agencies that work with families.
- Strengthening state oversight over local administration by allowing the Commissioner of Social Services to issue corrective action plans and temporarily assume control over a local department’s administration of CPS when a local department fails to provide services and considering the creation of a process for the Commissioner to remove local directors for failure to properly administer social services programs.
- Improving legal representation in child welfare cases.
- Establishing a permanent Children’s Cabinet that would coordinate among executive branch agencies.
The full report may be found at this link.
Petitions for Relief of Custody: Commission members also received a staff briefing on the recommendations of a workgroup reviewing certain issues related to petitions for relief of custody. Virginia Code allows parents to petition a court to be relieved of their responsibility for care and custody of a child; 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.
This workgroup was convened as part of legislation that resulted from a 2024 Commission study, and was directed to determine the factors a court should consider in granting a petition for relief of care and custody of a child. The workgroup was also directed to explore raising the standard of evidence for granting temporary relief of custody from the current standard of “preponderance of the evidence” to “clear and convincing evidence,” but recommended against changing this standard. The workgroup recommended updating educational materials for judges to include several factors to consider in granting such a petition, including safety concerns, services being provided to the child, and the extent to which alternative remedies are available. The workgroup also recommended clarifying the statute that allows such a petition to be filed to allow a custodian to petition, as well as a parent, and recommended requiring petitioners to cooperate with services offered by the local department of social services. The Commission endorsed the workgroup’s recommendations.
Commission research on youth mental health needs: The Commission also received a briefing on the most recent update to the Collection of Evidence-based Practices for Children and Adolescents with Mental Health Treatment Needs, which is a resource guide for parents, caregivers, and providers that helps families and clinicians make informed choices. This edition contains a new section on the effects of social media on youth mental health, among other updates.
VACo Contact: Katie Boyle