More than 2000 bills have been filed in this legislative session. The disAbility Law Center of Virginia is looking for volunteers to review and identify any legislation that might impact people with disabilities. If you are interested in serving as a Bill Reviewer, please email ga@dlcv.org with “Bill Reviewer” in the subject line. A member of our team will follow up with the next steps.
The disAbility Law Center of Virginia has a special program, under the Social Security Administration, to review selected representative payees of recipients of social security, to be sure they are complying with their responsibilities to the person with a disability who should benefit from the social security payments. In the course of our reviews, we discovered serious problems when children in foster care should be receiving federal payments, as well as other problems in foster care.
The most significant problem we have identified is that when children with disabilities age out of the foster care system, they find themselves suddenly with no resources, no safety net, and often no planning for their future, regardless of their entitlement to federal benefits.
HB 578 (Glass) establishes stronger oversight of local social services agencies when they are acting as representative payee, and requires those local social services to apply for federal benefits when a child is eligible. The bill requires that federal benefits be placed in trust accounts for use when the child ages out of the foster care system. A similar bill was introduced two years ago, but failed because of the expense. The bill has been assigned to the Social Services subcommittee of House Committee on Health and Human Services: it will probably be heard this Thursday.
Senator Favola has asked for an amendment to the state budget that would also address this problem. Her proposed amendment states: The Board of Social Services shall amend its regulations by July 1, 2027, to require local DSS agencies to apply for federal disability and death benefits on behalf of eligible foster youth; prohibit use of those benefits to cover state foster care costs; require benefits to be conserved in a trust and available to the youth upon exiting the system; and provide guidance to the youth on continued access to entitled federal benefits.
Some other bills that would affect foster care services include:
HB 76 (Keys-Gamarra) asks the Department of Social Services to have a supply of new luggage to be used to transport the personal belongings of a child in foster care. A similar bill failed last year because of the expenses associated. The administration estimates that it would cost nearly a million dollars to comply. The Bill has been assigned to the Social Services subcommittee of the House Committee on Health and Human Services and will probably be heard this Thursday.
HB 1174 (Carroll) increases the supplemental clothing allowance for children in foster care by 30%. The bill has been assigned to the Social Services subcommittee of the House Committee on Health and Human Services and will probably be heard this Thursday.
Our mission is to advance independence, choice and self-determination; protect legal, human and civil rights; and eliminate abuse, neglect and discrimination of people with disabilities through zealous and uncompromising legal advocacy and representation. We are available to educate policy makers about the potential impact of legislative proposals.