Now that crossover is behind us, many proposals in the 2026 General Assembly have failed, while others are making their way through the process in the other chamber. We are monitoring the progress of the bills that concern juveniles with disabilities who are in juvenile justice facilities.
HB 1293 (Hope) and SB 21 (Locke) both proposed to relocate the Department of Juvenile Justice from the Secretariat of Public Safety to the Secretariat of Health and Human Resources. HB 1293 was continued to 2027 in the House, but SB 21 was approved by the Senate. It now goes to the House, where it is expected to be continued to 2027. Both bills would have created stakeholder groups to develop a timeline for the transfer, with a deadline of November 1, 2026 to submit the plan to the legislature. These bills had the potential to enable better oversight of health and safety concerns. The Senate bill will likely be assigned to the House Committee on Rules, which is where the House counterpart met its fate.
HB 91 (Seibold) limits the use of room confinement in juvenile justice facilities. The bill requires the development of standards to maximize the amount of time a juvenile in detention spends outside of their room. Given the documented harms of isolation on young people, especially those with disabilities and trauma histories, dLCV joins with others in the legal justice community in supporting this important development. The bill was approved by the House. It now moves to the Senate Committee on Rehabilitation and Social Services, and may be heard possibly as early as this Friday.
SB 469 (Marden) would have changed the funding formula for teacher allocation in regional and local detention centers. Although the language of the bill seemed to improve the student to teacher ratio, there were concerns in the community that the actual effect will be to reduce the number of teachers for children with disabilities. The bill was approved by the Senate Committee on Rehabilitation and Social Services, but sent to the Committee on Finance, where it died.
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. Please let us know of any legislation that you think we should be following, by emailing us at ga@dlcv.org