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VA HB775
Bill
Status
Introduced
1/13/2026
Primary Sponsor
Virgil Thornton
Click for details
AI Summary
- Requires petitioners to provide evidence to parents or guardians at least 24 hours prior to removal hearings in child abuse or neglect cases
- Establishes a comprehensive statutory definition of "reasonable efforts" for family reunification, including conducting assessments focused on safe reunification, identifying appropriate services, addressing financial barriers, facilitating regular visitation, and providing post-reunification services
- Mandates visitation between children in foster care and incarcerated parents unless the parent was incarcerated for harming the child or other parent, or visitation would endanger the child
- Requires courts to consider whether child support payments may interfere with a parent's ability to comply with reunification services or case plans before ordering such payments
- Adds parent abandonment as a separate ground (alongside prior termination of sibling's parental rights, violent felony convictions, and aggravated circumstances) for exempting agencies from the requirement to make reasonable reunification efforts
Legislative Description
Removal hearings; foster care, termination of parental rights, status as an Indian child, etc.
Last Action
Left in Committee Appropriations
2/18/2026
Committee Referrals
Appropriations2/18/2026
Appropriations: Health & Human Resources2/5/2026
Appropriations2/4/2026
Courts of Justice: Civil1/26/2026
Courts of Justice1/13/2026
Full Bill Text
No bill text available