Dear Courts of Justice Committee Members, I'm encouraged to see HB 775 successfully advance from subcommittee, and I urge you to support its passage through the full Committee for Courts of Justice. As someone deeply involved in community service and as a foster grandparent myself, I see firsthand how a fair and transparent child welfare system impacts Virginia families. HB 775 provides the clarity and protections that ensure families are treated with dignity and connected to the services they need. This bill represents meaningful progress for our Commonwealth. I hope I can count on your support. Thank you for your service to Virginia. Sincerely, Michael J. Meese, BG, US Army (retired) Oak Hill, VA

Virginia HB775 is an important and overdue step toward improving outcomes for children and families involved in our child welfare system. I work in support of child welfare professionals nationwide, helping them safely reconnect children with their family and kin. It’s heartbreaking to see that my own state of Virginia consistently ranks among the worst states for our low rates of family reunification and high rates of youth aging out of foster care without a permanent family. The reason I work to keep kids connected to their important people is that strong relational health is the key to all the other outcomes we seek - safe, healthy, thriving individuals, families, and communities. When we separate children from their families unnecessarily or for longer than needed, we unravel the fabric we need for the healthy Virginia we all want. Youth who age out of care experience higher rates of homelessness, incarceration, unemployment, trafficking victimization and reliance on public assistance, creating long-term fiscal and social costs that far exceed the cost of effective family preservation and reunification efforts. HB775 addresses a foundational problem contributing to these outcomes: Virginia law requires “reasonable efforts” but does not define what that means. This lack of clarity undermines consistency, fairness, and accountability — for families, social workers, attorneys, and judges alike. States that define “reasonable efforts” provide clearer guidance to professionals, more predictable expectations for families, and a stronger framework for judicial and operational decision-making. Clearer, consistent decision-making saves taxpayer funds. Concerns that HB775 could jeopardize federal Title IV-E funding are unfounded and not supported by evidence. In fact, the federal government has been encouraging just the kind of step that HB775 takes. If the concern is actually that fewer children in foster care could reduce federal per-child reimbursements, that is a deeply troubling incentive structure to defend. Public policy should never prioritize maintaining higher foster care rolls over improving outcomes for children and families. Moreover, the long-term economic benefits to Virginia of increased reunification and fewer youth aging out of care — including reduced homelessness, incarceration, and public assistance — far exceed any marginal reduction in federal reimbursement tied to keeping children in care. If concerns about federal funding, or about the modest actions needed to implement these much needed changes are being raised, it is fair to ask whether those concerns reflect the actual best interest of Virginia’s children and families — or whether they reflect resistance to increased clarity, accountability, and consistency in practice. HB775 strengthens Virginia’s child welfare system by aligning law with best practice, improving outcomes for children and families, and protecting taxpayers from the far greater costs of poor relational health for our youth. I urge the committee to support its passage.

Dear Delegate Sullivan, I urge your support of HB775. These common sense changes will further protect children in the child welfare system by strengthening fairness and clarity in child welfare proceedings. It will help ensure families get appropriate consideration and services. And it will help to overall strengthen Virginia communities. Thank you for your attention to this important issue. Sincerely, Jane Duffield Falls Church, Fairfax County

We need to fix the foster care system and connect our kids has developed a great way to help social workers be so much more efficient and effective. Given the political polarization, this should be one topic that is bipartisan. Unfortunately, progress is stalled by bureaucracy. We hope HB775 can push through and accelerate this important need.

My name is Tara Goodrich, and I am in support of HB775. I am an MSW student at VCU, the mother of six children, who have fostered nine children, and taught History at a residential treatment center for boys who were unable to live in a family home. I have been a licensed foster parent in 3 states. I am also the mother of a 9-year-old whom I adopted from foster care just before his second birthday. From my own experience of children of all ages coming to my home, there were many times when I wondered if the cost of foster care was worth it. When young children were separated from their families, I witnessed regression in physical development, social development, and emotional health. I witnessed a 3 year old go mute after being dropped off at my home and a 15 year old girl with Autism loose bladder function. The recovery process from the trauma of separation is long and can last into adulthood for many children. At 9.5 years old, my own adoptive son still struggles with being on a different floor in our home from his siblings. He struggles with being left at a birthday party, or for many years, he feared being left at school, wondering if I would return to pick him up. Recently, my husband started working out of town, due to the trauma of a primary caregiver leaving the house frequently, my son started struggling with nighttime wetting. Despite all the hours of therapy and reassurance, the trauma still exists. The reason I support SB775 is that I have seen the fallout of foster care. One of the highlights of my son's life is the times he has contact with his birth mother and birth grandfather. Over the years, I reviewed his case and wondered if things could have been different for my son if reasonable efforts had been made to support his mother. Regular visits would have helped prevent a disturbed attachment, and financial and mental health services would have helped her maintain housing. Job training would have helped her become independent from her abusers and freed her to make meaningful choices in her life. I witnessed family separation due to poverty, not due to intentional neglect. I witnessed this with some of the other children in my care as well. The consequences of not defining reasonable efforts are far-reaching and lifelong for children. In many cases, these children would have stayed in the home and kept their attachment. The permanent separation of families should be a last resort. Therefore, I support this bill in defining reasonable efforts, so the system better supports reunification for families.

I support HB775 to improve foster care. HB775 will, for the first time, provide a definition of "reasonable efforts" under Virginia law. While many other states define "reasonable efforts," Virginia's failure to do so leads to poor outcomes for children and families: different agencies and different courts interpret it differently WHY? ◦ Our permanency rates are among the worst in the country: ▪ Virginia family reunification rate is THE worst in the country: 27% vs 45% (national average) ▪ Virginia “aging out” rate without finding a permanent family is THE worst in the country: 20% vs 8%(national average). ▪ Other states have defined “reasonable efforts” to address these problems. They have not seen loss of federal funds, only improvements in their systems. ▪ Court proceedings are often rushed, confusing, and without sufficient evidence regarding whether the right efforts have been made to help them.  HB775 would improve court proceedings and give judges more information to make decisions about a child's future. Who suffers? 1: Families suffer: those receiving a substantial “efforts” do well; others, receiving minimal efforts, do not. • Unequal treatment: Lack of standards means some families get the supports they need; others are separated permanently without meaningful help     2. Children suffer: Without the right supports, many children age out of the system, with lifelong harmful impacts. • Virginia’s children at a disadvantage: Children separated from their families struggle as adults with housing, jobs, income, and their physical and mental health. The solutions in HB775: 1: Creates a definition of “reasonable efforts.” This will make it more likely that all children and families across the Commonwealth receive a similar level of services and supports, and improve our terrible statistics. 2: The definition gives the local agency AND the court a “benchmark” to assess what supports should be provided—and if they were. 3: Court proceedings: provides protections for families in court, ensuring timely access to evidence; requires courts to fully consider the level of services to the family before terminating the family relationship. 4: Ensures rights of immigrant parents who are detained are not terminated if there's a chance they can be reunited with their child

Thank you for the opportunity to comment and express my full support of House Bill 775. I am a resident of Fairfax county and a national child welfare expert providing consultation to federal and state child welfare organizations. I formerly worked for over a decade at the U.S. Administration for Children, Youth and Families in the Children’s Bureau, evaluating state performance through the federal Child and Family Services Reviews. I have worked in the field of child welfare for 25 years and have direct experience in Virginia’s foster care system as a foster parent and a parent advocate. HB775 is a critical step toward a more effective and just child welfare system in our state. Currently, Virginia produces some of the worst outcomes for children in foster care in the nation and this can be directly tied to the lack of reasonable efforts that are made in working with families to prevent unnecessary foster care entries and to achieve reunification when foster care is necessary for child safety. This is evidenced by Virginia’s 2023 quality assurance data*, reported to the federal government just last year. The data indicates ongoing concerns with achieving the standards for reasonable efforts proposed in this bill; standards that are fully consistent with federal law and best practice: 1. In only 70% of cases reviewed, adequate services were provided to protect child(ren) in the home and prevent removal or re-entry into foster care. 2. In only 60% of cases reviewed, children had adequate visits with parents and siblings. 3. In only 62% of cases reviewed, concerted efforts were made to promote, support, and/or maintain positive relationships between the child in foster care and his or her parents/caregivers. 4. In only 62% of cases, parents had their needs adequately assessed and were provided with needed services. 5. In only 66% of cases children and parents were adequately engaged in case planning. 6. In only 63% of cases, parents had adequate visitation by their caseworker. *Source: https://www.dss.virginia.gov/files/division/dfs/cfs/CFSP_2025-2029/Virginia_CFSP_2025-2029-Final.pdf The data is very clear that Virginia is struggling to meet the practice standards that HB775 outlines and without the additional accountability this law would provide, children and families will continue to suffer. As a former federal employee who determined state eligibility for funding, I can assure you that this bill poses no risk to the state for losing federal funding. On the contrary, the federal gov. has been urging states to apply these standards because of the significant impact they have on child well-being . As a parent advocate, I want to give voice to the thousands of parents who would be impacted by this bill. Parents have no recourse when they are treated unjustly, and when standards aren’t met. And the stakes are so high for them: they have their children to lose. I have witnessed this personally as I’ve advocated for children to be reunified when they never should have been removed to begin with. Children deserve to live safely with their own families. Parents deserve to get the services and support they need to safely parent. By clearly defining reasonable efforts in HB775, Virginia is taking a bold step in demonstrating that we value justice for children and families and that we will do what it takes to keep families safely together. Thank you for the opportunity to comment.

As a long-time resident of Fairfax County and an active member of our community, I'm writing to respectfully urge you to support HB 775. As a grandparent of foster children, I witness regularly how critical it is that our child welfare system operates with both fairness and clarity. The families we serve need more than just process—they need a system that truly considers their circumstances and connects them with appropriate services that can make a real difference. HB 775 provides exactly that framework. It strengthens protections for families while ensuring our child welfare proceedings are transparent and effective. When we support Virginia's most vulnerable families, we're not just helping individuals—we're building stronger, more resilient communities across the Commonwealth. I've seen what happens when systems work well and when they fall short. This bill moves us in the right direction, and I urge the committee to favorably adopt it. Thank you for your service to Virginia and for considering this important legislation. Sincerely, Michael J. Meese Oak Hill, VA

Virginia HB775 is an important and overdue step toward improving outcomes for children and families involved in our child welfare system. Virginia consistently ranks among the worst states nationally on two critical indicators: low rates of family reunification and high rates of youth aging out of foster care without a permanent family. According to federal data, Virginia reunifies children at significantly lower rates than the national average and has one of the highest proportions of foster youth exiting care through aging out. Low reunification and high aging-out rates are not just harmful to children and families — they are bad for Virginia. Youth who age out of care experience higher rates of homelessness, incarceration, unemployment, trafficking victimization and reliance on public assistance, creating long-term fiscal and social costs that far exceed the cost of effective family preservation and reunification efforts. HB775 addresses a foundational problem contributing to these outcomes: Virginia law requires “reasonable efforts” but does not define what that means. This lack of clarity undermines consistency, fairness, and accountability — for families, social workers, attorneys, and judges alike. States that define “reasonable efforts” provide clearer guidance to professionals, more predictable expectations for families, and a stronger framework for judicial and operational decision-making. Clearer, consistent decision-making saves taxpayer funds. Precise definitions support better case planning, improve court oversight, reduce unnecessary removals, and increase the likelihood of safe reunification — benefiting children, parents, extended families, foster caregivers, communities, and the professionals tasked with making life-altering decisions under intense pressure. Concerns that HB775 could jeopardize federal Title IV-E funding are not supported by evidence. Federal law does not punish states that define “reasonable efforts”; in fact, many states already do. Title IV-E reviews focus on whether reasonable efforts findings are made and documented in individual cases — something that will show Virginia’s professional and ethical approach to child safety. When issues are identified in federal reviews, states are given opportunities to correct deficiencies, and funding is not automatically or permanently lost. If the concern is that fewer children in foster care could reduce federal per-child reimbursements, that is a deeply troubling incentive structure to defend. Public policy should never prioritize maintaining higher foster care rolls over improving outcomes for children and families. Moreover, the long-term economic benefits to Virginia of increased reunification and fewer youth aging out of care — including reduced homelessness, incarceration, and public assistance — far exceed any marginal reduction in federal reimbursement tied to keeping children in care. If concerns about federal funding are being raised, it is fair to ask whether those concerns reflect a full understanding of how Title IV-E actually operates — or whether they reflect resistance to increased clarity, accountability, and consistency in practice. HB775 strengthens Virginia’s child welfare system by aligning law with best practice, improving outcomes for children and families, and protecting taxpayers from the far greater costs of poor relational health for our youth. I urge the committee to support its passage.

Voices for Virginia's Children supports HB775, which makes critical reforms to Virginia's child welfare system by strengthening family preservation, protecting tribal sovereignty, and ensuring poverty is not treated as neglect. This bill recognizes what research has long shown: too often, child welfare involvement reflects economic hardship rather than parental unfitness, and separating children from loving families causes lasting harm. HB775 moves Virginia toward a child welfare system that supports families. We urge you to support HB 775.