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Bill Explainer: SB 56 – Foster Care Prevention Program (Senator Favola)

  • Child Welfare
  • Family Economic Security
  • State Advocacy

By Allison Gilbreath

Senator Favola, Chair of the Senate Committee on Rehabilitation and Social Services, has introduced SB 56 to create a foster care prevention program in Virginia. The purpose of the program is to facilitate placements with relatives and ensure that these relatives are provided with the resources necessary to care for the children. Virginia has significantly increased kinship placements in the past few years, going from 5 percent of overall placements in 2016 to 18 percent in 2021 with the national average being around 30 percent. These increased placements have occurred because of several advancements such as, the creation of the kinship guardianship assistance program, creation of a kinship only TANF financial assistance fund, and kin first guidance from the Virginia Department of Social Services. The bill passed unanimously out of committee and is now waiting to be picked up in Senate Finance where the financial impact of the bill will be reviewed.

The bill would do the following:

*For purposes of this section, “relative” means an adult who is either related to the child by blood, marriage, adoption or fictive kin of the child.*

How to Show Your Support

While we await the estimated cost of the program to be generated, we want to make sure legislators know individuals are in support of the proposed program.

Complete this action alert and add your custom message to urge support for SB 56. 


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