Conservative estimates indicate that there are 21,500 emotionally disturbed children of school age in this State. Services for these children, such as diagnosis, treatment, training and education, are provided by various State agencies and private organizations and institutions. However, such services are not uniformly available throughout the State. Recognizing the increasing gravity of this problem, as well as the apparently increasing number of children suffering from such disturbances, the General Assembly of Virginia at its 1968 Regular Session adopted House Joint Resolution No. 29 directing the Virginia Advisory Legislative Council to study this problem and recommend any necessary changes in the programs and services for these children and the laws relative thereto.

The Council selected Edward E. Willey of the City of Richmond, a member of the Senate of Virginia and a member of the Council, as Chairman of a Committee to make the initial study and report to it. Selected to serve with Senator Willey were the following: Dr. Cletus A. Cole, Professor of Psychology, Old Dominion University, Norfolk; Mrs. W. Hamilton Crockford, III, a member of the School Board of the City of Richmond; H. D. Dawbarn, a manufacturer and member of the Senate of Virginia, Waynesboro; Alan A. Diamonstein, Attorney at Law and a member of the House of Delegates, Newport News; Miss Dorothy L. Gibboney, Superintendent of Schools for the City of Roanoke at the time of the initiation of this study and recently retired; T. L. Hutton, Jr., Judge of the County Court of Washington County, Abingdon; Edward E. Lane, a member of the Council, and a member of the House of Delegates, Richmond; Mrs. Dorothy S. McDiarmid, Realtor and a member of the House of Delegates, Vienna; Dr. John A. Murray, Physician, Franklin; Dr. Douglas Powers, Director of the Virginia Treatment Center for Children, Richmond; Douglas Prillaman, Supervisor of Special Education for Arlington County at the time of the initiation of this study and now Associate Professor, School of Education, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg; Elmore E. Rainey, Principal of Peabody High School, Petersburg; Herbert G. Ross, Director of the Department of Public Welfare of the City of Richmond; Mrs. William A. Stuart, Jr., Rosedale; and Dr. William Thurman, Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville.

The Committee met and organized. Mr. Lane was elected Vice-Chairman. The Division of Statutory Research and Drafting, represented by Wildman S. Kincheloe; Jr., served as staff for the Committee.

The Committee made several tours of various types of institutions and agencies which provide services for emotionally disturbed children. The members of the staffs of these installations were most cooperative and, in conducting these tours, thoroughly briefed the members of the Committee concerning the programs of such installations. The installations so visited are: Thirteen Acres School, in the City of Richmond, which conducts classes for emotionally disturbed children, drawn from other city schools in the area of this school; the special classes for such children in the Pinchbeck Elementary School, Henrico County; the Virginia Treatment Center for Children; the new Bon Air Diagnostic Center of the Department of Welfare and Institutions; the Edgemeade School, Upper Marlboro, Maryland, a private school for emotionally disturbed children; and Fairfax House, a facility for such children established, maintained and operated by Fairfax County.

The Committee also held a public hearing in the State Capitol. This hearing was given very wide publicity, and the attendance amounted to a "full house." All areas of the State were represented by the many persons who addressed the Committee on this occasion. The speakers included interested private citizens, representatives of State and local groups concerned with this problem, and officials and employees of State departments and agencies and local public school systems. The speakers made many valuable suggestions and presented to the Committee much pertinent information.

The Committee met, and discussed and considered the recommendations and suggestions which had been made to it, and the information, facts and material which had been presented to it, and made its Report to the Council. Having reviewed that Report, the Council now makes its Report.