Virginia Senate Bill 1443 of 2023 mandated a study to assess the feasibility and provide recommendations on establishing a statewide Parents Advocacy Commission (PAC) to enhance the quality of legal representation for parents in dependency cases. This study was executed by the Senate Bill 1443 Workgroup in partnership with the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) and leveraged nearly a decade of Virginia’s past efforts and initiatives to improve court-appointed parent legal representation. NCSC gathered resources from state and local offices for parent defense, advocacy groups, departments of social services, judicial offices, and academia, including caseload and compensation standards, parent representation models, attorney qualifications, and funding sources. The study also leveraged data from a variety of regions and localities in Virginia and national best practices, trends, and cost-benefit considerations of providing high-quality legal advocacy for parents to formulate statewide recommendations for enhancing parent representation.

This report includes insights from interviews with various Virginia stakeholder groups, including judges, attorneys, Senate Bill 1443 Workgroup Members, parents with lived experience navigating Virginia's child welfare system, and others. Several themes emerged from these interviews, such as inadequate compensation for court-appointed attorneys (who are the lowest paid among all court-appointed counsel), fewer attorneys available to serve as court appointed counsel, and limited time to prepare parents’ cases. Interviews also pointed to the need for greater engagement with clients and training, standards, and oversight specific to parent representation. The interviews revealed that even the most dedicated attorneys are challenged by these systemic issues, resulting in parents perceiving that they are disadvantaged in child welfare proceedings. These views were not dissimilar to concerns expressed by other system partners, whose insights are documented throughout this report.

NCSC also reviewed Virginia’s most recent child welfare data, examining permanency outcomes for children. The analysis uncovered concerning trends, including an increase in the number of children in foster care, less frequent use of relative/kinship placement, longer stays in foster care, and lower reunification rates compared to other states. Additionally, the data review revealed, neglect, sometimes coexisting with other reasons, is the primary reason that families enter Virginia’s child welfare system. The data also indicates that children of color are overrepresented in foster care compared to the general population. These broader systemic issues are directly related to the issue under study as other states have demonstrated that high quality legal representation can reduce costs long-term while achieving more desirable outcomes for children and families. Effective parent representation, along with other elements of a well-functioning child welfare system, could greatly improve outcomes, disparities and inequities.

This report also includes examples of innovation in high quality parent representation in other states. While these models vary based on existing institutional infrastructure, resources, and needs, they all include some form of oversight to administer training, develop and enforce standards and establish qualifications for parent attorneys. Moreover, certain jurisdictions embrace the principles of multidisciplinary representation, employing a collaborative team approach that integrates a lawyer, social worker, and peer mentor to craft a comprehensive legal strategy. This not only strengthens legal advocacy but also effectively addresses the diverse needs of families.

NCSC recognizes the challenges, financial and systemic, in improving parent representation, and commends the undertaking of the Senate Bill 1443 Workgroup to improve the state of parent representation in the Commonwealth. The following recommendations are proposed to improve not only the quality of legal representation for parents in Virginia, but also outcomes for children and families involved with the child welfare system.

• Establish a Statewide Parent Advocacy Commission (PAC): Create a PAC to oversee, support, and train court-appointed parent counsel to ensure consistent and high-quality representation, elevate the importance and role of parent counsel in dependency cases, and serve as a central hub to address parent concerns.

• Enhance Compensation for Effective Advocacy: Increase compensation for court-appointed parent counsel to enable effective advocacy on behalf of clients.

• Institute Stringent Parent Attorney Qualifications: Establish qualifications for parent attorneys that uphold a high level of expertise and competence.

• Develop Statewide Standards: Advocate for statewide standards of parent representation practice to guide and maintain uniformity in legal representation across the Commonwealth. At a minimum, standards should include expectations around client relationship and contact, case preparation, advocacy inside and outside of court, and follow-up with clients after court hearings.

• Establish Mandatory Training for Parent Attorneys: Mandate specific training for court-appointed parent attorneys to ensure a consistent and high standard of legal representation.

• Pilot Multidisciplinary Representation: Encourage ongoing efforts to pilot multidisciplinary legal representation offices in select jurisdictions to enhance parent advocacy inside and outside of the courtroom.

• Optimize Use of Title IV-E Funds to Support Legal Representation Efforts: Collaborate to propose using Title IV-E funds to support parent representation enhancement efforts both pre- and post-petition filing.