Pursuant to the Code of Virginia, the Children’s Ombudsman is required to submit to the Governor, the General Assembly, and the Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Social Services an Annual Report “on the Ombudsman’s activities, including any recommendations regarding the need for legislation or for a change in rules or policies." This Annual Report covers our work during State Fiscal Year 2026, which began on July 1, 2025, and ended on June 30, 2026.

Complaints and Investigations. In FY2026, the OCO received 853 complaints, an 83% increase over FY2025. Of Virginia’s 120 local departments of social services, 106 were the subject of the complaints we received.

The OCO initiated 18 formal investigations of complaints received in FY2026 or earlier. The most common practice issues that we identified in our case reviews and investigations included:

• Decisions regarding the validation of CPS reports and differential response (i.e. whether a CPS Investigation or Family Assessment is opened in response to a CPS report) were inconsistent with state law, regulation, or policy;

• CPS Investigations and Family Assessments were not conducted in accordance with state law, regulation, or policy;

• Parental Child Safety Placement Program practices and decisions were inconsistent with state law.

• Changes in foster care placements and decisions regarding the permanency placements for children in foster care were arbitrary and inconsistent with state law or policy; and

• Case documentation was not in accordance with state law, regulation, or policy.

Child Fatalities. Pursuant to subsection B of Virginia Code § 2.2-443, the OCO may investigate child fatality cases that occurred or are alleged to have occurred due to child abuse or child neglect, and the family had recent prior involvement with child protective services or foster care. In FY2026, the OCO received 64 notifications of such child fatalities, a 31% increase over the 49 notifications we received in FY2025.

• Thirty-five of the 64 children (55%) were aged 6 months or younger. Thirty-two children (50%) were reported as Black, 28 children were reported as White, and three were reported as Multi-race.

• Unsafe sleep practices or conditions were reported for 26 children (41%).

• In 36 cases (56%), the children’s parents or caregivers were reported to have had a history of substance use, including at the time of the child’s death. All but one of these children were younger than 5 years of age. The substances most frequently reported to be used by parents in these cases were cannabis, cocaine, alcohol, methamphetamine, fentanyl, and medicine assisted treatment prescriptions (e.g. Suboxone, Methadone, and Subutex).

• Eighteen children (28%) were reported as being born substance exposed. The most reported substances to which children were prenatally exposed were cannabis, medicine assisted treatment prescriptions, cocaine, fentanyl, and methamphetamine.

• In 26 cases (41%), the family had a history of experiencing incidents of domestic violence.

• In 13 cases (20%), the parents were reported to have had untreated or undertreated mental health conditions.

Recommendations for System Improvement.

1. Workforce Support.

Many local departments of social services continue to have difficulty attracting, hiring, and retaining qualified family service specialists. We recommend that the Virginia Department of Social Service take the following actions to support local departments’ workforce:

a. Reinstitute in-person training for local department staff and launch its planned Training Academy; and

b. Create a state pool of emergency family services specialists to be deployed to understaffed agencies until they are able to become fully staffed.

2. Child Protection Services (CPS).

We recommend that state leaders and policy makers consider the following actions to improve the provision of child protective services:

a. Amend state laws, regulations, and policies to establish more robust protocols for the resolution of disputes among local departments regarding the jurisdiction to receive and respond to CPS reports;

b. Amend state law governing the factors to be considered when validating CPS reports to include prior CPS history;

c. Amend state laws, regulations, and policies to provide for the publication of information about child abuse and neglect cases that result in a child fatality or near fatality in accordance with federal law;

d. Appropriate sufficient funds to expand the capacity and availability of Child Advocacy Centers to serve more localities within the Commonwealth; and

e. Amend regulations governing the Parental Child Safety Placement Program to address implementation challenges and inconsistencies.

3. Foster Care.

We recommend state leaders and policy makers consider the following actions to improve the provision of foster care services:

a. Appropriate sufficient funds to expand the availability of Family Recovery Courts;

b. Amend state law to provide for court review of local departments’ decisions for the placement of children in foster care; and

c. Appropriate sufficient funding to expand the availability of Enhanced Therapeutic Foster Care resource families and Sponsored Residential homes for children in foster care having high acuity behavioral or mental health needs.

4. Establishment of a Permanent Children’s Cabinet.

Issues affecting children have gotten much more complex in recent years. An effective statewide response requires coordinated efforts by multiple executive branch agencies across administration secretariats to ensure that laws, regulations, and policies reflect the shared goal of keeping Virginia’s children and youth on track developmentally, educationally, socially, and emotionally. We recommend that state leaders and policy makers consider establishing a permanent Children’s Cabinet in statute.

5. Cannabis Retail Market - Child Safety Measures.

Parental use of cannabis continues to be a common thread among increasing numbers of cases involving the deaths of the youngest and most vulnerable children. With cannabis use expected to increase due to the legalization of a recreational use retail market beginning in 2027, state leaders and policy makers should consider establishing and implementing measures to mitigate the harmful effects cannabis has on the health and well-being of Virginia’s children, including:

• Regulations regarding product packaging and marketing;

• Effective enforcement of laws and regulations prohibiting under-age use of cannabis and the sale of cannabis products to under-age individuals;

• Regulations establishing limits on the concentration of THC in cannabis products;

• Penalties for parents and caregivers causing or allowing access by children to cannabis and cannabis products, and for parenting while impaired by cannabis use;

• Regulations requiring the collection, evaluation, and publication of data and outcomes related to the impacts of legalized recreational use of cannabis on the health and mental health of children and families;

• Establishment of reliable measures to determine impairment.

• Funding to increase capacity to provide substance use treatment, mental health services, child protective services, and community-based resources for families; and

• Funding for educational campaigns for children and families about the short- and long-term harms caused by cannabis consumption.