Virginia
VIRGINIA
Alice F. Koenig
Program Consultant
Child Protective Services
Virginia Department of Social Services
730 East Broad Street
Richmond, VA 23219
(804) 692-1169
(804) 692-2215 Fax
afk2@dss.state.va.us
Item 1.1: These programs and related statistics are operated out of five different divisions spanning two separate departments, Social Services and Health. No statistics are currently computer-maintained. All statistics are maintained on a State fiscal year basis because of mandated reporting to funding sources.
Item 2.1: Prior to January 1, 1998, no record or count of screened out reports was maintained. Beginning January 1, 1998, all invalid reports are held for 1 year.
Item 2.2: "Other" includes military personnel (259).
Item 2.3: "Other" includes 51 assessments pending and 9 cases at intake. The numbers of "Intentionally False Allegations" investigations cannot be provided once the number of children with such dispositions has been deleted from the system.
Item 4.1: "Medical Neglect" occurs when there is a failure by the caretaker to obtain and/or follow through with a complete regimen of medical, mental, or dental care for a condition which, if untreated, could result in illness or developmental delays. "Medical Neglect" also includes failure to thrive (23). "Other" includes bizarre discipline (109) and educational neglect (68).
Item 4.5: "Other" includes biracial (389) and Hispanic (378).
Item 4.9: All children in Family Court are appointed a guardian ad litem, however, neither the courts nor DSS have kept these records. The number of children with Court-Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) in the State fiscal year is reported.
Item 4.10: No records have been kept of these contacts by guardians ad litem or CASA. The total number of out-of-court contact hours is 112,035, or an average of 33 hours per child.
Item 6.1: In Virginia, only caretakers are investigated for child abuse/neglect. Noncaretakers would be handled by law enforcement if a crime were committed. School personnel would be considered caretakers if abuse/neglect occurred while they were responsible for the supervision of the child.
Item 7.1: Virginia is State-supervised and locally administered. These data, which include all CPS workers, are available only through random moment sampling for a calendar year.
Item 7.3: Virginia does not have priority standards or categories.
