Juvenile & domestic relations district courts

This bill will change and update part of the law in Virginia about young people who have to go to court because they got in trouble, and checking if they have mental health challenges or a disability.

• If this bill passes, it will add a new part to the law that says:

  • If a court finds a young person is in trouble for breaking the law, it may, before making a final decision, have an agency that works for the state check on the young person’s mental health or disability needs using a team with different experts.

    • This team should include professionals who work for state or local offices and are available.

    • The team might also include a family check in and planning team set up under another part of Virginia law.

  • The agency doing the checking in must send a write up of what they find to the right person at the court, called the clerk.

  • The court clerk must provide a copy of this to all lawyers involved at least 72 hours before the court meeting.

    • If new information comes up or things change after the write up is turned in, the agency who did the check in should turn in an update right away and send a copy to everyone who received the first one.

    • If a write up or an update isn't turned in when it should be, the court can delay meetings and decisions to keep the process fair

    • All lawyers who get these write ups should return them to the clerk after the meeting and aren’t allowed to make copies of them or any part of them.

    • The lead judge of the court in each area that sees young people, can come up with other ways to copy and share these write ups or updates.

  • Instead of having a court ask for a mental health or disability check in, the court can look at a write up about the young person written by a team that: 

    • Met in the past 90 days 

    • Worked on this before the court decided the young person was in trouble.