republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2017/hb-2215.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Adoption assistance; children with special needs."
description: "Moves the requirement that a child be a citizen or legal resident of the United States from the definition of \"child with special needs\" to the eligibility criteria for the adoptive parents of such child to receive adoption assistance. The bill modifies the exception to the eligibility requirement that efforts be made to place the child in an adoptive home without the provision of adoption assistance to include consideration of the child's best interest due to factors such as the child's development of significant emotional ties with his foster parents while in their care, provided that the foster parents wish to adopt the child. Under current law, the exception is limited to situations in which the child has developed emotional ties with his foster parents and the foster parents wish to adopt the child. The bill modifies other requirements for a child with special needs to receive certain types of adoption assistance and for a child who is between the ages of 18 and 21 to receive adoption assistance. The bill also provides that a representative of the Department of Social Services shall negotiate all adoption assistance agreements with both existing and prospective adoptive parents on behalf of local departments of social services."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "HB 2215"
citation: "Virginia HB 2215 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Minors", "Welfare (Social Services)"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["David J. Toscano"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 15
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2017-01-11"
last_action: "2017-02-23"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/8b0efb7e-1623-4672-9bea-35c0394c03d2"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+sum+HB2215"
source_hash: "98ce18c68c5a50a7fff360859411598377915bec9047af206d03d418b03dd608"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia HB 2215 (2017) — Adoption assistance; children with special needs.

Moves the requirement that a child be a citizen or legal resident of the United States from the definition of "child with special needs" to the eligibility criteria for the adoptive parents of such child to receive adoption assistance. The bill modifies the exception to the eligibility requirement that efforts be made to place the child in an adoptive home without the provision of adoption assistance to include consideration of the child's best interest due to factors such as the child's development of significant emotional ties with his foster parents while in their care, provided that the foster parents wish to adopt the child. Under current law, the exception is limited to situations in which the child has developed emotional ties with his foster parents and the foster parents wish to adopt the child. The bill modifies other requirements for a child with special needs to receive certain types of adoption assistance and for a child who is between the ages of 18 and 21 to receive adoption assistance. The bill also provides that a representative of the Department of Social Services shall negotiate all adoption assistance agreements with both existing and prospective adoptive parents on behalf of local departments of social services.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0199)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+CHAP0199)
2. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB2215ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB2215ER)
3. **House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17101365D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB2215)

## Votes

- Constitutional reading dispensed — **39–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Health, Welfare and Institutions — **22–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **97–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Rehabilitation and Social Services — **15–0** (pass) · legislature
- Subcommittee recommends reporting — **5–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- David J. Toscano — primary (person)
- John J. Bell — cosponsor (person)
- R. Steven Landes — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-01-11** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17101365D `introduction`
- **2017-01-11** Referred to Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-17** Assigned HWI sub: Subcommittee #3 `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-03** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2017-02-06** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2017-02-07** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (97-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2017-02-08** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2017-02-08** Referred to Committee on Rehabilitation and Social Services `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-14** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2017-02-16** Enrolled
- **2017-02-16** Signed by Speaker
- **2017-02-17** Signed by President
- **2017-02-17** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on 2/17/17
- **2017-02-17** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, February 24, 2017
- **2017-02-23** Approved by Governor-Chapter 199 (effective 7/1/17) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/8b0efb7e-1623-4672-9bea-35c0394c03d2`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).