republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2019/hb-2597.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Child abuse and neglect; victims of sex trafficking, etc."
description: "Requires a local department of social services to conduct a sex trafficking assessment upon receiving a complaint of suspected child abuse that is based upon information and allegations that a child is a victim of sex trafficking, provided that the local department has not determined that a separate investigation or family assessment is required. The bill also allows a child-protective services worker of a local department responding to such complaint to take the child victim into custody and allows the local department to maintain custody of the child for up to 72 hours without prior approval of a parent or guardian. As introduced, this bill was a recommendation of the Virginia State Crime Commission. This bill is identical to"
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2019"
identifier: "HB 2597"
citation: "Virginia HB 2597 (2019)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Crimes and Offenses Generally", "Welfare (Social Services)"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Charniele L. Herring"]
version_count: 6
action_count: 26
vote_count: 10
first_action: "2019-01-09"
last_action: "2019-03-14"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/2f655e32-1a9b-46a2-aaea-dc360a7af0f7"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+sum+HB2597"
source_hash: "87c8063b1b83370c1a127bfc28a083be40bcba79aa8ccff1619f9559b0591a7c"
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 2597 (2019) — Child abuse and neglect; victims of sex trafficking, etc.

Requires a local department of social services to conduct a sex trafficking assessment upon receiving a complaint of suspected child abuse that is based upon information and allegations that a child is a victim of sex trafficking, provided that the local department has not determined that a separate investigation or family assessment is required. The bill also allows a child-protective services worker of a local department responding to such complaint to take the child victim into custody and allows the local department to maintain custody of the child for up to 72 hours without prior approval of a parent or guardian. As introduced, this bill was a recommendation of the Virginia State Crime Commission. This bill is identical to

## Version chain

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

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0381)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+CHAP0381)
2. **House subcommittee amendments and substitutes adopted** (committee substitute) — [source](https://committees.lis.virginia.gov/subcommitteeaction.aspx?ses=191&bil=HB2597)
3. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB2597ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB2597ER)
4. **House: Committee substitute printed 19105105D-H1** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB2597H1)
5. **House: Presented and ordered printed 19104111D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB2597)
6. **Senate: Committee substitute printed 19106816D-S1** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB2597S1)

## Votes

- Subcommittee recommends reporting with substitute — **8–0** (pass) · lower
- Senate substitute agreed to by House 19106816D-S1 — **97–0** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Courts of Justice with substitute — **15–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Appropriations — **22–0** (pass) · lower
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **99–0** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Courts of Justice with substitute — **18–0** (pass) · lower
- Passed Senate with substitute — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Finance — **14–0** (pass) · upper
- Subcommittee recommends reporting — **8–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Charniele L. Herring — primary (person)
- Karrie K. Delaney — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2019-01-09** Presented and ordered printed 19104111D `introduction`
- **2019-01-09** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2019-01-15** Assigned Courts sub: Subcommittee #1 `referral-committee`
- **2019-01-23** Motion to refer to committee agreed to
- **2019-01-23** Referred to Committee on Appropriations `referral-committee`
- **2019-01-24** Assigned App. sub: Health & Human Resources `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-01** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2019-02-04** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2019-02-04** Committee substitute agreed to 19105105D-H1
- **2019-02-04** Engrossed by House - committee substitute HB2597H1
- **2019-02-05** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (99-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2019-02-06** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2019-02-06** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-11** Rereferred to Finance `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-15** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2019-02-15** Reading of substitute waived
- **2019-02-15** Committee substitute agreed to 19106816D-S1
- **2019-02-15** Engrossed by Senate - committee substitute HB2597S1
- **2019-02-19** Placed on Calendar
- **2019-02-19** Senate substitute agreed to by House 19106816D-S1 (97-Y 0-N)
- **2019-02-22** Enrolled
- **2019-02-22** Signed by Speaker
- **2019-02-22** Signed by President
- **2019-03-04** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on March 4, 2019
- **2019-03-04** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 26, 2019
- **2019-03-14** Approved by Governor-Chapter 381 (effective 7/1/19) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/2f655e32-1a9b-46a2-aaea-dc360a7af0f7`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).