republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2022/sb-396.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Foster care placements; court review, best interests of the child."
description: "Foster care placements; court review; best interests of the child. Provides that the juvenile and domestic relations district court has the authority to review and approve or deny a foster care plan filed by a local board of social services. The bill requires a foster care plan to assess the stability of proposed placements, the services provided or plans for services to be provided to address placement instability, and a description of other placements that were considered for the child. The bill codifies the factors to be considered when determining the best interests of a child for the purposes of developing foster care plans. The bill also (i) requests that the Committee on District Courts study child dependency hearings in the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court system and make recommendations to the General Assembly as to whether a separate docket or court would result in better service to children and families involved in child dependency hearings and other family law matters and (ii) directs the Office of the Children's Ombudsman to convene a work group to consider issues relating to the Commonwealth's model of court-appointed legal counsel in child dependency cases."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2022"
identifier: "SB 396"
citation: "Virginia SB 396 (2022)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["John S. Edwards"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 41
vote_count: 9
first_action: "2022-01-11"
last_action: "2022-04-11"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/f780b728-8e13-4094-821d-1db18e0fb687"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+sum+SB396"
source_hash: "c8ee08017492dc23dc3888f5405add68e88ee39b5220f8124bb35d7abbd11812"
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 SB 396 (2022) — Foster care placements; court review, best interests of the child.

Foster care placements; court review; best interests of the child. Provides that the juvenile and domestic relations district court has the authority to review and approve or deny a foster care plan filed by a local board of social services. The bill requires a foster care plan to assess the stability of proposed placements, the services provided or plans for services to be provided to address placement instability, and a description of other placements that were considered for the child. The bill codifies the factors to be considered when determining the best interests of a child for the purposes of developing foster care plans. The bill also (i) requests that the Committee on District Courts study child dependency hearings in the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court system and make recommendations to the General Assembly as to whether a separate docket or court would result in better service to children and families involved in child dependency hearings and other family law matters and (ii) directs the Office of the Children's Ombudsman to convene a work group to consider issues relating to the Commonwealth's model of court-appointed legal counsel in child dependency cases.

## Version chain

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

1. **CHAP0305** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+ful+CHAP0305)
2. **Committee substitute printed 22105002D-S1** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+ful+SB396S1)
3. **Committee substitute printed 22107143D-H1** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+ful+SB396H1)
4. **Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/12/22 22103950D** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+ful+SB396)
5. **SB396ER** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+ful+SB396ER)

## Votes

- Read third time and passed Senate (39-Y 0-N) — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Appropriations (22-Y 0-N) — **22–0** (pass) · lower
- Constitutional reading dispensed (38-Y 0-N) — **38–0** (pass) · upper
- Subcommittee recommends reporting (7-Y 1-N) — **7–1** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Judiciary with substitute (15-Y 0-N) — **15–0** (pass) · upper
- VOTE: Block Vote Passage (100-Y 0-N) — **99–0** (pass) · lower
- House substitute agreed to by Senate (39-Y 0-N 1-A) — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Courts of Justice with substitute (20-Y 0-N) — **20–0** (pass) · lower
- Subcommittee recommends reporting with substitute (7-Y 1-N) — **7–1** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- John S. Edwards — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2022-01-11** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/12/22 22103950D `introduction`
- **2022-01-11** Referred to Committee on the Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2022-01-24** Senate committee, floor amendments and substitutes offered
- **2022-01-24** Reported from Judiciary with substitute (15-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2022-01-24** Committee substitute printed 22105002D-S1 `substitution`
- **2022-01-25** Passed by for the day
- **2022-01-26** Constitutional reading dispensed (38-Y 0-N)
- **2022-01-26** Impact statement from DPB (SB396S1)
- **2022-01-27** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2022-01-27** Reading of substitute waived
- **2022-01-27** Committee substitute agreed to 22105002D-S1
- **2022-01-27** Engrossed by Senate - committee substitute SB396S1
- **2022-01-28** Read third time and passed Senate (39-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2022-02-22** Placed on Calendar
- **2022-02-22** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2022-02-22** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2022-02-22** Assigned Courts sub: Subcommittee #2 `referral-committee`
- **2022-02-23** Subcommittee recommends reporting (7-Y 1-N)
- **2022-02-28** House subcommittee amendments and substitutes offered
- **2022-02-28** Subcommittee recommends reporting with substitute (7-Y 1-N)
- **2022-02-28** Subcommittee recommends referring to Committee on Appropriations
- **2022-03-02** Reported from Courts of Justice with substitute (20-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2022-03-02** Committee substitute printed 22107143D-H1 `substitution`
- **2022-03-02** Referred to Committee on Appropriations `referral-committee`
- **2022-03-04** Impact statement from DPB (SB396H1)
- **2022-03-04** Reported from Appropriations (22-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2022-03-08** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2022-03-09** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2022-03-09** Committee substitute agreed to 22107143D-H1
- **2022-03-09** Engrossed by House - committee substitute SB396H1
- **2022-03-09** Passed House with substitute BLOCK VOTE (100-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2022-03-09** VOTE: Block Vote Passage (100-Y 0-N)
- **2022-03-10** House substitute agreed to by Senate (39-Y 0-N 1-A)
- **2022-03-10** Title replaced 22107143D-H1
- **2022-03-21** Enrolled
- **2022-03-21** Impact statement from DPB (SB396ER)
- **2022-03-21** Signed by President
- **2022-03-22** Signed by Speaker
- **2022-03-22** Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on March 22, 2022
- **2022-03-22** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., April 11, 2022
- **2022-04-11** Approved by Governor-Chapter 305 (effective 7/1/22) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/f780b728-8e13-4094-821d-1db18e0fb687`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).