January 27, 2016 – Legislative Update

2016 Virginia General Assembly

January 27, 2016

The mission of the disAbility Law Center of Virginia is to protect and advance the legal, human and civil rights of people with disabilities, to combat and prevent abuse, neglect and discrimination, and to promote independence, choice and self-determination by persons with disabilities.

The disAbility law Center of Virginia will be monitoring bills in the legislature that may be of interest to people with disabilities.  We are available to educate policy makers about the potential impact of legislative proposals.  Please let us know of any legislative proposals or budget issues that you think we should be following.  Contact us at info@dlcv.org or by calling 1-800-552-3962 or 804-225-2042.

Guardianship

We are monitoring three bills that would impact the rights of people who are under guardianship to be able to have visitors.  HB 342 (Pogge), SB 466 (Wagner) and SB 632 (McEachin) all seek to clarify under what conditions a guardian may limit visitors to the person under guardianship.

HB 342 will be before the House Courts of Justice subcommittee on civil laws this afternoon.

SB 466 and SB 632 will be in the Senate Committee on Rehabilitation Friday morning

Service Animals

SB 363 (Reeves) make it a criminal offense to claim that an animal is a service animal if it is not.  The bill was amended to limit the questions that an entity may ask in order to determine whether it is a legitimate service animal and to make clear that no entity may require proof of certification or training. The bill has been approved by the full Senate.

SJ 27 (Reeves) creates an international assistance dog awareness week.  It will be considered by the Senate Committee on Rules.