2018 Virginia General Assembly
Legislative Highlights
March 7, 2018
All legislative committees have now completed their work for this legislative session. The 2018 session is scheduled to end on Saturday, March 10, 2018.
The legislature did consider several bills that sought to keep more of Virginia’s training centers for people with intellectual disabilities open. All of those bills are now dead.
HB 324 (Campbell) would have prevented the closure of Southwest Virginia Training Center. HB 1421 (Garrett) would have prevented the closure of Central Virginia Training Center. HB 325 (Campbell) and HB 806 (O’Quinn) would have kept both Southwestern Virginia Training Center and Central Virginia Training Center open. All four bills were tabled in a subcommittee of House Appropriations.
SB 835 (Peake) would have kept Central Virginia Training Center open. It was carried over until 2019 in Senate Committee on Finance.
SB 977 (Peake) would have changed the definition of “training center” so that Hiram Davis Medical Center could not be considered to be a training center. The intention of the bill was to prevent the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services from transferring residents from a training center to Hiram Davis. The bill passed the Senate but was left in Appropriations and is done for this year.
The mission of the disAbility Law Center of Virginia is to advance independence, choice and self-determination; protect legal, human and civil rights; and eliminate abuse, neglect and discrimination of people with disabilities through zealous and uncompromising legal advocacy and representation. You may contact us at info@dlcv.org or by calling 1-800-552-3962 or 804-225-2042.