NASW Virginia Social Work Policy Update: General Assembly Wraps Up, How Do Our Policy Priorities Stand?

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(Feb. 28, 2025)

Although legislators have returned to their home districts since the General Assembly adjourned Sine Die Feb. 22, they expect to be called back soon for a special session to discuss ways the state can support Virginians affected by federal job loss and funding cuts.

 

A House Emergency Committee on Federal Workforce and Funding Cuts met for the first time for two hours February 22 and heard wrenching presentations about the economic and social implications of the Trump administration’s actions. One dollar of every three dollars that Virginia disburses is federal money, and some localities depend on such federal funds for 10-30% of their budgets. Especially hard-hit will likely be rural areas, said presenters, but so, too, are areas such as Fairfax County, where 70%-80% of workers—including social workers--are or were federally employed. The latter’s widespread firings could seriously disrupt local real estate values, consumer spending for small businesses, and unemployment numbers, among other outcomes. 

 

Governor Youngkin has till March 24 to respond to the hundreds of passed bills by signing them into law, vetoing or amending them, or ignoring them and letting their passage stand as is. The General Assembly will reconvene on April 2 for one day to review and act on the Governor’s amendments and vetoes, but the margin between the two parties is so narrow that it is unlikely any veto overrides will occur. 

 

Meanwhile, the federal government may shut down. Although the Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House, they only have a one-vote margin in the U.S. House of Representatives. In addition, the U.S. Senate must provide 60 votes. Stay tuned as negotiations and efforts to stop the administration’s extreme agenda develop.

 

Giving labor unions an important victory, a federal judge yesterday granted a temporary restraining order that requires the Office of Personnel Management to rescind its orders of mass firing of probationary workers across two dozen government agencies, including Health and Human Services and the National Science Foundation, saying that the department had overstepped its legal boundaries probably illegally. Confusion and joy reigned as released federal workers wondered if they could return to their jobs at least until the next hearing March 13. The decision by U.S. District Judge William Alsup noted, “Congress has given the authority to hire and fire to the agencies themselves. The Department of Defense, for example, has statutory authority to hire and fire,” Alsup said from the bench as he handed down the ruling Thursday evening in federal court in San Francisco. “The Office of Personnel Management does not have any authority whatsoever, under any statute in the history of the universe, to hire and fire employees at another agency. They can hire and fire their own employees.”

 

Virginia Gov. Youngkin launched a new “federal worker support” website this week that he claims shows 250,000 jobs to fill, although most are low-wage retail and restaurant positions that pay nowhere near what highly trained federal workers and department healthcare experts have earned. The site also contains info on applying for unemployment benefits. Other Virginia politicians have added resources and advice for affected workers on their own websites, but for social workers in particular, the best site remains NASW’s and NASW Virginia’s Career Center. The site lists social work jobs and career advice, and enables job seekers to upload their CVs and peruse potential employers.  

 

Professional Issues

The governor has not yet signed NASW Virginia’s primary legislative priority – HB1897—expanding the scope of practice of master's social workers to allow them to provide clinical services under the supervision of an LCSW. The bill also would direct the Board of Counseling to amend its regulations so a licensed BSW would not have to register with the Board of Social Work or fulfill any additional training or education requirements before becoming a qualified mental health professional-trainee. The Department of Medical Assistance Services and Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services also would need to amend regulations to deem services provided by a licensed BSW equal those of a qualified mental health professional-trainee and reimbursed at a comparable rate.

 

HB 1921 focuses on expanding availability and accrual of paid sick days (one hour for every 30 hours worked) to cover all employees of private employers and state and local governments, with some exceptions. It also enables employees to use paid sick leave “to care for their physical or mental illness or to care for a family member … and for services or relocation due to domestic abuse, sexual assault, or stalking.” Violators would be fined.

 

Gun Safety/Violence Prevention

Delegates submitted more than a dozen bills related to gun purchases, sales, mutations, and use in crime, and most failed to get through the legislature. However, the governor will have some to consider, including another go at

— an assault weapon ban,

— a ban on unmarked/untraceable plastic ghost guns,

— a required written reminder by school districts to parents about locking up firearms and prescription medicines (HB1678), ü  expanded operation of the Marcus Alert program to eight more localities to enable social workers and other mental health professions to be contacted by law enforcement facing a possible criminal situation with someone in a mental health crisis; and

— closure of the so-called “Intimate Partner Loophole” (HB1869). The latter would expand the definition of “family member” regarding firearm possession, purchase, and transport by an individual after an assault and battery of a family or household member or someone who currently or in the past year lived with the victim while in or after a “romantic, dating, or sexual relationship.” 

 

Prison and Criminal Reform/Solitary Confinement

Legislators were rightly horrified to learn that in some districts, juveniles charged with even minor, nonviolent crimes were showing up at court in full shackles. Concerned about potential unnecessary trauma and public humiliation of shackle usage, delegates unanimously passed SB 1255/HB 2222 to prohibit such restraints in court unless needed to prevent physical ham to the minor or another person, or if the youth has a history of disruptive court behavior. It also entitles a juvenile to an attorney prior to a hearing on the use of restraints and requires that attorney be allowed to speak before any order on the use of shackles is decided.

 

NASW Virginia Chapter continues its longtime fight to ban or severely restrict the use of solitary confinement (“restorative housing” or “isolated confinement”) due to its well-documented harm to mental health. HB2647 would again try to prohibit solitary confinement in all state correctional facilities except in certain situations and not before placing the incarcerated person in less-restrictive settings first such as transferring to a different institution. The bill also would direct the facility administrator to review the placement every 48 hours and to ensure provision of a medical and mental health evaluation from certified medical and mental health professionals within one working day of placement in solitary confinement. Regional administrators also must be notified of such placements in writing within 24 hours.

 

Finally, HB2647 and sister bill SB1409 would mandate that anyone placed in solitary confinement be given a formal review in the person’s presence to inform them of all reasons that officials believe isolated confinement remains necessary and to give them an opportunity to respond. A formal ruling then shall be made within 24 hours. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2026.

 

A bill (HB 2158) to establish a general school system for incarcerated individuals to improve chances of post-release employment and lower recission rates was instead turned into a five-year study bill by the newly created Virginia Prison Education Task Force. The bill originally sought to boost inmate literacy rates to an eighth-grade level, offer high school equivalency exams, and provide postsecondary coursework sufficient to earn a Uniform Certificate of General Studies, an associate degree, and postsecondary certifications, licenses, and credentials.  

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

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NASW supported the national 24-hour Economic Blackout February 28 as part of our protest against corporate greed and the removal of diversity, equity and inclusion programs by some major corporations. For more information on the Blackout, we ask social workers to visit The People's Union USA at thepeoplesunionusa.com.

 

Immigration

On Thursday, Gov. Youngkin issued an executive order deputizing state and local law enforcement to assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with removing undocumented individuals and urged Virginia cities and towns to authorize their own law enforcement to help with deportation and arrest operations. It also directs Virginia State Police to participate in a Task Force Model Memorandum of Understanding with ICE. “As Governor, protecting our citizens is my foremost responsibility, and today we are taking action that will make Virginia safer by removing dangerous criminal illegal immigrants from our Commonwealth,” said Youngkin in a statement. “Dangerous criminal illegal immigrants should not be let back into our communities to assault, rape, and murder. They should be sent back where they came from.” Youngkin has been careful in his language to avoid directly calling for removal of any of the 275,000 estimated undocumented Virginia residents who do not have criminal records or any pending other criminal charges.    

 

Virginia’s two immigration detention centers with a combined 1,068 beds are filling up with the Farmville site at 61% and the Caroline County facility at 80%. The state is the mid-Atlantic hub for Immigration and Border Control Enforcement (ICE) detentions, according to data collected by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), but it has nowhere near the space needed to accommodate Virginia’s estimated 275,000 undocumented immigrants if the new administration remains determined to arrest and deport them. Nationwide, as of Feb. 8, ICE is holding 41,169 undocumented people and has capacity to hold only about 42,000. TRAC data shows that 55% of those people have no criminal record, and many others are being held for minor offenses such as shoplifting and traffic violations.

 

In a new and horrifying internal memo, immigration agents are now tracking down and deporting thousands of migrant children who entered the U.S. without their parents, according to Reuters. The four-phase strategy sorts such children into three “priority groups”—“flight risk,” “public safety,” and “border security”--based on government record information. The memo also allegedly includes a section, “Unaccompanied Alien Children Joint Initiative Field Implementation,” that outlines methods to ensure children are not victims of human trafficking or other exploitive activities. Earlier, the Trump administration reversed an executive order to cut legal services for unaccompanied migrant children. Children without legal representation in court are far more likely to be deported than those with legal service providers. Among others, the Acacia Center for Justice, a DC-based nonprofit that helps nearly 26,000 children in Virginia, Maryland, the District, and elsewhere had been forced to stop its “legal lifelines” provision of basic due-process services through its Unaccompanied Children Program as a result of the original order. A 2018 study found that Hispanic student enrollment dropped by 10% in areas where local police partnered with ICE to enforce immigration laws.

 

NASW has issued guidance on “Navigating Policy Changes Related to Schools and ICE” that highlights recent changes to immigration policies. The resource includes links to organizations and toolkits that help school social workers support students and their families.  

Mental and Behavioral Health

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Medications necessary for treatment of ADHD and depression are among the psychiatric drugs under examination by new Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who claims that such drugs are addictive and “insufficiently scrutinized.”

 

Federal firings and threats from DOGE are taking a toll on workers’ mental health—and that’s just what Russell Voigt, the new director of the Office of Management and Budget, said he wants. "We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected," he said in a pre-election speech found by ProPublica. "… We want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains…. We want to put them in trauma."

 

Nearly 170 probationary workers—more than 10% of the workforce--at the National Science Foundation were fired in the last week of February, which conducts myriad behavioral and physical public health research projects. 

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LGBTQIA2S+ Issues

UVA Health and Children’s Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University both restarted gender-affirming care in the past week, but the UVA Health board decided it would only treat current patients and refer new patients elsewhere.   

 

Despite a related lawsuit, the Pentagon announced Wednesday that it plans to remove current transgender service members who don’t meet certain requirements under its new policy, saying that it only recognizes two sexes—male and female. “Service members who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria will be processed for separation from military service,” notes a memo by the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. “An individual’s sex is immutable, unchanging during a person’s life. All service members will only serve in accordance with their sex.” The policy guidance was issued after an executive order in January directed the Pentagon to change its policies to say transgender service members are incompatible with military service. An estimated 14,000 transgender troops were serving in 2018. The “exceptions” would be very difficult to meet, including a demand for a trans service member to demonstrate “36 consecutive months of stability” in their sex with no “clinically significant distress or impairment,” proof that they have “never attempted to transition to any sex other than their sex,” and allegiance to adhere to “all applicable standards” relating to their sex.

 

LGBTQIA2S+ leaders in Virginia are angry and fearful that our state will mimic a new Iowa-passed bill stripping gender identity from anti-discrimination laws. The Iowa governor is expected to sign the bill shortly, marking a reversal in civil rights protection for transgender people.

Voting rights and Data Privacy

Six important voting rights bills await the governor’s signature:

 

HB1657 and SB813 would require regular review of registration records, while HB1735/SB991 would close voter registration periods 10 days prior to a primary and general election instead of the current 21 days, and change the voter registration cutoff date from 13 days to 10 days before special elections not called by the governor.

 

HB2002 bans voter registration cancellation of active military members stationed overseas or their spouses or qualified voters living abroad temporarily without written authorization and directs that only the Board of Elections or other authorized state agency may communicate such cancellation to the general registrar.

 

Especially important is HB2276, which would ban removal of voter registrations 90 days prior to an election, as well as stop the use of voter data from another state or jurisdiction or through a list comparison when the data file doesn’t include a unique identifier for each individual. It also requires the Department of Elections to annually review all sources of voter data used for confirming a voter’s validity during list maintenance activities and report on these sources annually to the Senate Committees on Privileges and Elections. The general registrar also must notify a voter in question and explain the reason for cancellation prior to removing that person’s registration. All cancellations must then be recorded and made publicly available via the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and the National Voter Registration Act.

 

Delegates also killed numerous bills that would expanded or restricted voting access or rights, including SB1073, which would have required verification of social security numbers, and SB1454, which would have ensured that “processes are in place to validate voter registrations and prevent noncitizens from registering to vote” (something already in place).

 

In addition, bipartisan support was enough to pass legislation that would require election candidates and their supporting organizations to identify when and how they use artificial intelligence during their campaigns. 

 

A Washington federal judge recently denied a demand by 14 state attorneys general to temporarily bar Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) associates from accessing data at seven federal agencies, thus enabling Musk and his force to move ahead with their drastic funding and workforce cuts. The judge ruled the states had not shown specific examples of how the DOGE work could cause the states irreparable harm.