Can I check the status of my child support payment?
Click here to check the status of your child support payment

How do I become a foster parent?
If you are interested in becoming a foster parent, please
contact us. You can also visit the agency and a social worker can provide you with information. Visit the foster care page for more details.

How to Adopt a child?
View the process for Adoption and contact us if you are interested. A Social Worker with the agency can answer all of your questions and help you start the process for adoption.

How do I report child abuse?
A statewide hotline operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week to receive reports of child abuse and neglect and refer these reports to the appropriate local department of social services for investigation. The state Hotline is staffed by experienced social workers. Individuals may contact the state Hotline within Virginia at 1-800-552-7096 and from out-of-state at 1-804-786-8536.

Foster Care
Foster parents are people (single or married; employed inside or outside the home) who open their homes to a child or children and are committed to meet the individual needs of the child or children. Foster parents work in partnership with the child, the agency and the birth parents to help in resolving problems and reuniting the family whenever possible. Adults, over the age of 18, may become foster parents.  How do I become a foster parent?

Adoption Services
Adoption is a social and legal process which establishes the relationship of parent and child between people who do not have this relationship by birth. It provides the same rights and obligations that exist between children and their biological parents.

The goal of adoption is the third ranking permanency planning goal for Virginian children in foster care. Return of the child to the birth parents is the first goal and placement with relatives with a transfer of custody to the relative is the second goal. The goal of adoption is selected for children in foster care when the two higher ranking goals cannot be achieved. The purpose of adoption services is to help children who have been permanently and legally separated from their birth parents become permanent members of a new family.

Family & Court Services
Available for families and children under age 18, to:

• Prevent family breakdown
  
• Relieve a crisis resulting from illness, unemployment, violence in the family, loss of housing, etc., and stabilize the situation
• Strengthen the family's ability to manage independently
  
• Reunite a family where the child has been under the agency's custody
  
• Prevent child abuse and/or neglect
  
• Assist in court investigations, such as child custody disputes and independent adoptions

Child Protective Services
The goal of Child Protective Services is to identify, assess and provide services to children and families in an effort to protect children, preserve families, whenever possible, and prevent further maltreatment. Child Protective Services is non-punitive in its approach and is directed toward enabling families to provide adequate care for their children. The agency receives complaints on a 24-hour a day basis and trained social workers conduct immediate investigation of compliants .

Comprehensive Services Act (CSA )
This program was created by the Comprehensive Services Act - a Virginia law designed to help troubled youths and their families. State and local agencies, parents and private service providers work together to plan and provide services. In each community, local teams decide how to accomplish this. The program provides a complete range of services for children in need by providing resources and care. For more information regarding referrals and eligibility, please contact the Office of Comprehensive Services at 757-405-1890. You may also visit the Comprehensive Services Website .

Daycare
This program provides funding to enhance the quality, affordability, and supply of child care available to Virginia 's families. Child care programs are child-centered, family-focused services that support the family goals of economic self-sufficiency and child development by providing substitute parental care, protection, guidance, and early childhood education. The daycare program provides low-income families with the financial resources to find and afford quality child care for their children.