Virginia Senate Bill 1199 (Prior Session Legislation)

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Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)
Status: Engrossed on February 6 2017 - 50% progression, died in committee
Action: 2017-02-21 - Left in Courts of Justice
Pending: House Courts of Justice Committee
Text: Latest bill text (Comm Sub) [HTML]

Rights of blind parents. Provides that a blind parent's blindness, as defined in the bill, shall not be the sole basis of the denial or restriction of such parent's custody or visitation rights. The bill requires a party who alleges that a parent's blindness should be a factor to be considered to not be in the best interests of the child, or should otherwise be a reason to deny or restrict such a parent's custody or visitation rights, to prove by clear and convincing evidence that the child's best interests would not be met or served due to such parent's blindness. The bill allows a blind parent to demonstrate how supportive parenting services would appropriately address any threats to the child's best interests and further allows that such services be ordered by the court. The bill requires a court to make findings where the court denies or restricts custody or visitation of a blind parent or where supportive parenting services are not ordered, and to provide such findings in an accessible format. The same requirements apply to the denial of approval of a blind prospective foster parent, or removal of a child from a blind foster parent's home, and to the denial of a final order of adoption wherein the prospective adoptive parent is blind.

Blind parents; custody or visitation rights.

Sen. Barbara Favola [D]

Sen. Janet Howell [D]

Sen. Louise Lucas [D]

2017-02-07 - Senate - Senate: Read third time and passed Senate (40-Y 0-N) (Y: 40 N: 0 NV: 0 Abs: 0) [PASS]
2017-02-03 - Senate - Senate: Constitutional reading dispensed (39-Y 0-N) (Y: 39 N: 0 NV: 1 Abs: 0) [PASS]
2017-02-01 - Senate - Senate: Reported from Courts of Justice with substitute (14-Y 1-N) (Y: 14 N: 1 NV: 0 Abs: 0) [PASS]

Date	Chamber	Action
2017-02-21	House	Left in Courts of Justice
2017-02-13	House	Subcommittee recommends laying on the table by voice vote
2017-02-09	House	Assigned Courts sub: Civil Law
2017-02-09	House	Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice
2017-02-09	House	Read first time
2017-02-09	House	Placed on Calendar
2017-02-07	Senate	Read third time and passed Senate (40-Y 0-N)
2017-02-06	Senate	Engrossed by Senate - committee substitute SB1199S1
2017-02-06	Senate	Committee substitute agreed to 17104405D-S1
2017-02-06	Senate	Reading of substitute waived
2017-02-06	Senate	Read second time
2017-02-03	Senate	Constitutional reading dispensed (39-Y 0-N)
2017-02-01	Senate	Committee substitute printed 17104405D-S1
2017-02-01	Senate	Reported from Courts of Justice with substitute (14-Y 1-N)
2017-01-10	Senate	Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice
2017-01-10	Senate	Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17103085D

Chapter	Article	Section	Citation Type	Statute Text
63	2	1200.01	(n/a)	See Bill Text
63	2	901.2	(n/a)	See Bill Text

Type	Source
Summary	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+sum+SB1199
Text	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1199+hil
Text	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1199S1+hil
Roll Call	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+vot+S03V0174+SB1199
Roll Call	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+vot+SV0293SB1199+SB1199
Roll Call	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+vot+SV0364SB1199+SB1199