Virginia Commission on Youth

11/04/2024

Families and Professionals Interested in Special Education – Share your experience with dispute resolution by filling out this survey!

Survey Link: https://tinyurl.com/mja3398x

The Commission on Youth (https://vcoy.virginia.gov/), a bipartisan legislative commission of the Virginia General Assembly, is conducting a study on how to improve Virginia’s special education dispute resolution system. The Commission retained the services of Special Education Solutions, LLC (SES) (https://spedsolutions.com/), a leading expert in special education compliance, training, and dispute resolution to assist with this study and survey.

Your perspective as a parent, agency professional, attorney, advocate, teacher, or other role will be crucial as the Commission begins to develop recommendations for this study. The Commission is eager to hear from you.

This survey uses Google Forms. Some workplaces may not allow access to Google Forms. If that is the case, the survey respondent may need to access the survey from a home computer, library computer, or cell phone. The Commission encourages groups with members who have vision impairments or need a translation to assist those members in completing the survey.

The survey is estimated to take 10-25 minutes to complete, depending on the number of questions you choose to answer. The survey will close on Friday, November 22, 2024 at 3:00 p.m.

If you have any issues accessing the survey, please direct those questions to Deusdedi Merced, Managing Member, SES, [email protected]. Your responses to the survey questions are completely confidential.

05/29/2024

Families and Professionals Interested in Special Education - Let Your Voice Be Heard!

The Commission on Youth, a bipartisan legislative commission of the Virginia General Assembly, is conducting a study on how to improve Virginia’s special education dispute resolution processes.

Your perspective is crucial in shaping Virginia’s complaint, mediation, and due process systems for resolving special education disputes. The Commission is eager to hear from you, whether you've been involved or have insights to share.

The Commission, in collaboration with PEATC, is organizing a series of four in-person listening sessions and one virtual session. These sessions are designed to provide a way for you to share your experiences and suggestions for improving Virginia's special education dispute resolution process.

Using information from the listening sessions and analysis of other data, the Commission will develop a report and present recommendations for improvement of the special education dispute resolution system to the General Assembly for their consideration.

Public comment will be limited to 5 minutes so that everyone has a chance to speak.

➡️ Virtual Session: 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.
June 20
Spanish language interpretation available if requested by June 13th
➡️ In-Person Sessions: 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.
June 24 - Wytheville
June 25 - Glen Allen
June 26 - Arlington
June 27 - Norfolk

Learn more and register here! - bit.ly/3Ka5a91

All sessions will have American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation. Stakeholders who speak a language other than English may provide written comments in their native language at any of the in-person events, which will be translated later for the Commission.

01/17/2023

Virginia Commission on Youth Chair, Delegate Emily Brewer, 64th District and Vice-chair, Barbara Favola gave remarks today at a press conference on youth mental health hosted by Voices for Virginia's Children. This is a vitally important issue.

09/12/2022

The Virginia Commission on Youth Transition from the classroom to adulthood advisory group held a meeting on September 7, 2022. We were delighted to have Hannah and her mom, Kathy share their story navigating the workplace with autism.

04/21/2022

The Virginia Commission on Youth would like to thank Dede Goldsmith for her 8 years of dedicated service as a citizen member of the Commission.

01/12/2022

Incredibly honored to be selected by my colleagues to serve as Chair of the Virginia Commission on Youth!

11/15/2019

On this edition of This Week In Richmond, host David Bailey welcomes a panel of guests to discuss the Joint Commission on Youth and foster care. Guests include: Del. Dickie Bell (R), 20th House District, Staunton, Amy Atkinson - Executive Director, Commission on Youth, Janet Kelly - President, Virgi...

06/08/2018

The group is made up of nine members of the General Assembly and three citizens who were appointed by the governor. 

12/15/2017

Weeks before the Virginia Legislature convenes for 2018, a key committee formally approved plans for new legislation to better protect children following a series of News4 I-Team reports about teachers accused of abusing students. Scott MacFarlane reports.

11/13/2017

Legislation passed earlier this year is calling for an examination of the state’s foster care system by gathering feedback from youth aging out of that system. Virginia’s Department of Social Services is in the process of crafting a survey to send to the approximately 500 children who cycle through…

09/21/2017

Virginia’s lawmakers are preparing for another busy legislative year. One topic on the agenda: how to better serve children who face violence or trauma at

05/25/2017

A report on the Virginia Commission on Youth Family Impact Seminar.

Some state lawmakers are seeing possible solutions after attending a seminar that focused on how childhood trauma can have an long lasting impact on individuals and society.