Action Alert: Please Ask You Virginia Delegate to Support Reasonable Childhood Independence Bill

We’re excited to let you know that S.B. 1367, a bipartisan bill introduced by Senators Jill Vogel and Jennifer Boysko to protect innocent and loving Virginia families from being caught up in child neglect investigations, has unanimously passed the Virginia Senate and has unanimously passed a key House of Delegates committee!

S.B. 1367 amends Virginia law to clarify that a loving and caring parent who allows his or her child to engage in “independent activities” will not be considered to have neglected the child.

S.B. 1367 enjoys broad bipartisan support from advocacy groups across the political spectrum, including ParentalRights.org and the Parental Rights Foundation, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) (whose model bill Virginia’s legislation mirrors), Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), Let Grow, Virginia Poverty Law Center (VPLC), Independent Women’s Forum, and more. 

Last month, our president, Will Estrada, joined with parents and advocates from across the political spectrum in testifying in support of S.B. 1367 when it was pending before the Virginia Senate. 

On Monday, S.B. 1367 faced a critical vote in the House of Delegates’ Courts of Justice subcommittee. Will Estrada again joined with other advocates in testifying in support, and it successfully passed out of subcommittee in a unanimous vote. You can watch Will’s testimony and the committee vote here. (S.B. 1367 is discussed from timestamp 2:32:47 to 2:54:33.) S.B. 1367 is now pending before the full Courts of Justice committee. If it passes there, it goes to the full House of Delegates, and then to Governor Glenn Youngkin to be signed into law.

Please contact your Virginia delegate and ask him or her to support S.B. 1367. You can call or email (or both!) your Delegate with a message as simple as the following:

“Please support S.B. 1367 to provide children with reasonable independence. At a time when it seems that government is encroaching more and more on loving parents and their ability to care for and raise their children, S.B. 1367 provides freedom to parents to let their children grow and thrive, freeing Virginia’s Department of Social Services to focus attention on children who are truly in danger of abuse or neglect. This bill passed unanimously out of the Virginia Senate and the House of Delegates subcommittee and should become law in Virginia.”

If you decide to email your Virginia Delegate, please link to the letter that we sent to the Senators Jill Vogel and Jennifer Boysko in support of S.B. 1367.

And to read more of our background on the importance of these types of bills, please visit our webpage here: https://parentalrightsfoundation.org/reasonable-independence-model/ 

Thank you for standing with us for parental rights and freedom.

Sincerely,

Michael Ramey

Executive Director

Parental Rights Foundation & ParentalRights.org