James Williams, commissioner of the Virginia Department of Social Services, briefed the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the department’s budget priorities Friday, focused on child welfare staffing, modernizing intake technology and expanding programs to move clients toward employment.

Williams said the department’s total spending in fiscal 2024 was about $2.9 billion, roughly half federal funds and about 20% state general funds, and described a multi‑part package aimed at child protective services (CPS) and local service capacity. “This is a front door to all of our benefits delivery and all the services that we offer, obviously,” Williams said, describing the local departments of social services as the “front door.”

The governor’s amendment includes an initial $7,900,000 investment to begin addressing CPS workload and technology shortcomings, Williams said. That package would allocate $500,000 to overhaul the CPS hotline technology and fund an eventual staffing increase (the proposal envisions 60 additional local CPS workers, 12 local supervisors and five state regional consultants in a later phase). Williams described the hotline update as a way to route reports more efficiently so staff spend less time triaging misdirected complaints.

Williams also outlined child welfare and foster/adoption priorities. The department credited recent kinship‑care legislation and updated State Board of Social Services regulations that took effect the week of the hearing for boosting preventive kinship services; Williams said that preventive kinship program has already served families since the July 1 effective date. He and Deputy Commissioner Carl Ayers told the committee that the state no longer posts public photo listings of children for adoption because of human‑trafficking risks; Ayers said the agency has preserved referral processes but removed public photo listings as an administrative safety decision.

On benefits administration, Williams said Medicaid enrollment has fallen roughly 8% since the unwinding of the public‑health emergency but remains around 2,000,000 enrollees, which sustains an elevated eligibility workload for local departments. The department also highlighted the Virginia Sunbucks program, which served more than 700,000 families after a rapid summer launch, and noted a $101,000,000 federal LIHEAP appropriation that will feed through local services.

Workforce and program integrity proposals in the budget include expanding the Full Employment program (which can subsidize employer wages and training), enhancing electronic identity verification for benefits applications, adding procurement staff to handle an increased number of high‑risk contracts and preserving income‑verification services used to curb fraud. Williams said the department has moved to modernize the CommonHelp portal and plans to integrate 211 as an up‑to‑date referral network.

Committee members pressed the department about adoption waitlists and the absence of online photo listings; Deputy Commissioner Carl Ayers said the agency removed the public listings to reduce trafficking risk but acknowledged the change has made it harder for some prospective adoptive families to view profiles. Delegate Kriesak asked whether the department has a hotline or assistance number for prospective adoptive parents; staff said much adoption referral work occurs at the local level and offered to follow up with committee members on individual constituent cases.

Ending: Williams asked legislators for time to continue implementation work with local departments and said several proposals would be phased in to reduce disruption to local operations. The committee asked for additional briefings and follow up on specific adoption and CPS logistic questions.