Commissioner of the Department of Social Services James Williams briefed the subcommittee on the agency’s portions of the governor’s budget and identified child protective services (CPS) staffing and system modernization as top priorities.

“We’re asking for $7,900,000 in support in three important areas,” Williams said, describing a package that includes hotline modernization, additional local CPS workers and training and regional practice support.

What DSS asked for

- Child protective services: $500,000 one‑time to modernize the state hotline with tools DSS estimates could resolve as much as 20% of current hotline interactions without staff intervention; funding for 60 local CPS workers, 12 local supervisors and five regional practice consultants; and funding for intensive technical assistance and investigative skills training.

- Foster care and adoption: a 3% cost‑of‑living increase for foster and adoption subsidies to help retain and recruit families.

- Child support enforcement: funding to cover administrative inflationary costs.

- TANF and self‑sufficiency: proposals to expand the governor’s full employment program and to partner with employers and education institutions to create career pathways for TANF recipients (example cited: a healthcare employer pathway into nursing with tuition subsidies and work while training).

- Childcare and Sunbucks: DSS highlighted the Virginia Sunbucks grocery benefit summer rollout that served more than 700,000 families and noted federal COVID relief funding declines required state funds to sustain child care subsidy slots.

Why it matters: Williams emphasized caseload pressure from the Medicaid unwinding and other program changes: DSS reported about 2 million Medicaid enrollees today and said local staff caseloads have increased roughly 50% since 2019. He said local social services staff handled more than 100,000 child‑abuse/neglect complaints in the most recent state fiscal year.

Additional system improvements recommended

- 211 modernization and electronic identity verification to reduce wait times, enable multi‑channel access (text/chat) and allow single sign‑on across benefit programs.

- Increased procurement and contract staff to prevent missed federal deadlines and manage high‑risk contracts.

DSS clarified that state general funds are roughly 18% of the agency’s budget and that local department staff and operations account for a small percentage of overall economic value, while federal funds represent nearly half of direct spending.