Chap. 488.—An ACT to provide, in certain cases, for the payment out of county
and city treasuries of allowances for the support of children in their own
homes and for the partial re1mbursement by the State of the counties and
cities making such payments; also to repeal an act entitled an act providing
that any county or city of this State may pay a monthly allowance to in-
digent, widowed mothers for the partial support of their children in their
own homes, approved February 28, 1918. (S B 8&4]

Approved March 27, 1922.

Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, as follows:

Section 1. Any person having knowledge that any child 1s depend-
ent or in need of public support may bring such fact to the notice
of the county or city board of public welfare, or, where none exists,
to the juvenile and domestic relations court or other court having
jurisdiction of cases of dependent and neglected children.

Sec. 2. The said board or court shall cause to be made an inves-
tigation to determine the need of the child, and if it deem necessary,
may for such length of time as the board or court deem proper,
order the payment of allowances to the mother, within the limits of
any appropriation that may have been made for such purposes
by the county, city, or State, in order that the child may be kept in
its own home; provided, the child is under sixteen years of age, and
the father is dead or in a hospital for the insane, a colony for the
feeble-minded and epileptic, in prison, or is physically incapacitated
to earn a living, or is and for one year has been legally charged with
desertion, or is divorced and the mother has used all lawful means
to compel support of the child by its father.

Sec. 3. The allowances shall be for the purpose, among others,
of enabling the mothers to bring up their children in their own homes
and such mothers and their children shall not be deemed to be paupers
by reason of receiving such aid. The allowances shall cease when
the child reaches the age of sixteen years; but the county or city
board of public welfare, or the court having jurisdiction, .in its dis-
cretion at any time before such child reaches the age of sixteen
years, may discontinue or modify any such allowance.

Sec. 4. Allowances shall be granted only upon the following
conditions: (a) The dependent child or children must be living with
the mother during the period for which support is provided; (b) the
allowance shall be granted only when in the absence of such allowance
the mother would be required to work regularly away from her home
and children, and when, by means of such allowance she would be
able to remain at home with her child or children, except when in the
judgment of the board or court part time work can be done without
sacrifice of her health or neglect of the home and children; (d) such
allowance shall be necessary to save the child or children from neg-
lect, and to furnish such child or children with suitable education;
(e) no person shall receive the benefit of this act who has not resided
in the county or city one year and the State two years before making
application for aid hereunder.

Sec. 5. Allowances within the limits of any appropriation that
may have been made for such purposes by the county, city, or State.
to expectant mothers may be made by the county or city board of
public welfare, or the court having jurisdiction, upon the following
conditions: (a) The allowance shall commence not earlier than four
weeks prior to the expected birth of the child and shall continue
not longer than eight weeks after childbirth ; (b) such allowance shall
in the judgment of the board or court be necessary to save the mother
and child from neglect; (c) no allowance shall be made in any case
except when after investigation by the said board or cuurt it has
been ascertained that there are no relatives able and willing to aid
in the support of the mother and child, and that no other suitable
provision can be made.

Sec. 6. Investigation of cases under this act shall be made
through the county or city board of public welfare, or where none
exists, through the court having jurisdiction. If the court has no pro-
bation officer the judge shall appoint a committee of three persons,
at least one of whom shall be a woman, to make the investigation.
The committee shall serve without compensation. The investigation
shall include the following: Whether the surroundings of the home
are such as to make for the good character of the child or children
growing up therein and whether the child or children are attending
school, and if not, why. It shall further be the object of such inves-
tigation to ascertain the financial resources of the family, including
the ability of its members of working age to contribute to its support.
and to urge upon such members that they may make proper contri-
bution; to take all lawful means to secure support for the family
from relatives under obligation to render such support, and to inter-
view individuals, societies and other agencies which may be deemed
appropriate sources of assistance.

Sec. 7. Proper and adequate supervision shall be maintained by
the local superintendent of public welfare, the county or city welfare
board, or where there 1s no such local superintendent or local board,
by the probation officer of the juvenile and domestic relations court.
or by the committee appointed by the court having jurisdiction.
Every family to which an allowance has been made shall be visited
at its home by the supervising officer or officers at least once in three
months. After each visit the person making the same shall make and
keep on file as a part of the official record of the case a detailed
statement of the condition of the home and family and all other data
which may assist in determining the wisdom of the allowance granted
and the advisability of its continuance. All findings and orders pro-
vided for in this act may be made upon the written reports of official
investigators, with like effect as if based upon competent testimony
given in open court.

Sec. 9. All moneys paid to any person under the provisions of
this act shall be exempt from attachment, garnishment, distress, ex-
ecution or other legal process.

Sec. 10. In this act the word ‘father’ may also denote step-
father and the word “mother” may denote step-mother, in whose
family the child is a member. The provisions of this act may also be
extended for the benefit of orphan children who are dependent on
some female relative unable to support them.

Sec. 11. The State board of public welfare shall co-operate with
courts and shall supervise and direct county and city boards of public
welfare and their agents with respect to methods of investigation,
supervision and record keeping; shall devise, recommend and distri-
bute blank forms; shall by its agents visit and inspect families to
which allowances are being made; shall have access to all records
and other data kept by courts and other agencies concerning such
allowances; and may require such reports from clerks of the courts,
county and city welfare boards, probation officers and other official
investigators, as it shall deem necessary.

Sec. 12. The board of supervisors of each county, and the council
or other governing body of each city of the State, may make _appro-
priations of such sums as they may deem necessary for carrying out
the purposes of this act and for paying such allowances as may be
granted under the same. Such appropriations shall be made at such
times as necessity may require.

Sec. 13. A certified copy of the order granting an allowance
shall be filed with the treasurer of the county, or the treasurer or
proper disbursing officer of the city, and thereafter, so long as such
order remains in force and unmodified, and there is in his hands
sufficient funds appropriated for such purposes to pay the same, such
officer shall draw his warrant in favor of the mother at such time or
times and for such amount or amounts as may be specified in such
order. The warrant shall be delivered to the county or city board
of public welfare, or its authorized agent, or where no such board
exists, to any officer authorized by the court making the order to
receive the same, which board, agent or officer shall deliver it to the
mother entitled thereto, who must execute a receipt therefor. This
receipt shall be kept with the other records in the proceedings relating
to the child or children. It shall be the duty of the treasurer of the
county or the treasurer or proper disbursing officer of the city to pay
the warrant, when properly presented, out of the appropriation
directed by the next preceding section hereof to be made for the
purpose.

Sec. 14. During the month of January each year the treasurer
of the county, or the treasurer or proper disbursing officer of the
city, shall certify under oath to the auditor of public accounts and
the State board of public welfare the amount paid out by the county
or city during the preceding year for allowances under this act;
and if the said board shall approve the Same in whole or in part, it
shall cause the extent of its approval to be endorsed by its chairman
on the certificate received by the auditor; whereupon the said auditor
shall draw his warrant in favor of the treasurer of the county or the
treasurer or proper receiving officer of the city, for one-third of the
amount so approved and certified to have been paid out by the county
or city. The State treasurer, provided there are funds appropriated
for that purpose, shall pay the same, and such local officer shall place
the sum to the credit of the general fund of the county or city or
such other fund as the board of supervisors of the county, or the
council or other governing body of the city, may direct.

Sec. 15. If in any county or city this act shall be unlawfully or
improvidently administered, or if any of the agencies administering
it shall wrongfully refuse to co-operate with the State board of public
welfare, the board may refuse to approve and indorse the certificate
of disbursement.

Sec. 16. Any person fraudulently procuring or attempting to
procure an allowance under this act for a person not entitled thereto,
shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall
be fined not exceeding five hundred dollars or confined in jail not
exceeding one year, or both.

Sec. 17. This act shall be liberally construed with a view to
accomplishing its purpose, which is to keep children in their own
homes and where possible to give them the benefit of their mother’s
care, and to save them from want, suffering and neglect.

Sec. 18. An act entitled an act providing that any county or city
of this State may pay a monthly allowance to indigent widowed
mothers for the partial support of their children in their own home.
approved February twenty-eighth, nineteen hundred and eighteen, is
hereby repealed.