Chap. 325.——-An ACT to amend and re-enact an act entitled “an act to provide,
in certain cases, for the payment out of county and city treasuries of allow-
ances for the support of children in their own homes and for the partial re-
imbursement 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 indigent, widowed mothers for the
partial support of their children in their own homes, approved February 28,
1918,” approved March 27, 1922, as heretofore amended. [S B 259]

Approved March 27, 1936

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That an act
entitled “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 reimbursement 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 indigent, widowed mothers for the partial sup-
port of their children in their own homes, approved February twenty-
eighth, nineteen hundred and eighteen,’ approved March twenty-
seventh, nineteen hundred and twenty-two, as heretofore amended, be
amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 1. Any person having knowledge that any child is dependent
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.

Section 2. The said board or court shall cause to be made an in-
vestigation to determine the need of the child, and if it deem necessary,
shall for such length of time as the board or court deem proper, order
the payment of allowances to the mother from appropriations made for
such purposes by the county, city, State or Federal government ; pro-
vided 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 or mentally 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.

Section 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 allowance 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 discretion, at
any time before such child reaches the age of sixteen years, may dis-
continue or modify any such allowance; provided, however, that a
person whose application has been denied or whose allowance has been
revoked or modified shall, within a reasonable time, be entitled to a fair
hearing before the Commissioner of Public Welfare, and his decisions
shall be final.

Section 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, by means of such allowance, the
mother 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; (c) the mother must be a person morally, mentally and
physically fit and competent to have the custody of her children; (d)
such allowance shall be necessary to save the child or children from
neglect, and to furnish such child or children with suitable education ;
(e) the child or mother has resided in the State one year immediately
preceding the application for such aid, or the child was born within the
State within one year immediately preceding the application and whose
mother has resided in the State one year immediately preceding the birth
of said child.
Section 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 court, 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 provisions
can be made.

Section 6. Investigations 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
probation 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 investiga-
tion 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 make proper contribution; to
take all lawful means to secure support for the family from relatives
under obligation to render such support, and to interview individuals,
societies and other agencies which may be deemed appropriate sources
of assistance.

Section 7. Proper and adequate supervision shall be maintained by
the local superintendent of public welfare, the county or city welfare
board, or where there is 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 provided for
in this act may be made upon the written reports of official investiga-
tors, with like effect as if based upon competent testimony given in
open court.

Section 8. All moneys paid to any person under the provisions of
this act shall be exempt from attachment, garnishment, distress, execu-
tion or other legal process.

Section 9. In this act the word “father” may also denote stepfather,
and the word “mother” may denote stepmother, 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.

Whenever the terms “County or City Board of Public Welfare” are
used in this act they shall be construed as including such other legally
constituted public welfare agency as may be established or authorized
by the General Assembly of Virginia or as may be established under
general authority granted in city charters.

Section 10. The State Board of Public Welfare shall cooperate
with courts and shall supervise and direct county and city boards of
public welfare and their agents with respect to methods of investiga-
tion, supervision and record-keeping ; shall devise, recommened and dis-
tribute 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.

Section 11. The board of supervisors of each county, and the
council or other governing body of each city of the State shall make
appropriations of such sums as are 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.

Section 12. A certified copy of the order granting an allowance
shall be filed with the treasurer of the county, or the treasurer or
proper distributing 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 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,
or the warrant shall be delivered in such other manner as may be
approved by the Commissioner of Public Welfare. 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.

Section 13. During the months of January, April, July, and October
of each year the treasurer of each county, or the treasurer or other
proper disbursing officer of each city, shall certify under oath to the
Comptroller and the State Board of Public Welfare the amount paid
out by the county or city during the three months immediately pre-
ceding the month in which such certificate is made; 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 Comptroller; whereupon the said Comptroller shall
draw his warrant in favor of the treasurer of the county or the
treasurer or other proper receiving officer of the city, for one-half of
the amount so approved and certified to have been paid out by the
county or city. The State Treasurer, provided there are funds ap-
propriated for that purpose, shall pay the same, and such local
officer shall place the sum to the credit of the special fund of the
county or city appropriated by the governing body thereof for the
specific purposes of this act, or to the credit of such other fund as
the governing body of the county or city may direct.

Section 14. 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 cooperate with the State Board of Public
Welfare, the board may refuse to approve and endorse the certificate
of disbursement. ‘

Section 15. 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.

Section 16. The Commissioner of Public Welfare shall make such
reports in such form and containing such information, to the Social
Security Board, created by Title VII of an act of the Congress of the
United States, approved August fourteenth, nineteen hundred and
thirty-five and known and cited as the Social Security Act, as said
board may from time to time require, and comply with such provisions
as said board may from time to time find necessary to assure the
correctness and verification of such reports.

Section 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.

2. An emergency existing, this act shall be in force from its
passage.