                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

APPEAL TO COMMISSIONER REGARDING ADOPTION ASSISTANCE (§ 63.2-1304)

Any applicant for or recipient of adoption assistance aggrieved by any decision
of a local board or licensed child-placing agency in granting, denying, changing
or discontinuing adoption assistance, may, within 30 days after receiving
written notice of such decision, appeal therefrom to the Commissioner. Any
applicant or recipient aggrieved by the failure of the local board or licensed
child-placing agency to make a decision within a reasonable time may ask for
review by the Commissioner. The Commissioner may delegate the duty and authority
to duly qualified hearing officers to consider and make determinations on any
appeal or review. The Commissioner shall provide an opportunity for a hearing,
reasonable notice of which shall be given in writing to the applicant or
recipient and to the proper local board in such manner and form as the
Commissioner may prescribe. The Commissioner may make or cause to be made an
investigation of the facts. The Commissioner shall give fair and impartial
consideration to the testimony of witnesses, or other evidence produced at the
hearing, reports of investigation of the local board and local director or
licensed child-placing agency or of investigations made or caused to be made by
the Commissioner, or any facts that the Commissioner may deem proper to enable
him to decide fairly the appeal or review. The decision of the Commissioner
shall be binding and considered a final agency action for purposes of judicial
review of such action pursuant to the provisions of the Administrative Process
Act (§ 2.2-4000 et seq.).

HISTORY: 2003, c. 467.