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Veteran Treatment Dockets — the Statutory Hook, in Subsection C
Va. Code § 2.2-2001.1(C) directs the Department of Veterans Services programme to cooperate with localities that establish special treatment procedures for veterans and active military service members. It is the statutory hook a Virginia locality builds a veterans docket on. The rest of the section — the mental health and rehabilitative services programme itself — is covered by va-2-2-2001-1-support-program.
Verified August 27, 2026
What this benefit is
Va. Code § 2.2-2001.1(C) directs the Department of Veterans Services programme to cooperate with localities that establish special treatment procedures for veterans and active military service members. It is the statutory hook a Virginia locality builds a veterans docket on. The rest of the section — the mental health and rehabilitative services programme itself — is covered by va-2-2-2001-1-support-program.
What it's worth: Coordinated mental health and rehabilitative services, and the statutory basis for a locality’s veteran treatment procedure
- § 2.2-2001.1(A): "The Department, in cooperation with the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services and the Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services, shall establish a program to monitor and coordinate mental health and rehabilitative services support for military service members transitioning from military to civilian life, veterans, members of the Virginia National Guard, Virginia residents in the Armed Forces Reserves, and their family members."
- § 2.2-2001.1(C): "The program shall cooperate with localities that may establish special treatment procedures for veterans and active military service members such as authorized by §§ 9.1-173 and 9.1-174." Ten procedures follow, including coordination of treatment services, enhanced public safety through supervision, prompt identification of participants, access to a continuum of care, verified abstinence through testing, prompt response to non-compliance, ongoing monitoring and evaluation, ongoing education and training, ongoing collaboration among agencies and organisations, and the creation of a veterans and military service members’ advisory council.
- § 2.2-2001.1(B) gives priority based on the immediacy and severity of service needs.
- § 2.2-2001.1(D) requires annual reporting to the Secretary of Veterans and Defense Affairs, the Governor and the General Assembly on participants served, services provided and unmet needs.
- Va. Code § 9.1-173, cross-referenced by subsection C, was read this session: it is the local community-based probation services article and does not itself mention veterans.
Who is entitled to it
- You served, which is what this route is written around.
- The programme reaches family members of the service member or veteran in terms.
- Your home is in Virginia.
Not sure whether that describes you?
Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.
How to claim it
Deadline: Raise it as early in the case as possible- 1Tell your lawyer you served. Nothing in a Virginia charging document discloses military service, and the locality’s procedure only reaches people it knows about.
- 2Ask the locality, not the Commonwealth. § 2.2-2001.1(C) speaks of localities that "may establish" special treatment procedures — the decision to have one is local, and the Department’s role is to cooperate with it.
- 3Ask the Department’s programme for the coordinated resources plan even if there is no local procedure. Subsection B provides for assessment of service needs, development of a coordinated resources plan, referral to providers and monitoring of progress, and it is not conditioned on a criminal case.
- 4Name the ten elements when you ask what the local procedure covers. The statute lists them, and a locality operating a docket ought to be able to say which it has.
- 5Ask whether the locality has a veterans and military service members’ advisory council. That is the tenth element and the one most often missing.
- 6If the answer is "we use the behavioural health docket", that is a different statute. Va. Code § 18.2-254.3 is the Behavioral Health Docket Act and was read this session — it does not mention veterans.
- Form
- None — raised through counsel in the case, or through the Department’s programme
- File with
- The court hearing your case, and the Virginia Department of Veterans Services programme
- Documents you will need
- dd214
- No renewal
- Once granted it does not need renewing.
CorrectionSearching the Code of Virginia for a "veterans treatment docket act" turns up § 18.2-254.3, which is the Behavioral Health Docket Act and does not mention veterans. The veteran-specific authority is § 2.2-2001.1(C), in the Department of Veterans Services chapter. A lawyer told "there is no veterans docket statute in Virginia" has been looking in the criminal title.
Worth knowingSubsection C is permissive as to localities and mandatory only as to the Department: the programme "shall cooperate" with localities that choose to establish a procedure. Whether one exists where you are charged is a local fact, not a statewide right.
Known gapNo list of which Virginia localities operate a veterans docket was read this session — dvs.virginia.gov has refused retrieval in this and prior sessions — so none is published here.
Sources
- authority · statuteVa. Code § 2.2-2001.1, Program for mental health and rehabilitative services (subsection A establishes the programme in cooperation with the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services and the Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services for transitioning service members, veterans, Virginia National Guard members, Virginia residents in the Armed Forces Reserves and their family members; subsection B provides for marketing and awareness, agency collaboration, assessment of service needs, development of a coordinated resources plan, referral to providers and monitoring of progress, with priority based on immediacy and severity of need; subsection C: "The program shall cooperate with localities that may establish special treatment procedures for veterans and active military service members such as authorized by §§ 9.1-173 and 9.1-174", followed by ten listed procedures ending with creation of a veterans and military service members' advisory council; subsection D requires annual reporting to the Secretary of Veterans and Defense Affairs, the Governor and the General Assembly) [2008, cc. 584, 754; amended through 2023, cc. 246, 247]
- operating · statuteVa. Code § 18.2-254.3, Behavioral Health Docket Act (read in full this session to establish what it does and does not cover: it names the Act, states the General Assembly's findings on specialized dockets for mental illness and substance abuse, assigns administrative oversight to the Supreme Court of Virginia, provides for a state advisory committee chaired by the Chief Justice and for local advisory committees, requires eligibility criteria set by comprehensive screening, makes participation voluntary and pursuant to a written agreement between the offender and the Commonwealth with the concurrence of the court, and requires annual reporting by 1 December; it does not mention veterans) [2020, c. 1096; 2021, Sp. Sess. I, c. 191]
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