State requirements / Virginia
Virginia parenting class requirement
4 hours, live, in contested cases
Virginia requires the parties to any petition where a child's custody, visitation, or support is contested to attend a four-hour seminar, either within the 12 months before their court appearance or within 45 days after it. Approval is statewide, but Virginia requires the seminar to be live and interactive, so a self-paced course is not approvable there today.
The requirement at a glance
| Who must attend | The parties to any petition where a child's custody, visitation, or support is contested. Parties here include natural or adoptive parents and any person with a legitimate interest in the child. In an uncontested case the court may require it only on a finding of good cause. |
| Hours required | 4 minimum, $50 fee cap |
| Deadline | Either within the 12 months before your court appearance, or within 45 days after it. The statute also wants the seminar done before mediation or other dispute resolution wherever that is possible. Once you have completed one seminar, any further requirement is up to the court. |
| Authority | Va. Code 20-103(A); 16.1-278.15(A) |
| Fees and waivers | The fee must be based on the party's ability to pay and may not exceed $50 total, materials included. A provider that does not offer a sliding scale below $50 can be removed from the approved list. Our pricing holds Virginia at the statutory maximum automatically rather than trusting anyone to remember. |
| Our price | $25 for one parent, $50 for both parents on the same case. Scholarship seats are funded by donors, so no parent is turned away for money. |
| Our registry status | We are not pursuing this state yet, and we would rather tell you than let you wait. It either requires the class to be delivered live and in person, which our self-paced course cannot be, or it has no route for a new provider at all. Use your court's own list. If that changes, this page changes with it. |
What the law actually says
“The seminar or other program shall be a minimum of four hours in length and shall address the effects of separation or divorce on children, parenting responsibilities, options for conflict resolution and financial responsibilities.”
Va. Code 20-103(A); the same language appears in 16.1-278.15(A)Quoted from the official text. Read it yourself at the source below.The part nobody explains
Filing your certificate
You show the court proof of attendance. The provider issues a certificate of attendance naming the provider, the curriculum in use, the date, the participant, and the instructor who led the session. There is no state certificate form, and whether it must be in before a final decree is set by your circuit's pretrial order rather than by statute.
If the deadline passes
The judge decides. Some courts hold a party in contempt or impose other sanctions for failing to attend, and in at least one circuit failing to comply with the pretrial order can pull the case off the trial docket.
Who approves providers in Virginia
The Office of the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court of Virginia approves providers through its Division of Dispute Resolution Services, and approval covers every court in the Commonwealth. Virginia is a harder door than it looks. The seminar must be at least four hours, live and interactive, and the policy states expressly that it may not be a video. An approved provider must also offer it in person at a Virginia location at least once a quarter, and webinar delivery is a separate per-instructor approval requiring a training session and an interview. A self-paced online course is not approvable in Virginia today, and we would rather tell you that than imply otherwise.
What you get from us
- The full course, start to finish, on a phone or a laptop, with your progress saved. Lifetime access, no thirty-day expiry and no extension fees.
- Your certificate the moment you finish, by email, free. A mailed paper copy is optional.
- Free instant verification for your court. A clerk or judge confirms the certificate at our verification page with no account and no phone call.
- Our acceptance guarantee: if your specific court declines this certificate, you get a full refund, no processing fee and no deadline to claim it.
Check us on the law
Every fact on this page traces to an official source. Read them yourself.