Virginia's Department of Social Services spent $52 million on a failed IT project to overhaul the state's outdated child support enforcement system, Gov. Abigail Spanberger said Wednesday.
In June, VPM News reported on DSS shutting down a two-year project to modernize its child support mainframe system — the Automated Program to Enforce Child Support (APECS) — that records showed had cost more than $50 million.
DSS did not confirm the total cost at the time, but Spanberger revealed the price tag Wednesday while addressing the General Assembly’s joint money committees for the first time as governor.
“We uncovered a $52 million loss at the Department of Social Services on a failed effort to replace the commonwealth's antiquated child support enforcement system,” Spanberger said. “Virginia paid serious money, and all we got were tools that barely worked.”
Spanberger’s remarks about the child support system project came as she criticized actions taken by her predecessor, Republican Glenn Youngkin.
“My predecessor might have thought it was okay to just write off losses like this one, but I don't,” Spanberger said about the project. “It's not a corporate balance sheet that we're dealing with. It is taxpayer dollars.”
By 2023, Virginia had the second-oldest federally certified child support computer system in the US. State officials say they are trying with the “antiquated” system — which Virginia's nonpartisan legislative watchdog noted was already unable to perform vital functions nearly 30 years ago.
APECS is used to locate parents, establish parentage and enforce child support orders. As part of the system’s overhaul from 2023 to 2025, DSS aimed to re-fit the online customer portal that parents rely on to access their cases, make payments, review documents and complete other tasks.
A 2021 state report said at the time DSS's child support enforcement division was collecting $650 million a year, served nearly 350,000 children and had more than 276,000 total cases.
State documents indicate APECS was not modernized from 2001 to 2023, when DSS turned to CGI Technologies and Solutions Inc., a US subsidiary of global IT consulting firm CGI Inc., for the "Virginia's Child Support & Management Process System (vCHAMPS)" project.
The department didn’t share what led to the decision to stop the overhaul, but a December 2025 report on the status of Virginia's IT projects says the APECS overhaul "encountered significant issues and as a result, it has been concluded."
Previously unreported records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request show that DSS and CGI couldn’t agree on a final price for the project.
CGI asked DSS to pay an extra $49.9 million on top of the $38 million contract for the project, according to a redacted letter to CGI signed by then-DSS Commissioner Kevin Erskine in 2025.
“That amount is more than twice the amount VDSS budgeted for such activities under the current Contract,” Erskine wrote. “VDSS and the Commonwealth cannot agree to a payment modification of that order of magnitude. Based on our recent discussions, it is apparent that the Parties simply cannot bridge the pricing gap.”
“Not necessarily a guarantee”
The rest of Spanberger’s speech focused on Virginia’s latest budget deal and where the commonwealth’s revenues stand after the 2026 fiscal year, which ended June 30. She also touted investments and changes in healthcare, energy and housing.
The high cost of living “continues to be the single most pressing challenge facing our fellow Virginians today,” Spanberger told the committees.
In her address, Spanberger highlighted newly signed legislation to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2028, cap insulin costs at $35 for state-regulated plans and ensure Virginians get paid sick leave and family and medical leave.
Spanberger said Virginia’s general fund revenues grew by $2.1 billion in FY26, which she said was nearly $939 million above the official forecast.
“The numbers are good this year overall, and that is a good thing,” Spanberger said. “But a good year one year is not necessarily a guarantee of a good one the next.”
Another focus of Spanberger’s speech was the harm to Virginians of moves made by President Donald Trump’s administration, pointing to federal job cuts, the war in Iran and tariffs the president has pursued.
The governor said Virginia lost roughly 43,000 jobs in FY26, with about half of those involving federal government workers and the other half from the professional and business services industries.
“No matter how deliberate or purposeful we may endeavor to be in policy or even in approach, the chaos thrust upon Virginia by terrible policy choices in Washington are impacting us, and they will into the future,” Spanberger said.
One major threat to Virginia is the impact that House Resolution 1, which Trump refers to as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” will have on healthcare, Spanberger said.
“More than 300,000 Virginians on Medicaid risk losing their coverage,” she told lawmakers. “And behind that number is someone seeking treatment for cancer. Behind those numbers is a fellow Virginian simply looking to fill a prescription.”
In anticipation of these changes, Virginia’s two-year budget (which runs through June 30, 2028) includes a $225 million contingency fund to help address federal funding reductions, as well as $350 million for higher state Medicaid costs and $150 million to help cut eligible Virginians’ monthly health insurance premium costs after the end of federal assistance.