West Virginia governor implements policy changes in embattled foster care system

CHARLESTON W Va AP West Virginia Gov Patrick Morrisey vowed Wednesday that his administration will improve transparency and policies within the state s embattled foster care system Morrisey a Republican publicized the changes after eight listening sessions statewide to identify areas of improvement and a review of critical cases Morrisey announced he heard attendees at one such session in Martinsburg discuss a broken system It was complex to hear various of the issues could have been avoided had the state communicated differently had the state eliminated a few red tape or had the right tools to better equip Child Protective Services workers Morrisey disclosed at a news conference at the state Capitol You all know that these issues have been going on for a very very long time And unfortunately it s the kids that suffer And we can t tolerate that West Virginia cannot keep kicking the can down the road as was done in the past That s not the model of this administration Largely overwhelmed by the opioid epidemic in a state with the the greater part overdose deaths per capita West Virginia has the highest rate of children in foster care at the moment more than in a state of about million Morrisey who took office in January after serving three terms as the state s attorney general put chosen of the blame on the administration of his predecessor two-term Republican Gov Jim Justice for often withholding foster care information from the populace including stonewalling Freedom of Information Act requests After an internal review of six fatalities or near fatalities between and Morrisey revealed the Department of Human Services will implement a new program mandating that certain information including the results of investigations be disclosed in serious child welfare cases You re not going to have to chase people down the hall in obtaining event information Morrisey reported Among the changes Morrisey commented child welfare supervisors will now be required to conduct monthly reviews of their cases and a new intake process will be implemented for the foster care system allowing caseworkers to contact individuals involved rather than purely relying on a event referral He also revealed improvements have been made to a child welfare dashboard to allow for easier access to content What I can promise you this day is we want to be honest we want to be transparent and we will be accountable for what happens Morrisey revealed West Virginia has been dogged by serious child welfare issues for decades In a private boarding school for troubled youths closed in Salem after abuse accusations surfaced Lawsuits against the former Miracle Meadows school s co-founder and its operating entities that alleged widespread sexual physical and mental abuse were settled for tens of millions of dollars The discovery of the emaciated body of a -year-old girl in her home in prompted a state review into whether law enforcement and child protective services could have intervened to prevent her death The girl s mother and two grandparents were indicted on murder charges last September In March a couple received the maximum sentences of decades in prison for abusing their adopted children which included heavy labor locking them in bedrooms forcing selected to sleep on concrete floors and making them stand for hours with their hands on their heads And a judge in February ordered that a monitor be put in place to oversee state child protective services placements in hotels and camps on Friday after a -year-old boy in state care attempted suicide in a hotel room The action came the same day that a federal judge dismissed a yearslong sweeping class action lawsuit against West Virginia s welfare system on behalf of foster children Source